Grendzinski’s goal isn't enough for Batavia
Defensive lapses haunt Batavia in 3-2 loss to Glenbrook South
By Paul LaTour
BATAVIA – At the 40-minute mark against Glenbrook South on Saturday afternoon, Batavia had everything working in its favor.
The Bulldogs were ahead by a goal and aided by a 15-mph wind at their backs. They had confidence and momentum against a team that already played a game earlier in the day. And because of a reconfigured schedule due to the cancellation of the Morton (Ill.) Invitational, the game had been shortened to 60 minutes, which left Batavia 20 minutes shy of a win over a ranked team.
“I was feeling pretty good at that point,” Batavia senior Joe Grendzinski, “but then we kind of broke down defensively in the midfield, and we lost our men. It was downhill from there.”
The Titans rallied with two second half goals only three minutes apart to pull out a 3-2 victory. The first of those goals came about five minutes after Grendzinski gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead over the Titans, who are ranked 14th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25.
Batavia fell to 1-4-2 after suffering its third loss against a Top 25 team.
“It’s a tough game to lose,” Grendzinski said. “We felt like we played well, but we just let up too many goals. It’s kind of rough losing these games.”
The Bulldogs responded to a deficit of their own earlier in the game, thanks to Grendzinski’s good fortune.
Titans forward Jimmy McMahon opened the scoring in the eighth minute with the first of his two goals in the game. But five minutes later it was tied when Grendzinski’s shot attempt deflected off a Titans defender and past goalkeeper Ethan Dill, who finished with five saves, including four in the second half.
“They were aggressive up-top,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “They had some big boys, some good one-on-one guys. I thought we did some good things. But we’ve got to get smarter in some areas, especially the defensive third.”
Defensive lapses have been an ongoing issue for the Bulldogs in the early season. In their four losses, they have allowed 14 goals, while they have given up only two in their other three games (1-0-2).
“We’re giving up too many goals," Gianfrancesco said. “We’ve got to negate the defensive mistakes. That’s the whole team – not just the defenders. Hard for our keeper to make any saves when (shots) are 10-yards away. You’ve got to be able to clear some balls out.”
Bulldogs keeper Jacob Mefford did his part Saturday, finishing with nine saves. His best came in the 17th minute when he deflected a rocket shot by Kyle Barda after Barda had broken free down the middle.
The Titans ended up with too many of those close shots for Mefford to handle, unfortunately.
“When you don’t clear the ball you get some easy opportunities, and they finished them. That’s a testament to them,” Gianfrancesco said.
Batavia now turns its attention to DuKane Conference play. The Bulldogs (0-1-0) will try to even their record at surprising Glenbard North, which upset St. Charles East in their opener.
While the early season woes have been a burden, the Bulldogs know there’s too much soccer left to play to get down.
“Our conference is going to be really tough this year,” said Bulldogs co-captain Ian Wood. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s all going to be teams we can stick with. We’re not as confident as we were at the beginning of the season, but we can work on that. We just need to win those individual battles first to gain our confidence back and then go from there.”
Saturday's matchup against Glenbrook South wasy a by-product of the cancellation of the Morton (Ill.) Invitational. The event was canceled due to field conditions and a wet weather forecast. Batavia and the Titans were in opposite brackets and might only have met in the final placing round.
Before traveling to Batavia, Glenbrook South scheduled a morning game at West Aurora, the other Chicago-area squad entered in the eight-team Morton tournament field. The Titans suffered their first loss of the season against the Blackhawks by a 3-1 margin. That made their come-from-behind win against Batavia all the more important.
“Going into it this morning we wanted to take a step forward as we approach our conference season on Tuesday,” Titans coach Reggie Lara said. “We came out a little flat in the first game, but the guys responded and were more energetic this game.
The teams agreed to play 30-minute halves due to the tight schedule the Titans had to maintain.
“We only had like an hour between games, so we did a lot of subbing. We changed up our formation a little bit just to try to force more possession instead of kick and chase,” Lara said.
In the nightcap, the teams went to halftime tied 1-1. After Grendzinski put the Bulldogs ahead 2-1, it was McMahon again to the rescue for the Titans with his second goal of the game.
McMahon, who earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors, sent a low shot from a scramble to the left of Jacob Mefford to tie it again in the 43rd minute. Three minutes later he sent a through-ball into the box that eventually found Justin Lesynski’s foot for the game-winning goal.
“We knew we were generating a lot of chances,” McMahon said of the team's mentality after falling behind 2-1. “We had some good possession and build-up play in the attacking third so we needed to stay calm and cool and connect on our chances.”
Starting lineups
Glenbrook South
GK: Ethan Dill
D: Will Debes
D: Nate Just
D: Kyle Barda
D: Gavin Morse
MF: Jason Leszynski
MF: Jhovany Guadarrama
MF : Julian Issar
MF : T.J. Striblen
F: Zach Ochab
F: Jimmy McMahon
Batavia
GK: Jacob Mefford
D: Aiden Carlson
D: Quinn Carlson
D: Joe Grendzinski
D: Hector Rosales
MF: Ian Wood
MF: Max Hardin
MF: Adler Palos
MF: Eddie Torres
F: Drew Lillig
F: Miguel Garcia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jimmy McMahon, sr., F, Glenbrook South
Scoring summary
First half (30-minute halves)
GBS: Jimmy McMahon, 8th minute
Batavia: own goal, 13th minute
Second half
Batavia: Joey Grendzynski (Max Hardin), 38th minute
GBS: McMahon, 43rd minute
GBS: Justin Lesynski, 46th minute
Defensive lapses haunt Batavia in 3-2 loss to Glenbrook South
By Paul LaTour
BATAVIA – At the 40-minute mark against Glenbrook South on Saturday afternoon, Batavia had everything working in its favor.
The Bulldogs were ahead by a goal and aided by a 15-mph wind at their backs. They had confidence and momentum against a team that already played a game earlier in the day. And because of a reconfigured schedule due to the cancellation of the Morton (Ill.) Invitational, the game had been shortened to 60 minutes, which left Batavia 20 minutes shy of a win over a ranked team.
“I was feeling pretty good at that point,” Batavia senior Joe Grendzinski, “but then we kind of broke down defensively in the midfield, and we lost our men. It was downhill from there.”
The Titans rallied with two second half goals only three minutes apart to pull out a 3-2 victory. The first of those goals came about five minutes after Grendzinski gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead over the Titans, who are ranked 14th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25.
Batavia fell to 1-4-2 after suffering its third loss against a Top 25 team.
“It’s a tough game to lose,” Grendzinski said. “We felt like we played well, but we just let up too many goals. It’s kind of rough losing these games.”
The Bulldogs responded to a deficit of their own earlier in the game, thanks to Grendzinski’s good fortune.
Titans forward Jimmy McMahon opened the scoring in the eighth minute with the first of his two goals in the game. But five minutes later it was tied when Grendzinski’s shot attempt deflected off a Titans defender and past goalkeeper Ethan Dill, who finished with five saves, including four in the second half.
“They were aggressive up-top,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “They had some big boys, some good one-on-one guys. I thought we did some good things. But we’ve got to get smarter in some areas, especially the defensive third.”
Defensive lapses have been an ongoing issue for the Bulldogs in the early season. In their four losses, they have allowed 14 goals, while they have given up only two in their other three games (1-0-2).
“We’re giving up too many goals," Gianfrancesco said. “We’ve got to negate the defensive mistakes. That’s the whole team – not just the defenders. Hard for our keeper to make any saves when (shots) are 10-yards away. You’ve got to be able to clear some balls out.”
Bulldogs keeper Jacob Mefford did his part Saturday, finishing with nine saves. His best came in the 17th minute when he deflected a rocket shot by Kyle Barda after Barda had broken free down the middle.
The Titans ended up with too many of those close shots for Mefford to handle, unfortunately.
“When you don’t clear the ball you get some easy opportunities, and they finished them. That’s a testament to them,” Gianfrancesco said.
Batavia now turns its attention to DuKane Conference play. The Bulldogs (0-1-0) will try to even their record at surprising Glenbard North, which upset St. Charles East in their opener.
While the early season woes have been a burden, the Bulldogs know there’s too much soccer left to play to get down.
“Our conference is going to be really tough this year,” said Bulldogs co-captain Ian Wood. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s all going to be teams we can stick with. We’re not as confident as we were at the beginning of the season, but we can work on that. We just need to win those individual battles first to gain our confidence back and then go from there.”
Saturday's matchup against Glenbrook South wasy a by-product of the cancellation of the Morton (Ill.) Invitational. The event was canceled due to field conditions and a wet weather forecast. Batavia and the Titans were in opposite brackets and might only have met in the final placing round.
Before traveling to Batavia, Glenbrook South scheduled a morning game at West Aurora, the other Chicago-area squad entered in the eight-team Morton tournament field. The Titans suffered their first loss of the season against the Blackhawks by a 3-1 margin. That made their come-from-behind win against Batavia all the more important.
“Going into it this morning we wanted to take a step forward as we approach our conference season on Tuesday,” Titans coach Reggie Lara said. “We came out a little flat in the first game, but the guys responded and were more energetic this game.
The teams agreed to play 30-minute halves due to the tight schedule the Titans had to maintain.
“We only had like an hour between games, so we did a lot of subbing. We changed up our formation a little bit just to try to force more possession instead of kick and chase,” Lara said.
In the nightcap, the teams went to halftime tied 1-1. After Grendzinski put the Bulldogs ahead 2-1, it was McMahon again to the rescue for the Titans with his second goal of the game.
McMahon, who earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors, sent a low shot from a scramble to the left of Jacob Mefford to tie it again in the 43rd minute. Three minutes later he sent a through-ball into the box that eventually found Justin Lesynski’s foot for the game-winning goal.
“We knew we were generating a lot of chances,” McMahon said of the team's mentality after falling behind 2-1. “We had some good possession and build-up play in the attacking third so we needed to stay calm and cool and connect on our chances.”
Starting lineups
Glenbrook South
GK: Ethan Dill
D: Will Debes
D: Nate Just
D: Kyle Barda
D: Gavin Morse
MF: Jason Leszynski
MF: Jhovany Guadarrama
MF : Julian Issar
MF : T.J. Striblen
F: Zach Ochab
F: Jimmy McMahon
Batavia
GK: Jacob Mefford
D: Aiden Carlson
D: Quinn Carlson
D: Joe Grendzinski
D: Hector Rosales
MF: Ian Wood
MF: Max Hardin
MF: Adler Palos
MF: Eddie Torres
F: Drew Lillig
F: Miguel Garcia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jimmy McMahon, sr., F, Glenbrook South
Scoring summary
First half (30-minute halves)
GBS: Jimmy McMahon, 8th minute
Batavia: own goal, 13th minute
Second half
Batavia: Joey Grendzynski (Max Hardin), 38th minute
GBS: McMahon, 43rd minute
GBS: Justin Lesynski, 46th minute