Downers North keeps potent
Plainfield North offense in check
Penalty kick tips contest toward Trojans
By Matt Le Cren
LEMONT – The only thing hotter than Tuesday night’s weather has been Plainfield North’s offense.
The Tigers had scored a whopping 32 goals in winning their first four games, finding the back of the net at least six times in each one.
So of course it was goalkeeper Cade Fink who nearly won the game for Plainfield North on the opening night of the Lemont Cup.
Fink made 12 saves, including one on a penalty kick late in the second half, but Downers Grove North converted a subsequent penalty kick with 3:01 left and hung on for a 2-1 victory in an entertaining battle of unbeatens.
“Cade was good,” Plainfield North coach Steve Berry said. “I thought he made a couple of good saves. He didn’t play (Monday) because we gave him the night off.
“We knew that this game was going to be tougher than yesterday (an 8-1 win over Yorkville) and we were going to need him to make some saves. He obviously stepped up to the plate and did what he was supposed to.
“But you run into a moment where you have 32 goals in four games and other teams now recognize that and they try to stay with you, and they did a good job of loading more numbers in the box than we’ve seen.”
The game was tied 1-1 when Downers North (4-0) was awarded a penalty kick with 10:05 remaining. Senior Carter Tome drilled his shot right down the middle as Fink dove to his left, but Fink got his right foot on it and made the kick save.
Fink came up big again when he stopped sophomore Jack Richards on a partial breakaway, coming off his line to smother the ball just inside the goalie box with 7:30 to go.
But Richards got the last laugh as a result of a controversial penalty call after an aggressive 50-50 challenge. Richards converted the penalty into the lower right corner for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
“I’m pretty biased but I believe our player went straight up and the guy came under him,” Fink said. “But it’s the heat of the game; the call happened.”
Downers North coach Mike Schmitt was diplomatic when discussing the call.
“It could have gone either way,” Schmitt said. “From my angle it looked like a challenge, and it’s tricky to be in the box and have someone challenge from behind. Our player happened to be in that position.
“It was a tricky call. I wouldn’t want to make that call, but the linesman had a good look at it and he’s the one that made the call.
“The first (penalty) was well-deserved. The second one was a good challenge but we did create a lot more opportunities, and I think we deserved to get one of those.”
Ultimately, the Trojans were the more consistently dangerous team, even though each team finished with 14 shots. That turned out to be a problem for the high-scoring yet untested Tigers.
“We’re very much offensively minded,” Fink said. “We have a lot of upper-class skill players up top.
“At the end of the day the back line, including me, we have to be a little bit better at not giving up so much and just allowing our front players to play. Tonight we didn’t do it that well, especially late.”
The Trojans took the lead when Richards, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, ripped a left-footed bullet from 18 yards out between Fink and the right post with 21:05 remaining in the first half.
The Tigers (4-1) nearly tied it a minute later when Nicholas Anweiler launched an open shot on the run from 15 yards out, only to see Downers North goalie Jimmy Miller, who had six saves, tip it over the crossbar.
Miller did well to keep his team within a goal with another terrific stop with four minutes to go before intermission. Plainfield North senior co-captain Austin Hansen, who already has 13 goals, made a great run around the left flank of the defense before centering a pass to Mateo Papakostas, who was trailing the play. Papakostas struck a one-timer toward the open goal, but Miller thwarted him with a diving save.
Plainfield North also came up empty on several good chances early in the second half. Miller made a leaping stop on a 19-yard bullet from Jake Farley, Hansen shanked an open eight-yarder wide left, and Austin Collier had a 45-yard free kick bounce just wide of the left post.
Plainfield North finally broke through with 21:46 to go on Nicholas Thompson’s rebound goal. Miller made a diving save on a short header from the left post and the ball deflected off the foot of a defender to Thompson, who buried a six-yard shot.
That, however, turned out to the Tigers’ final solid opportunity.
“We’ve been working on getting our mobility up front and moving around and seeing different players make impacts to the game,” Berry said. “You see today we ran into a good defensive team where we had some chances and we couldn’t find the goal.
“Their goalkeeper made some good saves, but we felt the game was taken away from us by a very poor referee group.”
Even so, the Tigers’ offensive prowess in the early going bodes well for the future. In addition to Hansen, Collier has four goals and Anweiler three.
“We have so many skilled guys who play so well together up top,” Fink said. “Those guys have been playing together for three years in a row and the ‘chem’ is building.”
The Tigers went 17-3-1 last year but lost in the first round of the playoffs. They’re aiming higher this season.
“Ever since I’ve come into this program we’ve always set a goal; it’s always been to be the best,” Fink said. “Today we weren’t able to do that. Credit to them, but every year we want to be the best. It was unfortunate today, but we’ll keep working.”
As impressive as Plainfield North’s offense has been, Downers North has been an even bigger surprise.
“Going into the season, I wasn’t sure how the beginning was going to go,” Schmitt said. “I knew we were going to be a different team and a better team. I just didn’t know where we were going to be at this point.
“I think today was a little bit of a surprise, but up until this point we’ve played pretty well.”
Tome, Daniel Schuler, Jack Drobny and Ruairi Conaghan were the leaders of the defense for the Trojans.
“This team has a tremendous amount of character and heart,” Schmitt said. “They do not quit working from start to finish. I’d seen (Plainfield North’s) scores, so it was definitely something to be concerned about -- the offensive firepower that they were going to come at us with.
“We knew we had to defend well as a unit today. That was something we were struggling with through the first three games, but I think we pulled it together enough to get the result.”
So can the Trojans be a sleeper team?
“That’s the plan,” Schmitt said. “The last few years, the Trojan program for soccer hasn’t been something to be looked at and feared, and I think we’re definitely going to try to be that team this year. A lot of teams aren’t going to see us coming, and I really think that’s going to play to our advantage.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
G Cade Fink
D Jackson Ranck
DAdam Ratini
D Ian Aslam
D Ryan Cartwright
M Jake Farley
M Austin Collier
M Alex Lynch
M Nicholas Thompson
F Austin Hansen
F Nicholas Anweiler
Downers Grove North
G Jimmy Miller
D Daniel Schuler
D Jack Drobny
D Ruairi Conaghan
D Carter Tome
M Ronaldo Perez
M Jokubas Baranauskas
M Noah Lesher
F Jack Richards
F Ethan Akkawi
F Sam Crowley
Man of the Match: Jack Richards, F, Downers Grove North
Plainfield North offense in check
Penalty kick tips contest toward Trojans
By Matt Le Cren
LEMONT – The only thing hotter than Tuesday night’s weather has been Plainfield North’s offense.
The Tigers had scored a whopping 32 goals in winning their first four games, finding the back of the net at least six times in each one.
So of course it was goalkeeper Cade Fink who nearly won the game for Plainfield North on the opening night of the Lemont Cup.
Fink made 12 saves, including one on a penalty kick late in the second half, but Downers Grove North converted a subsequent penalty kick with 3:01 left and hung on for a 2-1 victory in an entertaining battle of unbeatens.
“Cade was good,” Plainfield North coach Steve Berry said. “I thought he made a couple of good saves. He didn’t play (Monday) because we gave him the night off.
“We knew that this game was going to be tougher than yesterday (an 8-1 win over Yorkville) and we were going to need him to make some saves. He obviously stepped up to the plate and did what he was supposed to.
“But you run into a moment where you have 32 goals in four games and other teams now recognize that and they try to stay with you, and they did a good job of loading more numbers in the box than we’ve seen.”
The game was tied 1-1 when Downers North (4-0) was awarded a penalty kick with 10:05 remaining. Senior Carter Tome drilled his shot right down the middle as Fink dove to his left, but Fink got his right foot on it and made the kick save.
Fink came up big again when he stopped sophomore Jack Richards on a partial breakaway, coming off his line to smother the ball just inside the goalie box with 7:30 to go.
But Richards got the last laugh as a result of a controversial penalty call after an aggressive 50-50 challenge. Richards converted the penalty into the lower right corner for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
“I’m pretty biased but I believe our player went straight up and the guy came under him,” Fink said. “But it’s the heat of the game; the call happened.”
Downers North coach Mike Schmitt was diplomatic when discussing the call.
“It could have gone either way,” Schmitt said. “From my angle it looked like a challenge, and it’s tricky to be in the box and have someone challenge from behind. Our player happened to be in that position.
“It was a tricky call. I wouldn’t want to make that call, but the linesman had a good look at it and he’s the one that made the call.
“The first (penalty) was well-deserved. The second one was a good challenge but we did create a lot more opportunities, and I think we deserved to get one of those.”
Ultimately, the Trojans were the more consistently dangerous team, even though each team finished with 14 shots. That turned out to be a problem for the high-scoring yet untested Tigers.
“We’re very much offensively minded,” Fink said. “We have a lot of upper-class skill players up top.
“At the end of the day the back line, including me, we have to be a little bit better at not giving up so much and just allowing our front players to play. Tonight we didn’t do it that well, especially late.”
The Trojans took the lead when Richards, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, ripped a left-footed bullet from 18 yards out between Fink and the right post with 21:05 remaining in the first half.
The Tigers (4-1) nearly tied it a minute later when Nicholas Anweiler launched an open shot on the run from 15 yards out, only to see Downers North goalie Jimmy Miller, who had six saves, tip it over the crossbar.
Miller did well to keep his team within a goal with another terrific stop with four minutes to go before intermission. Plainfield North senior co-captain Austin Hansen, who already has 13 goals, made a great run around the left flank of the defense before centering a pass to Mateo Papakostas, who was trailing the play. Papakostas struck a one-timer toward the open goal, but Miller thwarted him with a diving save.
Plainfield North also came up empty on several good chances early in the second half. Miller made a leaping stop on a 19-yard bullet from Jake Farley, Hansen shanked an open eight-yarder wide left, and Austin Collier had a 45-yard free kick bounce just wide of the left post.
Plainfield North finally broke through with 21:46 to go on Nicholas Thompson’s rebound goal. Miller made a diving save on a short header from the left post and the ball deflected off the foot of a defender to Thompson, who buried a six-yard shot.
That, however, turned out to the Tigers’ final solid opportunity.
“We’ve been working on getting our mobility up front and moving around and seeing different players make impacts to the game,” Berry said. “You see today we ran into a good defensive team where we had some chances and we couldn’t find the goal.
“Their goalkeeper made some good saves, but we felt the game was taken away from us by a very poor referee group.”
Even so, the Tigers’ offensive prowess in the early going bodes well for the future. In addition to Hansen, Collier has four goals and Anweiler three.
“We have so many skilled guys who play so well together up top,” Fink said. “Those guys have been playing together for three years in a row and the ‘chem’ is building.”
The Tigers went 17-3-1 last year but lost in the first round of the playoffs. They’re aiming higher this season.
“Ever since I’ve come into this program we’ve always set a goal; it’s always been to be the best,” Fink said. “Today we weren’t able to do that. Credit to them, but every year we want to be the best. It was unfortunate today, but we’ll keep working.”
As impressive as Plainfield North’s offense has been, Downers North has been an even bigger surprise.
“Going into the season, I wasn’t sure how the beginning was going to go,” Schmitt said. “I knew we were going to be a different team and a better team. I just didn’t know where we were going to be at this point.
“I think today was a little bit of a surprise, but up until this point we’ve played pretty well.”
Tome, Daniel Schuler, Jack Drobny and Ruairi Conaghan were the leaders of the defense for the Trojans.
“This team has a tremendous amount of character and heart,” Schmitt said. “They do not quit working from start to finish. I’d seen (Plainfield North’s) scores, so it was definitely something to be concerned about -- the offensive firepower that they were going to come at us with.
“We knew we had to defend well as a unit today. That was something we were struggling with through the first three games, but I think we pulled it together enough to get the result.”
So can the Trojans be a sleeper team?
“That’s the plan,” Schmitt said. “The last few years, the Trojan program for soccer hasn’t been something to be looked at and feared, and I think we’re definitely going to try to be that team this year. A lot of teams aren’t going to see us coming, and I really think that’s going to play to our advantage.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
G Cade Fink
D Jackson Ranck
DAdam Ratini
D Ian Aslam
D Ryan Cartwright
M Jake Farley
M Austin Collier
M Alex Lynch
M Nicholas Thompson
F Austin Hansen
F Nicholas Anweiler
Downers Grove North
G Jimmy Miller
D Daniel Schuler
D Jack Drobny
D Ruairi Conaghan
D Carter Tome
M Ronaldo Perez
M Jokubas Baranauskas
M Noah Lesher
F Jack Richards
F Ethan Akkawi
F Sam Crowley
Man of the Match: Jack Richards, F, Downers Grove North