DGS falls to Hinsdale Central rally
Martinath’s power play goal in 73rd minute delivers 2-1 HC win
By Matt Le Cren
HINSDALE – Ethan Kelly tried hard to hold back the waterworks as he hugged his teammates and coaches following the final game of his high school career.
The Downers Grove South senior defender hopes to play in college and is talking to some Division II and Division III coaches.
If those coaches look at film from Wednesday’s Class 3A Hinsdale Central Regional semifinal, they should be impressed with the grit and determination Kelly showed in a stirring if ultimately unsuccessful effort at upsetting Hinsdale Central.
Kelly assisted on Aaron Venouziou’s eighth-minute goal that gave the 11th-seeded Mustangs an early lead. He then spent the rest of the match trying to hold off a furious comeback by the sixth-seeded Red Devils, who finally prevailed 2-1 on junior midfielder Ryan Martinath’s power play goal in the 73rd minute.
It was a far cry from the first meeting between the two teams. That ended as a 4-1 Hinsdale Central victory in the third game of the season, when the Mustangs (8-11-1) were in the midst of a five-game losing streak to start their campaign.
“That’s what we came into this for (to get an upset),” Kelly said. “In the locker room back at DGS we were saying we thought Hinsdale Central would come into this knowing that they were going to win. They’re on their home turf; they are the higher seed.
“In the regular season, they smoked us. So we knew that they were going to come into this (playing) not as hard as we were. We knew at the beginning it was a mental thing.”
The Mustangs showed a different mentality than they had earlier in the season. While they began the season with a loss and ended it with another defeat, they showed much more fight.
What accounted for the difference?
“It’s all chemistry, I believe,” Kelly said. “We played them back in September.
“From then to now, we’ve just gained team chemistry. We learned to play together a lot better. I think it’s all a mentality thing.”
Whatever it was, it paid off early. Kelly heaved a long throw-in from 30 yards on the left wing into the box where Venouziou headed it home for the shocking 1-0 lead.
“It couldn’t have been a better timing,” Kelly said. “That got us all on our feet and ready to go. At the beginning of the game we were just playing our game but as soon as we got up, that got us going.”
But so did the sixth-seeded Red Devils. They outshot the Mustangs 11-1 in the first half but had nothing to show for it. Downers South goalie Christopher Gory made four of his five saves before the break, including one on Aidan White’s rebound of a shot that hit the crossbar with 8:05 to go.
The Mustangs continued to cling to the lead for the first 20 minutes of the second half. The underdogs nearly doubled their lead with 20:32 remaining, but Hinsdale Central goalie Nathan Goliak made a diving save on Stefano Espinosa.
Exactly one minute later, the tide turned when White headed in a throw-in from Matthew Thomas to tie the game.
“It gave us a lot more hope,” White said. “We knew that we were going to put one away.
“We were on them left and right, getting shots. We knew that one of them was going to go in. But once that tying one went in, we had a lot more energy, and we really picked it up.”
But what really boosted the Red Devils (9-7-2) to victory was an incident 36 seconds later, when a Downers Grove South player was ejected for hitting a Hinsdale Central player.
That gave Hinsdale Central a man-advantage for the rest of the game and the Red Devils capitalized 11 minutes later, again on a long throw from Thomas deep in the left corner.
The toss from Thomas went into a crowd on the near post, where Martinath redirected it into the net with his shoulder.
“The ball came in front post,” Martinath said. “One of my teammates, Max (Ewing), he dove and I don’t really know if it might have hit him or the guy that was guarding him. It hit my shoulder and then it hit one of their defenders and bounced into the net.
“It was just pure joy. We went down 1-0 early. We just kept fighting.”
So did the Mustangs, but it went for naught. They mustered four of their five shots while shorthanded but Goliak made two saves and Downers South’s last attempt, a header from Kyle Fenner off a corner kick, sailed over the crossbar with 5:45 remaining.
“I couldn’t be more proud, especially in the second half,” Kelly said. “At the beginning of the season, we would get scored on, put our heads down and keep getting pummeled. But now, we get scored on, and we’re right back in it.”
That was true even after the red card.
“We’ve been in that situation before,” Gory said. “The last 20 minutes they get a couple lucky bounces, and they go in.
“We knew we had to come back and be greedy and stuff, but it’s a tough way to lose. No one wants to lose in the first round of regionals.”
Half of all teams do lose in the first round, of course, but there is a difference between getting blown out and being competitive. The Mustangs experienced the former often in the early going but were the latter later in the season.
“We played really well,” Gory said. “We’ve grown a lot this year.
“We played very good today. I’m very proud of the way our team finished this year.”
So was Downers South coach Jon Stapleton.
“We’re proud of not only the effort they put in but the execution of what we asked them to do to be successful tonight,” Stapleton said. “You look back to September when it was a 4-1 game. Tonight, we had a 1-0 lead for 60 minutes.
“A lot of teams at 0-5-0 could have packed it in, but I think these guys wanted more. We wanted to advance further, but we’re not going to hang our heads.”
Hinsdale Central coach Mike Wiggins, a Downers South alum and former Mustangs coach, praised South’s effort.
“I’m proud of the way we handled ourselves, but I have nothing but respect for Downers South for coach Stapleton and coach (Nate) Terry,” Wiggins said. “They’re very organized.
“They always have their teams very well-prepared, and we knew it wasn’t going to be the same game that we had earlier in the year. We knew they would come over here and give us everything they had, and that’s what they did.”
Starting lineups
Downers Grove South
GK Christopher Gory
D Ethan Kelly
D Peter Pierropoulos
D Jack Storrs
M Kyle Fenner
M Blazo Jovicevic
M Stefano Espinosa
M Jony Flores
M Devin Boone
F Enrique Gonzalez
F Aaron Venouziou
Hinsdale Central
GK Nathan Goliak
D Jared Levine
D Matthew Thomas
D Nicolas St. John
M Nick Chung
M Max Ewing
M Ashton Wilson
M Ian Becker
M Christian Gambla
M Ronan Martin
F Aidan White
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ryan Martinath, jr., M, Hinsdale Central
Scoring summary
First half
Downers South – Aaron Venouziou (Ethan Kelly) 32:45
Second half
Hinsdale Central – Aidan Wilson (Matthew Thomas) 19:32
Hinsdale Central – Ryan Martinath (Thomas) 8:08
Martinath’s power play goal in 73rd minute delivers 2-1 HC win
By Matt Le Cren
HINSDALE – Ethan Kelly tried hard to hold back the waterworks as he hugged his teammates and coaches following the final game of his high school career.
The Downers Grove South senior defender hopes to play in college and is talking to some Division II and Division III coaches.
If those coaches look at film from Wednesday’s Class 3A Hinsdale Central Regional semifinal, they should be impressed with the grit and determination Kelly showed in a stirring if ultimately unsuccessful effort at upsetting Hinsdale Central.
Kelly assisted on Aaron Venouziou’s eighth-minute goal that gave the 11th-seeded Mustangs an early lead. He then spent the rest of the match trying to hold off a furious comeback by the sixth-seeded Red Devils, who finally prevailed 2-1 on junior midfielder Ryan Martinath’s power play goal in the 73rd minute.
It was a far cry from the first meeting between the two teams. That ended as a 4-1 Hinsdale Central victory in the third game of the season, when the Mustangs (8-11-1) were in the midst of a five-game losing streak to start their campaign.
“That’s what we came into this for (to get an upset),” Kelly said. “In the locker room back at DGS we were saying we thought Hinsdale Central would come into this knowing that they were going to win. They’re on their home turf; they are the higher seed.
“In the regular season, they smoked us. So we knew that they were going to come into this (playing) not as hard as we were. We knew at the beginning it was a mental thing.”
The Mustangs showed a different mentality than they had earlier in the season. While they began the season with a loss and ended it with another defeat, they showed much more fight.
What accounted for the difference?
“It’s all chemistry, I believe,” Kelly said. “We played them back in September.
“From then to now, we’ve just gained team chemistry. We learned to play together a lot better. I think it’s all a mentality thing.”
Whatever it was, it paid off early. Kelly heaved a long throw-in from 30 yards on the left wing into the box where Venouziou headed it home for the shocking 1-0 lead.
“It couldn’t have been a better timing,” Kelly said. “That got us all on our feet and ready to go. At the beginning of the game we were just playing our game but as soon as we got up, that got us going.”
But so did the sixth-seeded Red Devils. They outshot the Mustangs 11-1 in the first half but had nothing to show for it. Downers South goalie Christopher Gory made four of his five saves before the break, including one on Aidan White’s rebound of a shot that hit the crossbar with 8:05 to go.
The Mustangs continued to cling to the lead for the first 20 minutes of the second half. The underdogs nearly doubled their lead with 20:32 remaining, but Hinsdale Central goalie Nathan Goliak made a diving save on Stefano Espinosa.
Exactly one minute later, the tide turned when White headed in a throw-in from Matthew Thomas to tie the game.
“It gave us a lot more hope,” White said. “We knew that we were going to put one away.
“We were on them left and right, getting shots. We knew that one of them was going to go in. But once that tying one went in, we had a lot more energy, and we really picked it up.”
But what really boosted the Red Devils (9-7-2) to victory was an incident 36 seconds later, when a Downers Grove South player was ejected for hitting a Hinsdale Central player.
That gave Hinsdale Central a man-advantage for the rest of the game and the Red Devils capitalized 11 minutes later, again on a long throw from Thomas deep in the left corner.
The toss from Thomas went into a crowd on the near post, where Martinath redirected it into the net with his shoulder.
“The ball came in front post,” Martinath said. “One of my teammates, Max (Ewing), he dove and I don’t really know if it might have hit him or the guy that was guarding him. It hit my shoulder and then it hit one of their defenders and bounced into the net.
“It was just pure joy. We went down 1-0 early. We just kept fighting.”
So did the Mustangs, but it went for naught. They mustered four of their five shots while shorthanded but Goliak made two saves and Downers South’s last attempt, a header from Kyle Fenner off a corner kick, sailed over the crossbar with 5:45 remaining.
“I couldn’t be more proud, especially in the second half,” Kelly said. “At the beginning of the season, we would get scored on, put our heads down and keep getting pummeled. But now, we get scored on, and we’re right back in it.”
That was true even after the red card.
“We’ve been in that situation before,” Gory said. “The last 20 minutes they get a couple lucky bounces, and they go in.
“We knew we had to come back and be greedy and stuff, but it’s a tough way to lose. No one wants to lose in the first round of regionals.”
Half of all teams do lose in the first round, of course, but there is a difference between getting blown out and being competitive. The Mustangs experienced the former often in the early going but were the latter later in the season.
“We played really well,” Gory said. “We’ve grown a lot this year.
“We played very good today. I’m very proud of the way our team finished this year.”
So was Downers South coach Jon Stapleton.
“We’re proud of not only the effort they put in but the execution of what we asked them to do to be successful tonight,” Stapleton said. “You look back to September when it was a 4-1 game. Tonight, we had a 1-0 lead for 60 minutes.
“A lot of teams at 0-5-0 could have packed it in, but I think these guys wanted more. We wanted to advance further, but we’re not going to hang our heads.”
Hinsdale Central coach Mike Wiggins, a Downers South alum and former Mustangs coach, praised South’s effort.
“I’m proud of the way we handled ourselves, but I have nothing but respect for Downers South for coach Stapleton and coach (Nate) Terry,” Wiggins said. “They’re very organized.
“They always have their teams very well-prepared, and we knew it wasn’t going to be the same game that we had earlier in the year. We knew they would come over here and give us everything they had, and that’s what they did.”
Starting lineups
Downers Grove South
GK Christopher Gory
D Ethan Kelly
D Peter Pierropoulos
D Jack Storrs
M Kyle Fenner
M Blazo Jovicevic
M Stefano Espinosa
M Jony Flores
M Devin Boone
F Enrique Gonzalez
F Aaron Venouziou
Hinsdale Central
GK Nathan Goliak
D Jared Levine
D Matthew Thomas
D Nicolas St. John
M Nick Chung
M Max Ewing
M Ashton Wilson
M Ian Becker
M Christian Gambla
M Ronan Martin
F Aidan White
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ryan Martinath, jr., M, Hinsdale Central
Scoring summary
First half
Downers South – Aaron Venouziou (Ethan Kelly) 32:45
Second half
Hinsdale Central – Aidan Wilson (Matthew Thomas) 19:32
Hinsdale Central – Ryan Martinath (Thomas) 8:08