Addison Trail gets win;
Hinsdale South savors memories
Blazers win 5-1 at host's Senior Night
By Chris R. Walker
DARIEN -- Addison Trail coach Ryan Dini decided to switch things up a bit for Tuesday’s West Suburban Conference Gold Division game at Hinsdale South. So, he let his good friend take over some of his responsibilities.
It’s the kind of move that a coach only makes if he really trusts his assistant. Since Dini and Angel Vega played together at Addison Trail, that was a given.
It’s a great reminder that high school sports may be competitive but that being a part of a team is far more than that final win-loss record. Rather, it’s those experiences on the field with your peers, at practice and behind the scenes that the kids will be talking about when they find themselves reminiscing down the road.
“I want you to stay and listen to this,” Vega said to senior Matias Aguilar who scored twice and added an assist to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors in a 5-1 victory. The coach wanted him to hear his answer to a reporter’s question.
“Coach Dini and I played together at Addison Trail and are still giving our time to this program. We love it. It’s an amazing school. We’re able to show our pride and hopefully the guys feed off of it. I feel like we’re trending in the right direction as a team, feeling really good about the team right now.”
Vega was responsible for writing out a starting lineup and making substitutions throughout the game for the Blazers. Aguilar certainly made his job easy. When a kid is scoring goals and causing chaos on a less than ideal night to play, he’s going to stay on the field and keep doing it. And that’s what Aguilar did.
“We didn’t know it was their Senior Night until we walked off the bus and saw the jumbotron. When we saw it and you’re the opposing team, all you think about is let’s ruin it,” he said. “It’s just competitiveness, and that’s how we came out.
“In the first half it was close. We made a couple mistakes, but then in the second half we came out and played a lot better. We started touching the ball, and we got through them and broke their line; and it was just a breeze for us.”
Aguilar beat a defender before sending in a cross to Christopher Ortega who headed in the goal for a 1-0 lead with 27:35 remaining in the first half. The pass had to battle the falling rain and heavy winds but seem to float in mid-air just waiting for Ortega’s forehead to bash it forward toward the net.
“I didn’t want to whip it in too hard, because it would’ve just kept going out,” Aguilar said. “I just tried to chip it, and it just landed straight on his head. It was perfect.”
The weather was far from perfect. Most of the first half was played in heavy rains. A clever person in the press box played “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by B.J. Thomas during halftime with the host Hornets trailing 2-1.
At least one person was overheard suggesting that they follow that song with “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses, but since it’s just October, one could argue that there are better choices to complement the famous 1969 ditty by Thomas.
Similarly, The Alarm’s “Rain in the Summertime” wouldn’t be a timely cut becaue of the calendar.
Without a doubt, “Here Comes the Rain Again” from Eurythmics, which is almost 40 years old, would’ve been a nice choice. If Milli Vanilli’s “Blame it on the Rain” was played would anyone know who really sang it?
Thankfully, by the time the game ended and despite thoughts of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and The Cult’s classic “Rain,” the precipitation had subsided, making it a perfect time to cue up Blind Melon’s “No Rain.”
Addison Trail (9-7-1, 3-3-x) got a goal in the first five minutes of the second half to extend its lead and then broke the game open when Aguilar perfectly curled in a corner kick with 27:01 remaining to make it 4-1.
“I always aim for the 10 spot in the middle area, and I just whipped it in,” he said. “I kind of hit it wrong but saw with the way the wind was taking it and taking it that it was going straight back into the back of the net. I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’”
The rivalry has been more one-sided than crazy between these two schools. Addison Trail notched its 12th-straight victory over the Hornets. You have to go all the way back to when gas was $2.79 a gallon to find a Hinsdale South team that upended their conference foes from Addison.
T.J. Kubiesa lifted the Hornets to a 1-0 win over the Blazers on Sept. 16, 2010.
“You still never know what’s going to happen,” Vega said. “It sounded good to mix it up a bit tonight and give the kids a different take, and the boys took to it.”
Junior Matthew Reynaga joined in on the fun with 7:31 remaining as his rebound goal finished a run of four-straight goals after Hinsdale South freshman Jake Lu tied the game at 1-1 approximately midway through the opening half.
Addison Trail will have a final state series tune-up game at 24th ranked Hinsdale Central on Thursday afternoon before opening in the Class 3A St. Charles North regional on Tuesday against West Chicago.
“I know some of those guys personally and know they have a strong team and a really strong offense,” Aguilar said “The seeds don’t matter and the records don’t matter. When it comes to the playoffs it’s just you vs. them. The records go out the window, and it’s all about who wants it more.”
Last year, the Blazers edged the Wildcats 1-0 early in the season in their Joe Novy Classic. They haven’t seen each other this fall.
“It’s going to be a great game,” Aguilar said. “They were a really strong team last year and are super strong this year. We’ve been playing a lot better since the beginning of the season, and I think if we focus up and give it our all, a good result can come. It’s going to be anybody’s game. Who has more heart at the end of the day?
“We didn’t get the seeding we wanted, and they probably got what they wanted. We’re looking forward to being the underdog and coming out on top.”
Only a handful of teams win their final high school game but countless kids leave it all out on the field and eventually graduate and leave their high schools with great memories and more than a story or two that they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives.
“It’s been a lot of fun, especially with our team playing with some guys I’ve grown up with since elementary and middle school and sometimes even childhood friends and just playing,” Aguilar said. “You spend a lot of time together, and it’s just been a great experience overall. It really helps you build a lot of character.”
Hinsdale South’s nine seniors appear destined for great careers building things, fixing things and generally making life better for their fellow men.
Feras Alnass, Owen Atkinson, Diego Castellanos, Jacob Charters, Daniel Ciesla, Jorge Miranda, Mladen Mrksic, Oscar Padill and Aryan Patel were the guests of honor at Senior Night.
Among their plans for the working world, two plan on pursuing degrees in business, another two will study biomedical engineering while others are heading into construction trades, electrical engineering, computer science, wildlife biology and medicine.
“One of the things that I think the entire program has learned is that it’s the memories you’ve made along the way,” Charters said. “I still talk to all the old graduates who were seniors from last year. We talk about our bus rides, going out to eat afterward and just how it’s more important to have fun then to worry about the losses.
“Because we don’t remember what our record was last year, but we remember … hanging out as a team.”
Charters is one of those rare athletes that’s been a varsity soccer player for four years. Along with the friends and great memories, he learned early on what high school soccer is all about. He is currently considering his options for playing in college where he plans on studying engineering.
“Coming in as a freshman I got to be around all the seniors and what it meant to go through their Senior Night and experience that,” he said. “That helped me understand what it would be like for senior year. It helped me understand what it means and how important the game is, but also learning how to have fun and to cherish these moments.”
Hinsdale South (5-12-1, 1-4-x) was able to compete throughout the first half, but as often has been the case for the Hornets, finding consistency over a full 80 minutes continues to be challenge.
“The first half was a good game, and we played with them by playing as a team,” Charters said. “But in the second half we went down with some injuries and people were going off on their own and getting tired, and we were not getting much movement.
“Then we went down 3-1 and then it pretty much was a spiral down from there.”
The Hornets finish their regular season at 4th ranked Morton at Thursday before hosting a Class AA regional next Tuesday. They’ll take on Nazareth with the winner getting Marmion or Providence, which are playing in the day’s earlier semifinal.
The good news for Tuesday’s playoff outlook? There’s no rain in the forecast.
The bad news? It’s going to be chilly with highs only in the mid to high 40s.
Sounds like the right time to listen to Tom Petty’s “Out in the Cold,” because that’s where many soccer players, coaches, fans and Chicagoland Soccer writers will find themselves e next week.
That single hit no. 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock Chart 31 years ago. What teams will spin themselves to no. 1 on the state charts when the games end in early November? Stayed tuned.
Starting lineups
Addison Trail
GK: Joseph Morales
D: Emilios Macias
D: Brandon Sarabiad
D: Cristian Teran
D: Lorenzo Martinez Almaraz
MF: Luca Fischer
MF: Joel Alvarez Cruz
MF: Jose Leyva
MF: Daniel Herrera
F: Matias Aguilar
F: Christopher Ortega
Hinsdale South
GK: Feras Alnass
D: Brody Hallman
D: Aryan Patel
D: Oscar Padill
D: Justas Gadisauskas
D: Jacob Charters
MF: Diego Castellanos
MF: Owen Atkinson
MF: James Martin
F: Daniel Ciesla
F: Mladen Mrksic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Matias Aguilar, sr., MF, Addison Trail
Scoring summary
First half
AT: Christopher Ortega (Matias Aguilar), 12:25
Hinsdale South - Jake Lu (unassisted), 18:13
AT: Jose Leyva (free kick), 28:56
Second half
AT: Matias Aguilar (unassisted), 43:18
AT: Matias Aguilar (corner kick), 52:59
AT: Matthew Reynaga (unassisted), 72:29
Hinsdale South savors memories
Blazers win 5-1 at host's Senior Night
By Chris R. Walker
DARIEN -- Addison Trail coach Ryan Dini decided to switch things up a bit for Tuesday’s West Suburban Conference Gold Division game at Hinsdale South. So, he let his good friend take over some of his responsibilities.
It’s the kind of move that a coach only makes if he really trusts his assistant. Since Dini and Angel Vega played together at Addison Trail, that was a given.
It’s a great reminder that high school sports may be competitive but that being a part of a team is far more than that final win-loss record. Rather, it’s those experiences on the field with your peers, at practice and behind the scenes that the kids will be talking about when they find themselves reminiscing down the road.
“I want you to stay and listen to this,” Vega said to senior Matias Aguilar who scored twice and added an assist to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors in a 5-1 victory. The coach wanted him to hear his answer to a reporter’s question.
“Coach Dini and I played together at Addison Trail and are still giving our time to this program. We love it. It’s an amazing school. We’re able to show our pride and hopefully the guys feed off of it. I feel like we’re trending in the right direction as a team, feeling really good about the team right now.”
Vega was responsible for writing out a starting lineup and making substitutions throughout the game for the Blazers. Aguilar certainly made his job easy. When a kid is scoring goals and causing chaos on a less than ideal night to play, he’s going to stay on the field and keep doing it. And that’s what Aguilar did.
“We didn’t know it was their Senior Night until we walked off the bus and saw the jumbotron. When we saw it and you’re the opposing team, all you think about is let’s ruin it,” he said. “It’s just competitiveness, and that’s how we came out.
“In the first half it was close. We made a couple mistakes, but then in the second half we came out and played a lot better. We started touching the ball, and we got through them and broke their line; and it was just a breeze for us.”
Aguilar beat a defender before sending in a cross to Christopher Ortega who headed in the goal for a 1-0 lead with 27:35 remaining in the first half. The pass had to battle the falling rain and heavy winds but seem to float in mid-air just waiting for Ortega’s forehead to bash it forward toward the net.
“I didn’t want to whip it in too hard, because it would’ve just kept going out,” Aguilar said. “I just tried to chip it, and it just landed straight on his head. It was perfect.”
The weather was far from perfect. Most of the first half was played in heavy rains. A clever person in the press box played “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by B.J. Thomas during halftime with the host Hornets trailing 2-1.
At least one person was overheard suggesting that they follow that song with “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses, but since it’s just October, one could argue that there are better choices to complement the famous 1969 ditty by Thomas.
Similarly, The Alarm’s “Rain in the Summertime” wouldn’t be a timely cut becaue of the calendar.
Without a doubt, “Here Comes the Rain Again” from Eurythmics, which is almost 40 years old, would’ve been a nice choice. If Milli Vanilli’s “Blame it on the Rain” was played would anyone know who really sang it?
Thankfully, by the time the game ended and despite thoughts of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and The Cult’s classic “Rain,” the precipitation had subsided, making it a perfect time to cue up Blind Melon’s “No Rain.”
Addison Trail (9-7-1, 3-3-x) got a goal in the first five minutes of the second half to extend its lead and then broke the game open when Aguilar perfectly curled in a corner kick with 27:01 remaining to make it 4-1.
“I always aim for the 10 spot in the middle area, and I just whipped it in,” he said. “I kind of hit it wrong but saw with the way the wind was taking it and taking it that it was going straight back into the back of the net. I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’”
The rivalry has been more one-sided than crazy between these two schools. Addison Trail notched its 12th-straight victory over the Hornets. You have to go all the way back to when gas was $2.79 a gallon to find a Hinsdale South team that upended their conference foes from Addison.
T.J. Kubiesa lifted the Hornets to a 1-0 win over the Blazers on Sept. 16, 2010.
“You still never know what’s going to happen,” Vega said. “It sounded good to mix it up a bit tonight and give the kids a different take, and the boys took to it.”
Junior Matthew Reynaga joined in on the fun with 7:31 remaining as his rebound goal finished a run of four-straight goals after Hinsdale South freshman Jake Lu tied the game at 1-1 approximately midway through the opening half.
Addison Trail will have a final state series tune-up game at 24th ranked Hinsdale Central on Thursday afternoon before opening in the Class 3A St. Charles North regional on Tuesday against West Chicago.
“I know some of those guys personally and know they have a strong team and a really strong offense,” Aguilar said “The seeds don’t matter and the records don’t matter. When it comes to the playoffs it’s just you vs. them. The records go out the window, and it’s all about who wants it more.”
Last year, the Blazers edged the Wildcats 1-0 early in the season in their Joe Novy Classic. They haven’t seen each other this fall.
“It’s going to be a great game,” Aguilar said. “They were a really strong team last year and are super strong this year. We’ve been playing a lot better since the beginning of the season, and I think if we focus up and give it our all, a good result can come. It’s going to be anybody’s game. Who has more heart at the end of the day?
“We didn’t get the seeding we wanted, and they probably got what they wanted. We’re looking forward to being the underdog and coming out on top.”
Only a handful of teams win their final high school game but countless kids leave it all out on the field and eventually graduate and leave their high schools with great memories and more than a story or two that they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives.
“It’s been a lot of fun, especially with our team playing with some guys I’ve grown up with since elementary and middle school and sometimes even childhood friends and just playing,” Aguilar said. “You spend a lot of time together, and it’s just been a great experience overall. It really helps you build a lot of character.”
Hinsdale South’s nine seniors appear destined for great careers building things, fixing things and generally making life better for their fellow men.
Feras Alnass, Owen Atkinson, Diego Castellanos, Jacob Charters, Daniel Ciesla, Jorge Miranda, Mladen Mrksic, Oscar Padill and Aryan Patel were the guests of honor at Senior Night.
Among their plans for the working world, two plan on pursuing degrees in business, another two will study biomedical engineering while others are heading into construction trades, electrical engineering, computer science, wildlife biology and medicine.
“One of the things that I think the entire program has learned is that it’s the memories you’ve made along the way,” Charters said. “I still talk to all the old graduates who were seniors from last year. We talk about our bus rides, going out to eat afterward and just how it’s more important to have fun then to worry about the losses.
“Because we don’t remember what our record was last year, but we remember … hanging out as a team.”
Charters is one of those rare athletes that’s been a varsity soccer player for four years. Along with the friends and great memories, he learned early on what high school soccer is all about. He is currently considering his options for playing in college where he plans on studying engineering.
“Coming in as a freshman I got to be around all the seniors and what it meant to go through their Senior Night and experience that,” he said. “That helped me understand what it would be like for senior year. It helped me understand what it means and how important the game is, but also learning how to have fun and to cherish these moments.”
Hinsdale South (5-12-1, 1-4-x) was able to compete throughout the first half, but as often has been the case for the Hornets, finding consistency over a full 80 minutes continues to be challenge.
“The first half was a good game, and we played with them by playing as a team,” Charters said. “But in the second half we went down with some injuries and people were going off on their own and getting tired, and we were not getting much movement.
“Then we went down 3-1 and then it pretty much was a spiral down from there.”
The Hornets finish their regular season at 4th ranked Morton at Thursday before hosting a Class AA regional next Tuesday. They’ll take on Nazareth with the winner getting Marmion or Providence, which are playing in the day’s earlier semifinal.
The good news for Tuesday’s playoff outlook? There’s no rain in the forecast.
The bad news? It’s going to be chilly with highs only in the mid to high 40s.
Sounds like the right time to listen to Tom Petty’s “Out in the Cold,” because that’s where many soccer players, coaches, fans and Chicagoland Soccer writers will find themselves e next week.
That single hit no. 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock Chart 31 years ago. What teams will spin themselves to no. 1 on the state charts when the games end in early November? Stayed tuned.
Starting lineups
Addison Trail
GK: Joseph Morales
D: Emilios Macias
D: Brandon Sarabiad
D: Cristian Teran
D: Lorenzo Martinez Almaraz
MF: Luca Fischer
MF: Joel Alvarez Cruz
MF: Jose Leyva
MF: Daniel Herrera
F: Matias Aguilar
F: Christopher Ortega
Hinsdale South
GK: Feras Alnass
D: Brody Hallman
D: Aryan Patel
D: Oscar Padill
D: Justas Gadisauskas
D: Jacob Charters
MF: Diego Castellanos
MF: Owen Atkinson
MF: James Martin
F: Daniel Ciesla
F: Mladen Mrksic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Matias Aguilar, sr., MF, Addison Trail
Scoring summary
First half
AT: Christopher Ortega (Matias Aguilar), 12:25
Hinsdale South - Jake Lu (unassisted), 18:13
AT: Jose Leyva (free kick), 28:56
Second half
AT: Matias Aguilar (unassisted), 43:18
AT: Matias Aguilar (corner kick), 52:59
AT: Matthew Reynaga (unassisted), 72:29