Possessive Glenbrook South takes
victory from Niles West
Perez scores twice in 3-1 league-opening win
By Michael Wojtychiw
SKOKIE -- Glenbrook South manager Reggie Lara estimates that his team possesses the ball for nearly 65 percent of the game if not more.
That was evident in the Titans’ Central Suburban League South Division opener Tuesday at Niles West. For the majority of the first half, nearly 35 minutes or so, it seemed as if his squad had constant ownership of the ball.
It was that possession that helped the team take a 3-1 win in a hard-fought, physical game.
Despite possessing the ball and putting a lot of pressure on the Niles West defense, the Titans (4-4-3, 1-0-0) weren’t able to put the ball into the back of the net until more than half of the half had elapsed.
That’s when junior forward/midfielder Conor Beach changed things.
“I saw my winger beat his defender and saw the center back going more near post, and there was no other center back covering me,” he said. “So, I said if it gets past the center back, I have a free goal right in front of me, and that’s what ended up happening.”
Beach and Lara mentioned that scoring had been something that the squad has been struggling with, but they know it’ll come.
“We’ve been generating a lot of chances, gaining a lot of possession, but we haven’t been able to score,” Lara said. “We talked about seizing moments, and we’re happy that Conor and Kevin were finally able to seize moments and put the ball in the back of the net.”
“It starts from our box and build up to the final third,” Beach said. “I think we find most of our success in getting the ball down the sideline and cutting it in, where a winger like Kevin (Perez) can end up shooting it.
Kevin Perez scored the eventual game-winner, about 10 minutes after Beach’s tally.
Perez used some fancy footwork when he slotted his shot into the net.
“I knew they were expecting me to make a decision on which way to go and since I’m a right foot, I figured I should fake my left side to try and cross it,” Perez said. “Once he bit, that’s when I decided to change it. I shot it more on the outside of my foot and it hit the post and went in.”
The Wolves (1-7-1, 0-1-0), who to that point had struggled to do much offensively, got a spark with just under five minutes remaining in the half.
Dagem Gashaw, a sophomore who the public address announcer called “the fastest player in soccer,” used his speed to cut the Titans’ lead in half.
“I tried to make a run in the middle so my teammate could make a play between them. I saw the goalie coming out, so I had to take a quick touch and shoot it,” he said. “I didn’t have time to dribble it.”
The Gashaw goal lit a fire under Niles West, and it controlled the pace of play for the rest of the half.
The control continued for most of the second half, but the Wolves were unable to get the equalizer.
Glenbrook South's minimal offense saw a Perez shot saved and another go just over the crossbar.
Niles West kept fighting.
“After that goal, we knew we were still in it. We just needed one more goal,” Gashaw said. “So, we tried to stay composed, create chances and play tough defense. We’re still growing, we’ve still got a lot more games left.”
The Glenbrook South coaching staff inserted a teaching moment into their game plan after the break.
“In the first half, my assistant and I realized that I was doing a lot of the communicating on the field,” Lara said. “Every time I’d be the loudest one, giving directions. So at halftime, we decided I was going to do a half of silence and see what happened.
"We started to see some of the disorganization and lack of decision. It’s something we need to work on and improve on if we want to compete in the CSL South.”
Niles West is just discovering it belongs.
“For us, it’s all about seeing we can play with anyone,” manager Tom Villamil said. “Even though at the beginning of the season they didn’t think that, I think now they’re believing. If they give the right communication, the right effort, they see and they recognize. I don’t even have to say anything.”
The season hasn’t gone the way the Wolves envisioned. They dropped six of their first seven matches of the year and didn’t pick up their first win until the team’s eighth game, a 4-0 win over Marist on Sept. 10.
Even though the results haven’t come, the team knows that their hard work will eventually start to pay off, as long as the team keeps its spirits up. That’s something both the manager and his goal-scorer say they’ve been working on.
“Every practice, we try to make it a better practice than our last practice,” Gashaw said. “So we’ll go back at it the next day and focus and key in on the things we struggled with in this game.”
“We haven’t had a hot start to the season and knowing that takes a toll on our players mentally, and I didn’t see that today,” the Wolves’ manager said. “I saw everyone coming here to win, to fight, and that’s something we can take away from this. We didn’t roll over.
“It really comes down to practice, how much energy and effort you put in. But also showing them in the game what they can do and how they can produce. Right now, it doesn’t seem like our guys think we aren’t going to succeed.”
In the last 15 minutes of the match, Glenbrook South started to gain possession back, peppering Niles West keeper Eron Qorri with multiple shots until Perez put in his second with just over four minutes remaining.
His game-sealing tally was a lot like his first.
“I knew all I had to do was make him bite, and once he bit, that’s when I took the touch out and saw how much space I had,” he said. “That gave me enough time to find the top corner.”
The win was a big one for Glenbrook South which now embarks on a stretch of games where it faces Evanston, Prospect, Glenbrook North, New Trier and the defending Indiana state champions in the next week and a half.
Every game is a big one once you get to conference. Glenbrook South hopes the win can act as a springboard.
“We’re saying this is the second-third of our season. It’s the first conference game, and we’re really happy we’re able to get off on a good start,” Beach said. “But we’re playing a really hard Evanston team Friday and we know that we should be playing better, scoring more goals, finishing our chances. We have a lot of stuff we need to work on, but we can get there.”
“It was huge to get this conference-opener because preseason hasn’t been the kindest to us,” Perez said. “We’ve had a lot of trouble finding the back of the net, and that’s been one of the main components we’ve been trying to work on in practice. So for us to find the back of the net in the opener of conference, we realize it’s a restart and once we become comfortable, it’ll get easier from there.”
Niles West continues to see improvement in its game.
Villamil’s squad is a relatively young and inexperienced one, but he likes what he sees. His boys are hungry and want to learn, go forward and become better each and every day.
“We expect guys to step up and be role models, take charge,” he said. “They’re seeing where they are, and now they acknowledge who they are in this program. I see them developing into the team they want to be.”
Starting lineups
Glenbrook South
GK: Yash Ghai
D: Jeffrey Podjasek
D: Teddy Sturiale
D: Chris Sanchez
D: Jimmy Aglikin
D: Alec Grenolds
MF: Daniel Cha
MF: Anthony Kifarkis
F: Adrian Potoniec
F: Kevin Perez
F: Conor Beach
Niles West
GK: Eron Qorri
Ruben ArnaUtu
Evan Baxevanakis
Mario Brancato
Dagem Hashaw
Arun Krishna
Tarik Louafi
Nazarius Lupas
Elhan Martinovic
Ammar Selimbegovic
Oliwier Zachwiej
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Kevin Perez, senior, F, Glenbrook South
Scoring summary
First half
Glenbrook South - Conor Beach (Adrian Potoniec), 21st minute
Glenbrook South - Kevin Perez (Ben Baczewski), 31st minute
Niles West - Dagem Gashaw (Ammar Selimbegovic), 36th minute
Second half
Glenbrook South - Perez (Chris Sanchez), 76th minute
victory from Niles West
Perez scores twice in 3-1 league-opening win
By Michael Wojtychiw
SKOKIE -- Glenbrook South manager Reggie Lara estimates that his team possesses the ball for nearly 65 percent of the game if not more.
That was evident in the Titans’ Central Suburban League South Division opener Tuesday at Niles West. For the majority of the first half, nearly 35 minutes or so, it seemed as if his squad had constant ownership of the ball.
It was that possession that helped the team take a 3-1 win in a hard-fought, physical game.
Despite possessing the ball and putting a lot of pressure on the Niles West defense, the Titans (4-4-3, 1-0-0) weren’t able to put the ball into the back of the net until more than half of the half had elapsed.
That’s when junior forward/midfielder Conor Beach changed things.
“I saw my winger beat his defender and saw the center back going more near post, and there was no other center back covering me,” he said. “So, I said if it gets past the center back, I have a free goal right in front of me, and that’s what ended up happening.”
Beach and Lara mentioned that scoring had been something that the squad has been struggling with, but they know it’ll come.
“We’ve been generating a lot of chances, gaining a lot of possession, but we haven’t been able to score,” Lara said. “We talked about seizing moments, and we’re happy that Conor and Kevin were finally able to seize moments and put the ball in the back of the net.”
“It starts from our box and build up to the final third,” Beach said. “I think we find most of our success in getting the ball down the sideline and cutting it in, where a winger like Kevin (Perez) can end up shooting it.
Kevin Perez scored the eventual game-winner, about 10 minutes after Beach’s tally.
Perez used some fancy footwork when he slotted his shot into the net.
“I knew they were expecting me to make a decision on which way to go and since I’m a right foot, I figured I should fake my left side to try and cross it,” Perez said. “Once he bit, that’s when I decided to change it. I shot it more on the outside of my foot and it hit the post and went in.”
The Wolves (1-7-1, 0-1-0), who to that point had struggled to do much offensively, got a spark with just under five minutes remaining in the half.
Dagem Gashaw, a sophomore who the public address announcer called “the fastest player in soccer,” used his speed to cut the Titans’ lead in half.
“I tried to make a run in the middle so my teammate could make a play between them. I saw the goalie coming out, so I had to take a quick touch and shoot it,” he said. “I didn’t have time to dribble it.”
The Gashaw goal lit a fire under Niles West, and it controlled the pace of play for the rest of the half.
The control continued for most of the second half, but the Wolves were unable to get the equalizer.
Glenbrook South's minimal offense saw a Perez shot saved and another go just over the crossbar.
Niles West kept fighting.
“After that goal, we knew we were still in it. We just needed one more goal,” Gashaw said. “So, we tried to stay composed, create chances and play tough defense. We’re still growing, we’ve still got a lot more games left.”
The Glenbrook South coaching staff inserted a teaching moment into their game plan after the break.
“In the first half, my assistant and I realized that I was doing a lot of the communicating on the field,” Lara said. “Every time I’d be the loudest one, giving directions. So at halftime, we decided I was going to do a half of silence and see what happened.
"We started to see some of the disorganization and lack of decision. It’s something we need to work on and improve on if we want to compete in the CSL South.”
Niles West is just discovering it belongs.
“For us, it’s all about seeing we can play with anyone,” manager Tom Villamil said. “Even though at the beginning of the season they didn’t think that, I think now they’re believing. If they give the right communication, the right effort, they see and they recognize. I don’t even have to say anything.”
The season hasn’t gone the way the Wolves envisioned. They dropped six of their first seven matches of the year and didn’t pick up their first win until the team’s eighth game, a 4-0 win over Marist on Sept. 10.
Even though the results haven’t come, the team knows that their hard work will eventually start to pay off, as long as the team keeps its spirits up. That’s something both the manager and his goal-scorer say they’ve been working on.
“Every practice, we try to make it a better practice than our last practice,” Gashaw said. “So we’ll go back at it the next day and focus and key in on the things we struggled with in this game.”
“We haven’t had a hot start to the season and knowing that takes a toll on our players mentally, and I didn’t see that today,” the Wolves’ manager said. “I saw everyone coming here to win, to fight, and that’s something we can take away from this. We didn’t roll over.
“It really comes down to practice, how much energy and effort you put in. But also showing them in the game what they can do and how they can produce. Right now, it doesn’t seem like our guys think we aren’t going to succeed.”
In the last 15 minutes of the match, Glenbrook South started to gain possession back, peppering Niles West keeper Eron Qorri with multiple shots until Perez put in his second with just over four minutes remaining.
His game-sealing tally was a lot like his first.
“I knew all I had to do was make him bite, and once he bit, that’s when I took the touch out and saw how much space I had,” he said. “That gave me enough time to find the top corner.”
The win was a big one for Glenbrook South which now embarks on a stretch of games where it faces Evanston, Prospect, Glenbrook North, New Trier and the defending Indiana state champions in the next week and a half.
Every game is a big one once you get to conference. Glenbrook South hopes the win can act as a springboard.
“We’re saying this is the second-third of our season. It’s the first conference game, and we’re really happy we’re able to get off on a good start,” Beach said. “But we’re playing a really hard Evanston team Friday and we know that we should be playing better, scoring more goals, finishing our chances. We have a lot of stuff we need to work on, but we can get there.”
“It was huge to get this conference-opener because preseason hasn’t been the kindest to us,” Perez said. “We’ve had a lot of trouble finding the back of the net, and that’s been one of the main components we’ve been trying to work on in practice. So for us to find the back of the net in the opener of conference, we realize it’s a restart and once we become comfortable, it’ll get easier from there.”
Niles West continues to see improvement in its game.
Villamil’s squad is a relatively young and inexperienced one, but he likes what he sees. His boys are hungry and want to learn, go forward and become better each and every day.
“We expect guys to step up and be role models, take charge,” he said. “They’re seeing where they are, and now they acknowledge who they are in this program. I see them developing into the team they want to be.”
Starting lineups
Glenbrook South
GK: Yash Ghai
D: Jeffrey Podjasek
D: Teddy Sturiale
D: Chris Sanchez
D: Jimmy Aglikin
D: Alec Grenolds
MF: Daniel Cha
MF: Anthony Kifarkis
F: Adrian Potoniec
F: Kevin Perez
F: Conor Beach
Niles West
GK: Eron Qorri
Ruben ArnaUtu
Evan Baxevanakis
Mario Brancato
Dagem Hashaw
Arun Krishna
Tarik Louafi
Nazarius Lupas
Elhan Martinovic
Ammar Selimbegovic
Oliwier Zachwiej
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Kevin Perez, senior, F, Glenbrook South
Scoring summary
First half
Glenbrook South - Conor Beach (Adrian Potoniec), 21st minute
Glenbrook South - Kevin Perez (Ben Baczewski), 31st minute
Niles West - Dagem Gashaw (Ammar Selimbegovic), 36th minute
Second half
Glenbrook South - Perez (Chris Sanchez), 76th minute