Santiago golden, leads
Addison Trail past Willowbrook
Blazers end Warriors 9-game win streak
By Brian Thomas
ADDISON -- For the next year the new District 88 Derby trophy will call Addison Trail High School home after a thrilling 1-0 victory in double overtime over archrival Willowbrook Tuesday night.
The Blazers (10-3-2, 3-1-0) extended their winning streak to five games thanks to midfielder Christian Santiago’s golden goal off the bench. The Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match found himself in the right place at the right time and scored the goal after the ball bounced off a number of players following a corner kick.
“My coach always tells us to stay for the rebound, that’s what I did,” Santiago said about his game-winner. “I got the rebound and got the goal.”
The Blazers took a number of corner kicks throughout the game and coach Ryan Dini was pleased to see his team finally take advantage of one.
“We were telling our mids all game, we play the 4-4-2 style, we’re telling them to keep getting it to that far post, there’s going to be an opportunity in the game,” Dini said. “It took double overtime for it to happen but he (Santiago) was in the right spot.
“It’s huge for that kid, he started off at JV this year and he’s worked his way up, and he gets serious minutes now. I’m Ajust really proud of him and happy for him.”
On the Willowbrook side, some confusion before the corner kick was taken had them out of position.
“I believe it was a short corner, there was a little mix up between two of our players,” said Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter. “Our guy came off the post, his job was to stay on the post, he came out and that’s where the goal went in. He should have held his ground a little bit.
“It was a lucky goal I’ll say. It hit this guy, it hit that guy, and it just had the right bounce. Their guy put it in the corner and that’s how games are won and lost sometimes.”
Despite being shut out, the Warriors (10-2-0, 2-1-0) had their chances to score throughout the match. Their leading scorer with 17 goals on the season, junior forward Saul Hernandez, had a number of opportunities but just couldn’t cash in.
In the second half, junior forward Benny Heredia sent a pass through the middle to Hernandez who beat his defender and fired a shot that bounced off the inside of the right goal post. What looked like a sure goal turned out to be a huge missed opportunity.
“I got a through-ball, and the defender couldn’t control it, it went through his legs,” Hernandez said. “I got it and looked up at the keeper, I just toed it and I didn’t even think about it, I toed it with the outside of my foot, it hit the post and I was hoping it would go in.”
Hernandez had himself another strong scoring chance with seven minutes remaining in the second half when he had a step on goalkeeper Cosme Garcia. The senior keeper was playing up in the box but was able to recover and dive back in front of Hernandez to block the shot.
“Cosme our goalkeeper, after this game he’s got a one goal against average for the season, this is his seventh shutout of the season,” Dini said, praising his goalkeeper. “I think he’s one of the best goalies around, and I keep telling him that. He’s a senior. He’s kind of got a chip on his shoulder because you hear about all these other goalies. And I know in our conference there are a lot of good goalies, but this is kid is great. He makes great plays.”
To go along with Garcia’s goalkeeping, the Blazers played lockdown defense, especially on Hernandez who was marked tight the entire match.
“We knew that Saul is their main guy up top and that Aaron Johnson is tough too,” Dini said. “I thought our defense played phenomenal. We really keyed on Saul because he’s got 17 goals this season; we knew if we stopped him it would definitely give us a good chance to get this game.”
Hernandez didn’t back down and went head-to-head against the Blazers defense the whole game despite seeing a number of different looks throughout the game. Each time he got the ball he was able to create for himself and make himself dangerous.
“It definitely makes it harder because it’s two against one and they have a man advantage, but I think I’m good enough to take on two, three guys,” Hernandez said. “They played a different formation than any other team that we’ve played this season. Their back four was stopper-sweeper, it was a little harder but I think I’m good enough to take on anything.”
For the Warriors (10-2-0, 2-1-0) the loss was the first time they have been shut out this all season and ended their nine game win streak.
“I want to congratulate Addison Trail on the victory; I thought they played very well today, especially defensively,” Ginter said. “We’re typically a high scoring team and they shut us out. We had a little bit of bad luck, we hit the post three times but unfortunately someone had to lose this game, it just so happened to be us.”
On any other night, Willowbrook probably would have won the match, given the strong performance by their defense. The Warriors backline gave the Blazers fits as they struggled to get open shots throughout the game.
“I thought overall our defense played very well today, we shut them down,” Ginter said. “In fact in that whole overtime and most of the second half, Addison Trail had only one shot on goal, so I really attribute our defense playing well in that respect.”
Starting lineups
Willowbrook
GK Asmir Perviz
D Stasiu Szudrowicz
D Michael Sommers
D Ali Saleh
D Tomas Hernandez
MF Aaron Johnson
MF Arkadiusz Szlachta
MF Miguel Correa
MF Lucas Betts
F Saul Hernandez
F Benny Heredia
Addison Trail
GK Cosme Garcia
D Noel Diaz
D Uriel Martinez
D Fernando Alvarado
MF Damien Zielinski
MF Isvic Quintana
MF Hector Saucedo
MF Brian Ramos
F Enrique Luna
F Tomasz Kania
F Jonathan Hernandez
Man of the match: Junior midfielder Christian Santiago, Addison Trail
Addison Trail past Willowbrook
Blazers end Warriors 9-game win streak
By Brian Thomas
ADDISON -- For the next year the new District 88 Derby trophy will call Addison Trail High School home after a thrilling 1-0 victory in double overtime over archrival Willowbrook Tuesday night.
The Blazers (10-3-2, 3-1-0) extended their winning streak to five games thanks to midfielder Christian Santiago’s golden goal off the bench. The Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match found himself in the right place at the right time and scored the goal after the ball bounced off a number of players following a corner kick.
“My coach always tells us to stay for the rebound, that’s what I did,” Santiago said about his game-winner. “I got the rebound and got the goal.”
The Blazers took a number of corner kicks throughout the game and coach Ryan Dini was pleased to see his team finally take advantage of one.
“We were telling our mids all game, we play the 4-4-2 style, we’re telling them to keep getting it to that far post, there’s going to be an opportunity in the game,” Dini said. “It took double overtime for it to happen but he (Santiago) was in the right spot.
“It’s huge for that kid, he started off at JV this year and he’s worked his way up, and he gets serious minutes now. I’m Ajust really proud of him and happy for him.”
On the Willowbrook side, some confusion before the corner kick was taken had them out of position.
“I believe it was a short corner, there was a little mix up between two of our players,” said Willowbrook coach Peter Ginter. “Our guy came off the post, his job was to stay on the post, he came out and that’s where the goal went in. He should have held his ground a little bit.
“It was a lucky goal I’ll say. It hit this guy, it hit that guy, and it just had the right bounce. Their guy put it in the corner and that’s how games are won and lost sometimes.”
Despite being shut out, the Warriors (10-2-0, 2-1-0) had their chances to score throughout the match. Their leading scorer with 17 goals on the season, junior forward Saul Hernandez, had a number of opportunities but just couldn’t cash in.
In the second half, junior forward Benny Heredia sent a pass through the middle to Hernandez who beat his defender and fired a shot that bounced off the inside of the right goal post. What looked like a sure goal turned out to be a huge missed opportunity.
“I got a through-ball, and the defender couldn’t control it, it went through his legs,” Hernandez said. “I got it and looked up at the keeper, I just toed it and I didn’t even think about it, I toed it with the outside of my foot, it hit the post and I was hoping it would go in.”
Hernandez had himself another strong scoring chance with seven minutes remaining in the second half when he had a step on goalkeeper Cosme Garcia. The senior keeper was playing up in the box but was able to recover and dive back in front of Hernandez to block the shot.
“Cosme our goalkeeper, after this game he’s got a one goal against average for the season, this is his seventh shutout of the season,” Dini said, praising his goalkeeper. “I think he’s one of the best goalies around, and I keep telling him that. He’s a senior. He’s kind of got a chip on his shoulder because you hear about all these other goalies. And I know in our conference there are a lot of good goalies, but this is kid is great. He makes great plays.”
To go along with Garcia’s goalkeeping, the Blazers played lockdown defense, especially on Hernandez who was marked tight the entire match.
“We knew that Saul is their main guy up top and that Aaron Johnson is tough too,” Dini said. “I thought our defense played phenomenal. We really keyed on Saul because he’s got 17 goals this season; we knew if we stopped him it would definitely give us a good chance to get this game.”
Hernandez didn’t back down and went head-to-head against the Blazers defense the whole game despite seeing a number of different looks throughout the game. Each time he got the ball he was able to create for himself and make himself dangerous.
“It definitely makes it harder because it’s two against one and they have a man advantage, but I think I’m good enough to take on two, three guys,” Hernandez said. “They played a different formation than any other team that we’ve played this season. Their back four was stopper-sweeper, it was a little harder but I think I’m good enough to take on anything.”
For the Warriors (10-2-0, 2-1-0) the loss was the first time they have been shut out this all season and ended their nine game win streak.
“I want to congratulate Addison Trail on the victory; I thought they played very well today, especially defensively,” Ginter said. “We’re typically a high scoring team and they shut us out. We had a little bit of bad luck, we hit the post three times but unfortunately someone had to lose this game, it just so happened to be us.”
On any other night, Willowbrook probably would have won the match, given the strong performance by their defense. The Warriors backline gave the Blazers fits as they struggled to get open shots throughout the game.
“I thought overall our defense played very well today, we shut them down,” Ginter said. “In fact in that whole overtime and most of the second half, Addison Trail had only one shot on goal, so I really attribute our defense playing well in that respect.”
Starting lineups
Willowbrook
GK Asmir Perviz
D Stasiu Szudrowicz
D Michael Sommers
D Ali Saleh
D Tomas Hernandez
MF Aaron Johnson
MF Arkadiusz Szlachta
MF Miguel Correa
MF Lucas Betts
F Saul Hernandez
F Benny Heredia
Addison Trail
GK Cosme Garcia
D Noel Diaz
D Uriel Martinez
D Fernando Alvarado
MF Damien Zielinski
MF Isvic Quintana
MF Hector Saucedo
MF Brian Ramos
F Enrique Luna
F Tomasz Kania
F Jonathan Hernandez
Man of the match: Junior midfielder Christian Santiago, Addison Trail