CLS grinds out win over rival CL Central
Gators’ victory over rival keeps them atop Fox Valley standings
By Matt Misiek
CRYSTAL LAKE -- Over the recent weeks in professional baseball, there has been a lot of scoreboard watching -- teams keeping track of all the games going on that affected the race for the postseason.
Similar activity was on display at Crystal Lake South High School’s Soccer Complex Tuesday afternoon, well after the final whistle had blown in the Fox Valley Conference game between the host Gators and the Crystal Lake Central Tigers.
Mind you, the displays on the devices used for this information gathering were vastly smaller than a scoreboard. Gators coaches were checking devices like cell phones, keeping watch on the progress in Carpentersville between fellow Fox Valley foes Jacobs and Dundee-Crown.
That game ended in a 1-1 tie, which means that Crystal Lake South (12-2-3, 4-0-1 in Fox Valley), which is ranked 15th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, now stands alone atop the Fox Valley Conference by virtue of their 1-0 victory over their visiting their crosstown rivals.
“We just have to be sharper,” said Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen. “I commended the guys on the battle afterwards. I told them that I was proud because there are teams that find a way to tie or even lose this game.
“They took a lot of pride in battling, keeping the zero on the board and getting the three points on the table which is huge for us at this point of the season.”
The Gators could not have gotten off to a better start. Forward Alex Canfield made a steal shortly after the matched kicked off. He raced downfield with the ball and shot toward goal. The ball took a wicked deflection off a defender and left nothing for Tigers keeper Joseph Perez Tellez to do except watch the ball as it floated over his head into the top left corner of the net only 37 seconds into the contest.
“It was a good deflection,” said Gators senior forward Ryan Coughlin. “Alex (Canfield) got on the end of it. Everyone was pushing up to get that first goal. Once we got it, everyone just kind of sat back, and thought it was going to come easy. But it didn’t today.”
But that was all of the offense Crystal Lake South could muster due in large part to Tellez. The Tigers keeper stood strong, making eight saves in the first half alone. The stops included a one-on-one stonewalling of Canfield in the 17th minute that required the keeper to dive to his left and punch the ball away. His 10 total saves and tenacity in keeping Crystal Lake Central (6-7-1, 1-4-0) in the game earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Before warmups, on the way here, I tried to stay focused,” Tellez said. “I just worked as hard as I could, did whatever I could to help us be successful.”
The second part of the story for the visiting Tigers was their inability to finish the chances they did create. In addition to numerous shots going wide and over the crossbar, their best opportunity to level the match came in the 36th minute. Junior Jake Nelson sent the ball airborne down the right and found senior forward Gerardo Espindola. The senior midfielder took a touch into the 18, but his driven effort went high and wide of goal.
Despite the visitors’ opportunities, coach Allen was pleased with the efforts of his back four of Andrew Edge, Nick Langdon, Evan Carlson and Brandon Wilson.
“Outside of one or two chances, I wasn’t worried about where we were defensively,” he said. “I think we sorted things out defensively pretty good. I trust our backline and our keeper to get us out of those difficult situations.”
Langdon added: “We had chances to put the game away early in the first 10 minutes. When that didn’t happen, it was all about protecting the zero and trying to create as many chances as we could. We weren’t able to bury the chances, but we were able to lock it up defensively.”
Crystal Lake South got a huge individual defensive play from junior defender Evan Carlson in the 50th minute that thwarted a great scoring chance for Nelson.
“They (Crystal Lake Central) played a ball around midfield, over our head,” said Carlson. “I had to scamper back quickly and make that sliding tackle.”
Another player for Crystal Lake South that has brought tremendous energy throughout the season is midfielder Sabien Raymond.
“I’m just doing my job to help the team,” said Raymond. “Since Tom (Coughlin) starts, I come in and try to provide that energy. I spray balls all over the field, control the middle and keep the team moving.”
Allen was pleased with his work rate along with others.
“Ricky (Cristante), Jack (Wruck) and Sabien stood out today,” he said. “Jack’s been on a tear lately, controlling the midfield for us. Ricky was grinding it out in the middle as well. Sabien has been coming off the bench the last few weeks, buzzing around, changing the tempo for us and really embracing that role.”
Crystal Lake Central will host Dundee-Crown in Fox Valley play on Thursday. The Gators will continue their FVC battles at McHenry.
“This is what is exciting for me as a coach,” Allen said. “Even though we are having a great year, there is still a lot of room for growth and improvement. If we can shore up a few of those things before the postseason, hopefully we will be playing our best around that time."
Starting lineups
Crystal Lake South
GK: Matt McCaleb
D: Nick Langdon
D: Brandon Wilson
D: Evan Carlson
D: Andrew Edge
MF: Tom Coughlin
MF: Ricky Cristante
MF: Jack Wruck
F: Brad Grabowski
F: Ryan Coughlin
F: Alex Canfield
Crystal Lake Central
GK: Joseph Perez Tellez
D: Bryden Freund
D: Victor Farfan
D: Luke Montford
D: Joseph Wiese
MF: Joey Cummings
MF: Jake Nelson
MF: Jairo Aguilar
MF: Mason Pfeifer
F: Billy Cummings
F: Brock Buetow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Joseph Perez Tellez, sr., GK, Crystal Lake Central
Referees: Sam Nachanpassack (center), Trevor Fulk, Andy Panagopoulous
Scoring summary
First half
CLS – Canfield (unassisted) – 0:37
Second half
None
Gators’ victory over rival keeps them atop Fox Valley standings
By Matt Misiek
CRYSTAL LAKE -- Over the recent weeks in professional baseball, there has been a lot of scoreboard watching -- teams keeping track of all the games going on that affected the race for the postseason.
Similar activity was on display at Crystal Lake South High School’s Soccer Complex Tuesday afternoon, well after the final whistle had blown in the Fox Valley Conference game between the host Gators and the Crystal Lake Central Tigers.
Mind you, the displays on the devices used for this information gathering were vastly smaller than a scoreboard. Gators coaches were checking devices like cell phones, keeping watch on the progress in Carpentersville between fellow Fox Valley foes Jacobs and Dundee-Crown.
That game ended in a 1-1 tie, which means that Crystal Lake South (12-2-3, 4-0-1 in Fox Valley), which is ranked 15th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, now stands alone atop the Fox Valley Conference by virtue of their 1-0 victory over their visiting their crosstown rivals.
“We just have to be sharper,” said Crystal Lake South coach Brian Allen. “I commended the guys on the battle afterwards. I told them that I was proud because there are teams that find a way to tie or even lose this game.
“They took a lot of pride in battling, keeping the zero on the board and getting the three points on the table which is huge for us at this point of the season.”
The Gators could not have gotten off to a better start. Forward Alex Canfield made a steal shortly after the matched kicked off. He raced downfield with the ball and shot toward goal. The ball took a wicked deflection off a defender and left nothing for Tigers keeper Joseph Perez Tellez to do except watch the ball as it floated over his head into the top left corner of the net only 37 seconds into the contest.
“It was a good deflection,” said Gators senior forward Ryan Coughlin. “Alex (Canfield) got on the end of it. Everyone was pushing up to get that first goal. Once we got it, everyone just kind of sat back, and thought it was going to come easy. But it didn’t today.”
But that was all of the offense Crystal Lake South could muster due in large part to Tellez. The Tigers keeper stood strong, making eight saves in the first half alone. The stops included a one-on-one stonewalling of Canfield in the 17th minute that required the keeper to dive to his left and punch the ball away. His 10 total saves and tenacity in keeping Crystal Lake Central (6-7-1, 1-4-0) in the game earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Before warmups, on the way here, I tried to stay focused,” Tellez said. “I just worked as hard as I could, did whatever I could to help us be successful.”
The second part of the story for the visiting Tigers was their inability to finish the chances they did create. In addition to numerous shots going wide and over the crossbar, their best opportunity to level the match came in the 36th minute. Junior Jake Nelson sent the ball airborne down the right and found senior forward Gerardo Espindola. The senior midfielder took a touch into the 18, but his driven effort went high and wide of goal.
Despite the visitors’ opportunities, coach Allen was pleased with the efforts of his back four of Andrew Edge, Nick Langdon, Evan Carlson and Brandon Wilson.
“Outside of one or two chances, I wasn’t worried about where we were defensively,” he said. “I think we sorted things out defensively pretty good. I trust our backline and our keeper to get us out of those difficult situations.”
Langdon added: “We had chances to put the game away early in the first 10 minutes. When that didn’t happen, it was all about protecting the zero and trying to create as many chances as we could. We weren’t able to bury the chances, but we were able to lock it up defensively.”
Crystal Lake South got a huge individual defensive play from junior defender Evan Carlson in the 50th minute that thwarted a great scoring chance for Nelson.
“They (Crystal Lake Central) played a ball around midfield, over our head,” said Carlson. “I had to scamper back quickly and make that sliding tackle.”
Another player for Crystal Lake South that has brought tremendous energy throughout the season is midfielder Sabien Raymond.
“I’m just doing my job to help the team,” said Raymond. “Since Tom (Coughlin) starts, I come in and try to provide that energy. I spray balls all over the field, control the middle and keep the team moving.”
Allen was pleased with his work rate along with others.
“Ricky (Cristante), Jack (Wruck) and Sabien stood out today,” he said. “Jack’s been on a tear lately, controlling the midfield for us. Ricky was grinding it out in the middle as well. Sabien has been coming off the bench the last few weeks, buzzing around, changing the tempo for us and really embracing that role.”
Crystal Lake Central will host Dundee-Crown in Fox Valley play on Thursday. The Gators will continue their FVC battles at McHenry.
“This is what is exciting for me as a coach,” Allen said. “Even though we are having a great year, there is still a lot of room for growth and improvement. If we can shore up a few of those things before the postseason, hopefully we will be playing our best around that time."
Starting lineups
Crystal Lake South
GK: Matt McCaleb
D: Nick Langdon
D: Brandon Wilson
D: Evan Carlson
D: Andrew Edge
MF: Tom Coughlin
MF: Ricky Cristante
MF: Jack Wruck
F: Brad Grabowski
F: Ryan Coughlin
F: Alex Canfield
Crystal Lake Central
GK: Joseph Perez Tellez
D: Bryden Freund
D: Victor Farfan
D: Luke Montford
D: Joseph Wiese
MF: Joey Cummings
MF: Jake Nelson
MF: Jairo Aguilar
MF: Mason Pfeifer
F: Billy Cummings
F: Brock Buetow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Joseph Perez Tellez, sr., GK, Crystal Lake Central
Referees: Sam Nachanpassack (center), Trevor Fulk, Andy Panagopoulous
Scoring summary
First half
CLS – Canfield (unassisted) – 0:37
Second half
None