OPRF's Garcia, defense take down DGN
Huskies record 3-0 WSC Silver Division win
By Dave Owen
OAK PARK – The hints of excellence Paul Garcia provided on the soccer field last year are becoming loud facts.
The Oak Park and River Forest junior’s one goal and two assists Tuesday powered the Huskies (9-1-1, 3-0-0 in the WSC Silver) to a 3-0 win over Downers Grove North (5-6-0, 1-2-0).
“I guess it’s just more confidence now,” Garcia said. “I was on varsity last year, and now I’ve been through it, so I have more confidence for sure.
“I’ve just tried to create as many goals as possible. Tried to help create goals (with assists), score goals – anything I can do for us to score a goal, I’ll do it.”
That motto was never more obvious than with 19:19 left in the match and the Huskies, ranked eighth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, holding a narrow 1-0 lead.
Off a Yussuf El Metennani pass, Garcia nicely maneuvered around two DGN players at the right of the box towards the end line.
Drawing the goalkeeper to him, Garcia then sent a perfect cross to the front, where El Metennani’s 6-yard drive found the back of the net despite great sliding block attempts by two Trojans defenders at the goal line.
“Honestly I just look for the gaps between the defenders and try to go through them,” Garcia said. “And it worked out well right there. I passed it to Yussuf, and he scored off it.”
The OPRF defense has put on its own attention-grabbing show this fall with eight shutouts and just three goals allowed through 11 matches. But Garcia’s eye-opening offensive play Tuesday was the big story.
“Paul’s a very special player with the way he plays,” Huskies senior defender Zeke Rivera said, “so it’s always easy for him to create opportunities like that.”
After assisting on the first two OPRF scores, Garcia’s 10-yard strike off a Mateja Tadic send over the DGN defense with 4:09 left padded the lead to 3-0 and upped his 2019 goal total to nine.
“I basically just look for the through-balls,” Garcia said, “and then use my speed to take it down and try my best to score.”
The Garcia-Tadic combination on the final goal was a fitting end to a night that began with the two OPRF standouts teaming up for a 1-0 lead.
In the 16th minute, Tadic took a pass from Garcia. With DGN goalkeeper Gavin Crowson off his line to challenge, Tadic showed perfect touch to put the Huskies ahead for good.
“We did a good job pressuring, their keeper came out and Mateja just kind of chipped it over his head,” OPRF coach Jason Fried said.
“Mateja and Paul are both really creative players. Paul is never out of a game; he creates a ton for us. He just knows how to find the right positioning, and he’s a really smart player. He creates a lot just by runs where he doesn’t have the ball, and even if he doesn’t get it, it’ll set up something else later. He does a good job of that, and today he came up huge with two assists and a goal.
“And Paul’s really unselfish too, which is great,” Fried added. “A couple of times he might take it and go to the goal, but he doesn’t care who scores. He just wants us to get the win.”
While Garcia grabbed the scoring spotlight, the entire OPRF squad left the Trojans impressed.
“That’s just a super hard-working team,” DGN junior Sam Bull said. “Their right back number 8 (Jai Hsieh-Bailey) is super fast.”
DGN coach Mike Schmitt had his own praise for the Huskies one-two punch of scorer (Garcia) and star defender (Hsieh-Bailey).
“His (Garcia’s) heads-up play and understanding of the game and situational play, and then 8 is just a freak of nature,” Schmitt said. “He (Hsieh-Bailey) is all over the place – athleticism, really good touch, super fast, super strong.
“I don’t think anybody could get near him on the ball. He really dominated the right side of the field in the first half, and we really struggled getting it up the field.
“Those are just two really good players on their squad,” Schmitt added. “And top to bottom they’re really good.”
DGN more than held its own for three-quarters of the night – a great effort made even better by other major challenges the Trojans faced.
“In the last 24 hours we lost both our starting center backs, Owen Lesley and Brian Benton.” Schmitt said. “One has a school function he couldn’t get out of, and the other guy has concussion protocol.
“We had to throw a makeshift backline together at the last minute. That being said, we dropped Alex Karrow back there, and I thought he did a fantastic job. He really gave us a presence back there against a really good OPRF side.”
Other DGN defenders also stepped up with strong showings against a Huskies team whose only loss all year was a 1-0 setback to Indianapolis power North Central.
“We brought in Josh LeBlanc at right back,” Schmitt said. “He filled in for Devin (Pounds), because we moved him into the middle because of his size. And then Karrow (moved to center back) for his size as well.
“Josh did a really good job for the most part. And Alex and Sam Bull really led the line back there to keep them (the Huskies) out for a really long time,” Schmitt added. “It was a bend-but-don’t-break scenario, but unfortunately we broke a little bit.”
DGN’s adjust on the fly defensive effort was excellent, as Tadic’s perfect touch on the first goal was the lone snap in the defensive wall for the first 60-plus minutes.
“That was just a really good finish,” Schmitt said. “He (Tadic) saw the keeper out and popped it over him.”
Then Garcia and the OPRF’s final offensive burst was too much.
“The fitness kind of came into play late in the game,” Bull said. “We got kind of tired. We were missing a lot of guys, especially defenders.
“We gave it our best,” Bull added, “but they’re just a really hard working team.”
Bull provides a strong leg on free kicks and excellent defense – perhaps not a surprise with his soccer lineage. His grandfather was a longtime coach at Hinsdale Central, and his father played at Hinsdale South.
“Their obvious love of the game – it comes with you your whole life,” Bull said. “My grandpa makes it out whenever he can, and my dad’s always traveling, but he makes it out as much as he can.”
As they have done most of the year, the Huskies mixed pretty goals with gritty defense and one other invaluable element of winning soccer.
“We like to play possession soccer,” Rivera said, “so whenever we can possess the ball we feel comfortable. That’s always what we’re looking for. We looked good tonight.”
Said Fried: “It’s not just defense, but possessing the ball, limiting chances. So when we get that clean-sheet, every player even our center forward can feel like they earned it. That’s a great feeling to have.”
It’s also great to have a goalkeeper like Sam Pecenka.
The OPRF netminder provided the final exclamation point to the win with 2:22 left, when Bull’s 34-yard free kick into the box produced a Huskies hand ball and a DGN penalty kick.
On the ensuing PK, Peter Bednar’s rocket shot would have likely torn through the net if not for Pecenka’s great diving save towards the left post.
\
“Sam’s an insane keeper, great,” Fried said. “And he’s really good at saving PKs. He’s saved a lot of them.
“Getting a clean-sheet has been really important to this team. I think we would have won 3-1 then (without Pecenka’s save), but the zero is huge for our defense. That’s something they been living by; and they’ve done such a good job this year. So Sam doing that means more to the defense than he probably knows. He was huge for us.”
There is plenty of huge praise to go around for the OPRF defense.
“A guy who has really stepped up for us this year is Zeke Rivera,” Fried said. “He’s been playing lights out. He’s an all-around great player.
“You get Zeke in there and then Jai Hsieh-Bailey on the outside. He (Hsieh-Baley) is a really hard guy to manage. He’s not only really strong defensively, but he can get us to the attack really quickly. He’s really dynamic.
“Bram (Lebovitz) at the center back is a great communicator and just controls the game really well,” Fried said. “And Zach (Buchta) is a junior who has really started to pick up the way we play. He’s done a great job stepping into his role at the varsity level for his first year up here.”
OPRF had to withstand several set piece threats all night by the Trojans.
With 29:30 left, Karrow lined a 30-yard free kick barely over the net (off the football crossbar).
Then with 15:50 to go, Bull powered a 65-yard free kick into the box on the fly. From there a second header flick required a leaping grab at the right post by Pecenka.
Another long Trojans free kick from beyond midfield with 6:20 left also created trouble. Trygve Hansen’s 26-yard shot was saved by Pecenka at the right post.
Then came the well-struck PK shot that would beat most keepers – and the ultimate frustration.
“We had some good services in tonight, but we just weren’t getting on the end of them,” Schmitt said. “Then the one we got rewarded for with the penalty kick – it was just the story of our night. Nothing was really falling our way.
“They (OPRF) are a really strong side,” Schmitt added, “and at the end of the day 1-0 or 3-0 doesn’t make a huge difference. But the score doesn’t tell the story of how well we defended at times. We made it really tough for them, but they were able to get some opportunities out of it.”
Playing a top opponent came at the wrong time for the shorthanded Trojans.
“Out of 22 kids on our roster, we had 14 field kids available tonight,” Schmitt said. “It’s just one of those things.”
But loss aside, there were plenty of positives for DGN.
“We know we can work hard and hold up against really good teams,” Bull said. “Every team in our conference is this caliber. Against York, Hinsdale Central, Lyons – we know we can stick with them.
“It’s just that those last 20 minutes we have to keep going, keep that fitness up and maybe crank out a goal or two.”
OPRF is scoring, defending and possessing – which leads to winning.
“Our expectations are always to win through possession soccer,” Rivera said. “We’ve been working at this for four years now, and last year we came out in the sectional finals and lost to Lyons.
“That made us hungry to come back and really play the way OP soccer is done in our new era.
“We just have to focus on keeping up the teamwork,” Rivera added. “It’s a team effort – everybody is one. So if we can keep everyone together we’re going to be well off.”
Starting lineups
DGN
GK Gavin Crowson
D Sam Bull
D Alex Karrow
D Devon Pounds
D Josh LeBlanc
M Peter Bednar
M Trygve Hansen
M Lucas Turk
M Collin Nuttall
F Eddie Ursulica
F Aidan Flores
OPRF
GK Sam Pecenka
D Jai Hseih-Bailey
D Bram Lebovitz
D Zeke Rivera
D Zach Buchta
M Mateja Tadic
M Ben Ryan
M Antony Silvetti-Schmitt
M Caleb Pacheco
F Paul Garcia
F Nicolo Stella
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Paul Garcia, jr. F, Oak Park and River Forest
Scoring summary
First half
OPRF- Mateja Tadi (Paul Garcia assist), 16’
Second half
OPRF- Yussuf El Metennani (Garcia), 61’
OPRF- Garcia (Tadi), 76’
Huskies record 3-0 WSC Silver Division win
By Dave Owen
OAK PARK – The hints of excellence Paul Garcia provided on the soccer field last year are becoming loud facts.
The Oak Park and River Forest junior’s one goal and two assists Tuesday powered the Huskies (9-1-1, 3-0-0 in the WSC Silver) to a 3-0 win over Downers Grove North (5-6-0, 1-2-0).
“I guess it’s just more confidence now,” Garcia said. “I was on varsity last year, and now I’ve been through it, so I have more confidence for sure.
“I’ve just tried to create as many goals as possible. Tried to help create goals (with assists), score goals – anything I can do for us to score a goal, I’ll do it.”
That motto was never more obvious than with 19:19 left in the match and the Huskies, ranked eighth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, holding a narrow 1-0 lead.
Off a Yussuf El Metennani pass, Garcia nicely maneuvered around two DGN players at the right of the box towards the end line.
Drawing the goalkeeper to him, Garcia then sent a perfect cross to the front, where El Metennani’s 6-yard drive found the back of the net despite great sliding block attempts by two Trojans defenders at the goal line.
“Honestly I just look for the gaps between the defenders and try to go through them,” Garcia said. “And it worked out well right there. I passed it to Yussuf, and he scored off it.”
The OPRF defense has put on its own attention-grabbing show this fall with eight shutouts and just three goals allowed through 11 matches. But Garcia’s eye-opening offensive play Tuesday was the big story.
“Paul’s a very special player with the way he plays,” Huskies senior defender Zeke Rivera said, “so it’s always easy for him to create opportunities like that.”
After assisting on the first two OPRF scores, Garcia’s 10-yard strike off a Mateja Tadic send over the DGN defense with 4:09 left padded the lead to 3-0 and upped his 2019 goal total to nine.
“I basically just look for the through-balls,” Garcia said, “and then use my speed to take it down and try my best to score.”
The Garcia-Tadic combination on the final goal was a fitting end to a night that began with the two OPRF standouts teaming up for a 1-0 lead.
In the 16th minute, Tadic took a pass from Garcia. With DGN goalkeeper Gavin Crowson off his line to challenge, Tadic showed perfect touch to put the Huskies ahead for good.
“We did a good job pressuring, their keeper came out and Mateja just kind of chipped it over his head,” OPRF coach Jason Fried said.
“Mateja and Paul are both really creative players. Paul is never out of a game; he creates a ton for us. He just knows how to find the right positioning, and he’s a really smart player. He creates a lot just by runs where he doesn’t have the ball, and even if he doesn’t get it, it’ll set up something else later. He does a good job of that, and today he came up huge with two assists and a goal.
“And Paul’s really unselfish too, which is great,” Fried added. “A couple of times he might take it and go to the goal, but he doesn’t care who scores. He just wants us to get the win.”
While Garcia grabbed the scoring spotlight, the entire OPRF squad left the Trojans impressed.
“That’s just a super hard-working team,” DGN junior Sam Bull said. “Their right back number 8 (Jai Hsieh-Bailey) is super fast.”
DGN coach Mike Schmitt had his own praise for the Huskies one-two punch of scorer (Garcia) and star defender (Hsieh-Bailey).
“His (Garcia’s) heads-up play and understanding of the game and situational play, and then 8 is just a freak of nature,” Schmitt said. “He (Hsieh-Bailey) is all over the place – athleticism, really good touch, super fast, super strong.
“I don’t think anybody could get near him on the ball. He really dominated the right side of the field in the first half, and we really struggled getting it up the field.
“Those are just two really good players on their squad,” Schmitt added. “And top to bottom they’re really good.”
DGN more than held its own for three-quarters of the night – a great effort made even better by other major challenges the Trojans faced.
“In the last 24 hours we lost both our starting center backs, Owen Lesley and Brian Benton.” Schmitt said. “One has a school function he couldn’t get out of, and the other guy has concussion protocol.
“We had to throw a makeshift backline together at the last minute. That being said, we dropped Alex Karrow back there, and I thought he did a fantastic job. He really gave us a presence back there against a really good OPRF side.”
Other DGN defenders also stepped up with strong showings against a Huskies team whose only loss all year was a 1-0 setback to Indianapolis power North Central.
“We brought in Josh LeBlanc at right back,” Schmitt said. “He filled in for Devin (Pounds), because we moved him into the middle because of his size. And then Karrow (moved to center back) for his size as well.
“Josh did a really good job for the most part. And Alex and Sam Bull really led the line back there to keep them (the Huskies) out for a really long time,” Schmitt added. “It was a bend-but-don’t-break scenario, but unfortunately we broke a little bit.”
DGN’s adjust on the fly defensive effort was excellent, as Tadic’s perfect touch on the first goal was the lone snap in the defensive wall for the first 60-plus minutes.
“That was just a really good finish,” Schmitt said. “He (Tadic) saw the keeper out and popped it over him.”
Then Garcia and the OPRF’s final offensive burst was too much.
“The fitness kind of came into play late in the game,” Bull said. “We got kind of tired. We were missing a lot of guys, especially defenders.
“We gave it our best,” Bull added, “but they’re just a really hard working team.”
Bull provides a strong leg on free kicks and excellent defense – perhaps not a surprise with his soccer lineage. His grandfather was a longtime coach at Hinsdale Central, and his father played at Hinsdale South.
“Their obvious love of the game – it comes with you your whole life,” Bull said. “My grandpa makes it out whenever he can, and my dad’s always traveling, but he makes it out as much as he can.”
As they have done most of the year, the Huskies mixed pretty goals with gritty defense and one other invaluable element of winning soccer.
“We like to play possession soccer,” Rivera said, “so whenever we can possess the ball we feel comfortable. That’s always what we’re looking for. We looked good tonight.”
Said Fried: “It’s not just defense, but possessing the ball, limiting chances. So when we get that clean-sheet, every player even our center forward can feel like they earned it. That’s a great feeling to have.”
It’s also great to have a goalkeeper like Sam Pecenka.
The OPRF netminder provided the final exclamation point to the win with 2:22 left, when Bull’s 34-yard free kick into the box produced a Huskies hand ball and a DGN penalty kick.
On the ensuing PK, Peter Bednar’s rocket shot would have likely torn through the net if not for Pecenka’s great diving save towards the left post.
\
“Sam’s an insane keeper, great,” Fried said. “And he’s really good at saving PKs. He’s saved a lot of them.
“Getting a clean-sheet has been really important to this team. I think we would have won 3-1 then (without Pecenka’s save), but the zero is huge for our defense. That’s something they been living by; and they’ve done such a good job this year. So Sam doing that means more to the defense than he probably knows. He was huge for us.”
There is plenty of huge praise to go around for the OPRF defense.
“A guy who has really stepped up for us this year is Zeke Rivera,” Fried said. “He’s been playing lights out. He’s an all-around great player.
“You get Zeke in there and then Jai Hsieh-Bailey on the outside. He (Hsieh-Baley) is a really hard guy to manage. He’s not only really strong defensively, but he can get us to the attack really quickly. He’s really dynamic.
“Bram (Lebovitz) at the center back is a great communicator and just controls the game really well,” Fried said. “And Zach (Buchta) is a junior who has really started to pick up the way we play. He’s done a great job stepping into his role at the varsity level for his first year up here.”
OPRF had to withstand several set piece threats all night by the Trojans.
With 29:30 left, Karrow lined a 30-yard free kick barely over the net (off the football crossbar).
Then with 15:50 to go, Bull powered a 65-yard free kick into the box on the fly. From there a second header flick required a leaping grab at the right post by Pecenka.
Another long Trojans free kick from beyond midfield with 6:20 left also created trouble. Trygve Hansen’s 26-yard shot was saved by Pecenka at the right post.
Then came the well-struck PK shot that would beat most keepers – and the ultimate frustration.
“We had some good services in tonight, but we just weren’t getting on the end of them,” Schmitt said. “Then the one we got rewarded for with the penalty kick – it was just the story of our night. Nothing was really falling our way.
“They (OPRF) are a really strong side,” Schmitt added, “and at the end of the day 1-0 or 3-0 doesn’t make a huge difference. But the score doesn’t tell the story of how well we defended at times. We made it really tough for them, but they were able to get some opportunities out of it.”
Playing a top opponent came at the wrong time for the shorthanded Trojans.
“Out of 22 kids on our roster, we had 14 field kids available tonight,” Schmitt said. “It’s just one of those things.”
But loss aside, there were plenty of positives for DGN.
“We know we can work hard and hold up against really good teams,” Bull said. “Every team in our conference is this caliber. Against York, Hinsdale Central, Lyons – we know we can stick with them.
“It’s just that those last 20 minutes we have to keep going, keep that fitness up and maybe crank out a goal or two.”
OPRF is scoring, defending and possessing – which leads to winning.
“Our expectations are always to win through possession soccer,” Rivera said. “We’ve been working at this for four years now, and last year we came out in the sectional finals and lost to Lyons.
“That made us hungry to come back and really play the way OP soccer is done in our new era.
“We just have to focus on keeping up the teamwork,” Rivera added. “It’s a team effort – everybody is one. So if we can keep everyone together we’re going to be well off.”
Starting lineups
DGN
GK Gavin Crowson
D Sam Bull
D Alex Karrow
D Devon Pounds
D Josh LeBlanc
M Peter Bednar
M Trygve Hansen
M Lucas Turk
M Collin Nuttall
F Eddie Ursulica
F Aidan Flores
OPRF
GK Sam Pecenka
D Jai Hseih-Bailey
D Bram Lebovitz
D Zeke Rivera
D Zach Buchta
M Mateja Tadic
M Ben Ryan
M Antony Silvetti-Schmitt
M Caleb Pacheco
F Paul Garcia
F Nicolo Stella
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Paul Garcia, jr. F, Oak Park and River Forest
Scoring summary
First half
OPRF- Mateja Tadi (Paul Garcia assist), 16’
Second half
OPRF- Yussuf El Metennani (Garcia), 61’
OPRF- Garcia (Tadi), 76’