Glenbrook North snaps Grayslake Central's 11-game unbeaten streak
Spartans score four times after visitors' red card for 5-1 victory
By Michael Wojtychiw
NORTHBROOK -- With the state playoffs starting next week, Glenbrook North and Grayslake Central are ready to do whatever it takes to make a deep state run.
Whether that means trying out new formations or making sure to reinforce what they've been working on previously, the teams are ready to do the work.
Grayslake Central and Glenbrook North found some things out when they faced off in a nonconference battle Tuesday night.
After a tight start, it was the host Spartans who walked away with a 5-1 victory to earn their 11th win on the season. It was their second-consecutive full season with at least 11 wins and fourth in the past five full seasons.
"We actually started out slowly," said Glenbrook North assistant coach Paul Gibbs, who was filled in for manager Paul Vignocchi. "When it was 11-v-11, it was a very even game. Our group that came in before halftime and helped get the goal, they worked very hard to close down and not give them much time and space, which allowed us to win the ball back farther down the field."
"It was 1-1 and then it was just mental mistakes," Grayslake Central manager Keith Andersson said. "Soccer is 90 percent mental, that's what everyone forgets. You have to think in soccer. The physical part just happens. So if you think, and before you get the ball, you've got to have three, four, five options before you get it. Tonight, we didn't do that.
"We'd get the ball, hold it, hold it, hold it and then cough it up. They'd counter on it and that's not our game. Our game is one-two touch soccer. Keep it simple."
Putting the ball into the back of the net hasn't been an issue for Glenbrook North (11-4-5), which has scored at least two goals in its last seven games, in which the team has gone 5-0-2.
When Grayslake Central tied the game 39 seconds into the second half off a header by Lucas Veenstra, the home team wasn't too worried about it.
"Early on, we weren't closing them down quick enough, and they've got some great young players," Gibbs said. "The subs, when we sent them in would press them, higher up the field and gave them less time on the ball. If you give players less time on the ball, they're not going to hurt you as much."
A key turning point in the game was with 24 minutes, 12 seconds remaining when Grayslake Central defender Nick Molochnikov was issued a red card.
The referees deemed that Molochnikov denied a Glenbrook North scoring chance when he stood in the goal to protect it after Rams keeper Uriel Garcia Perez had come out of the goal to make a play on the ball.
The red card awarded the Spartans a penalty kick, which junior forward Miles Wolder converted to give the home team a 2-1 lead.
"We tried to keep a lot of possession, a lot of through-balls," Glenbrook North's Chris Sanchez said about playing up a man. "Those got up to our forwards and crosses to the open men and we'd just finish it."
"According to the referees, he denied a goal-scoring opportunity," the Grayslake Central manager said. "We'll go back and check the film whether he hit it with his hand or not. He said he hit the ball with his chest.
"He'll have to sit out our next game, but luckily we've got another game before the playoffs so he'll be back for that."
"Them playing a man down allowed us to get our left and right back into the attack a lot more," Gibbs said.
Despite playing down a man, the Rams were still able to get some pressure on the Glenbrook North defense, but with only 10 men on the field, it made it difficult to convert on any of those chances.
Even though it was the ejection that helped catapult the Spartans' offense, Gibbs' words at halftime were what helped change some things in the second half as well.
"At halftime, we talked about closing them down a little more," Gibbs said. "They were playing a bit of a different formation that we weren't used to, and we talked about how to draw and then bypass the press to allow our forward players to do the damage."
Sophomore Ian Lee added on to the Spartans' goal total with a finish from a Michael Abrams pass with 18: 09 remaining. Griffin Yoss added a goal when he lofted a distance shot near the boundary from the left of the goal that went past the outstretched arms of the keeper with 13:43 left.
Keaton Anderson finished the scoring with three seconds remaining when he finished a pass from Marco Coronado.
"In games like these, individually, players see what they need to work on," Abrams said. "As a team, we get better passing through the defense and moving the ball up the field, especially since that's something we struggled with early on.
“The more we can learn to pass to each other and form triangles, the better we are at playing around teams. Then when we play the best teams, we'll be able to play well against them."
Glenbrook North is a regional host and enters the playoffs as the fifth seed in the Class 3A New Trier Sectional and will face ninth-seeded St. Patrick. A win there sets them up for a rematch with New Trier, the last team to hand them a loss, a 2-1 setback on Sept. 23.
The Rams also host a regional, The third seed in the Class AA Vernon Hills Sectional will meet Saint Viator. Their potential regional title foe would be the winner between Prairie Ridge or Woodstock.
Notebook
Grayslake Central cooled down in loss
The Rams came into the match with Glenbrook North on an 11-game unbeaten streak. The team’s prior loss was a 2-1 loss in the final pool game to Loyola on Sept. 2 at New Trier’s Northside College Showcase
The early struggles really helped the squad learn about itself and what it had to work on right out of the gate.
"Going into the college showcase, New Trier being our first opponent, we saw we could hang with them," Andersson said. "They scored on an own-goal and a PK. That gives us something to work off of.
"'What are we doing wrong? Why aren't we scoring?' That's what we started to focus on in the next games.
"As we progressed, we learned from our mistakes. That's what I told them. Soccer is all about mistakes. You learn from them."
With the playoffs right around the corner and coming off of a long unbeaten streak, Tuesday's loss is one the team can look back on.
"This is a good wake-up call for us," Andersson said. "I think they were going in on too much of a high, and this is what they needed to bring them down to earth and realize they have to work hard.
"We're starting the state series next week, and we've got to work hard."
Glenbrook North adjustments paying off
The Rams weren't the only squad coming into the match on a hot streak. Since their loss to New Trier on Sept. 23, the Spartans have gone 6-0-2 and according to some of the players, it's thanks to some changes they saw throughout the season.
"We're getting more chemistry with each other," Abrams said. "At the beginning of the season, we didn't have that and now we see what works and what doesn't. We're working with each other much better.
"We're doing a good job of playing directly from the defenders up-top to the forwards. Miles (Wolder) is doing a great job switching the ball and playing the balls in so we can immediately attack and counter more easily, which gives us more opportunities."
Even with those changes, Gibbs and his fellow coaches know the team is still an unfinished product.
"We've got to be proactive with how we train," he said. "We haven't trained anything specific, but we like to train thinking about what we have to do when we get the ball."
Starting lineups
Grayslake Central
GK: Uriel Garcia Perez
D: Lucas Veenstra
D: Eric Garcia-Perez
MF: Marko Marynevych
MF: Lafuntae Floyd
MF: Alan Alonso
MF: Raymond Sereno
MF: Mitchell Fein
F: Cameron Paul
F: Nick Molochnikov
F: Anthony Placencia
Glenbrook North
GK: Max Bachenheimer
D: Alex Link
D: Dylan Mankoff
D: Tal Yedlin
D: Brady Rassin
MF: Miles Wolder
MF: Daniel Ashirov
MF: Daniel Spiggos
MF: Ian Lee
MF: Sam Lappin
F: Michael Abrams
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Michael Abrams, sr., F, Glenbrook North
Scoring summary
First half
GBN: Wes Fagin (Brian Pekala), 8: 14 remaining
Second half
GC: Lucas Veenstra (Cameron Paul), 39:16 remaining
GBN: Miles Wolder (PK), 24:12 remaining
GBN: Ian Lee (Michael Abrams), 18:09 remaining
GBN: Griffin Yoss (unassisted), 13:43 remaining
GBN: Keaton Anderson (Marco Coronado), 0:03 remaining
Spartans score four times after visitors' red card for 5-1 victory
By Michael Wojtychiw
NORTHBROOK -- With the state playoffs starting next week, Glenbrook North and Grayslake Central are ready to do whatever it takes to make a deep state run.
Whether that means trying out new formations or making sure to reinforce what they've been working on previously, the teams are ready to do the work.
Grayslake Central and Glenbrook North found some things out when they faced off in a nonconference battle Tuesday night.
After a tight start, it was the host Spartans who walked away with a 5-1 victory to earn their 11th win on the season. It was their second-consecutive full season with at least 11 wins and fourth in the past five full seasons.
"We actually started out slowly," said Glenbrook North assistant coach Paul Gibbs, who was filled in for manager Paul Vignocchi. "When it was 11-v-11, it was a very even game. Our group that came in before halftime and helped get the goal, they worked very hard to close down and not give them much time and space, which allowed us to win the ball back farther down the field."
"It was 1-1 and then it was just mental mistakes," Grayslake Central manager Keith Andersson said. "Soccer is 90 percent mental, that's what everyone forgets. You have to think in soccer. The physical part just happens. So if you think, and before you get the ball, you've got to have three, four, five options before you get it. Tonight, we didn't do that.
"We'd get the ball, hold it, hold it, hold it and then cough it up. They'd counter on it and that's not our game. Our game is one-two touch soccer. Keep it simple."
Putting the ball into the back of the net hasn't been an issue for Glenbrook North (11-4-5), which has scored at least two goals in its last seven games, in which the team has gone 5-0-2.
When Grayslake Central tied the game 39 seconds into the second half off a header by Lucas Veenstra, the home team wasn't too worried about it.
"Early on, we weren't closing them down quick enough, and they've got some great young players," Gibbs said. "The subs, when we sent them in would press them, higher up the field and gave them less time on the ball. If you give players less time on the ball, they're not going to hurt you as much."
A key turning point in the game was with 24 minutes, 12 seconds remaining when Grayslake Central defender Nick Molochnikov was issued a red card.
The referees deemed that Molochnikov denied a Glenbrook North scoring chance when he stood in the goal to protect it after Rams keeper Uriel Garcia Perez had come out of the goal to make a play on the ball.
The red card awarded the Spartans a penalty kick, which junior forward Miles Wolder converted to give the home team a 2-1 lead.
"We tried to keep a lot of possession, a lot of through-balls," Glenbrook North's Chris Sanchez said about playing up a man. "Those got up to our forwards and crosses to the open men and we'd just finish it."
"According to the referees, he denied a goal-scoring opportunity," the Grayslake Central manager said. "We'll go back and check the film whether he hit it with his hand or not. He said he hit the ball with his chest.
"He'll have to sit out our next game, but luckily we've got another game before the playoffs so he'll be back for that."
"Them playing a man down allowed us to get our left and right back into the attack a lot more," Gibbs said.
Despite playing down a man, the Rams were still able to get some pressure on the Glenbrook North defense, but with only 10 men on the field, it made it difficult to convert on any of those chances.
Even though it was the ejection that helped catapult the Spartans' offense, Gibbs' words at halftime were what helped change some things in the second half as well.
"At halftime, we talked about closing them down a little more," Gibbs said. "They were playing a bit of a different formation that we weren't used to, and we talked about how to draw and then bypass the press to allow our forward players to do the damage."
Sophomore Ian Lee added on to the Spartans' goal total with a finish from a Michael Abrams pass with 18: 09 remaining. Griffin Yoss added a goal when he lofted a distance shot near the boundary from the left of the goal that went past the outstretched arms of the keeper with 13:43 left.
Keaton Anderson finished the scoring with three seconds remaining when he finished a pass from Marco Coronado.
"In games like these, individually, players see what they need to work on," Abrams said. "As a team, we get better passing through the defense and moving the ball up the field, especially since that's something we struggled with early on.
“The more we can learn to pass to each other and form triangles, the better we are at playing around teams. Then when we play the best teams, we'll be able to play well against them."
Glenbrook North is a regional host and enters the playoffs as the fifth seed in the Class 3A New Trier Sectional and will face ninth-seeded St. Patrick. A win there sets them up for a rematch with New Trier, the last team to hand them a loss, a 2-1 setback on Sept. 23.
The Rams also host a regional, The third seed in the Class AA Vernon Hills Sectional will meet Saint Viator. Their potential regional title foe would be the winner between Prairie Ridge or Woodstock.
Notebook
Grayslake Central cooled down in loss
The Rams came into the match with Glenbrook North on an 11-game unbeaten streak. The team’s prior loss was a 2-1 loss in the final pool game to Loyola on Sept. 2 at New Trier’s Northside College Showcase
The early struggles really helped the squad learn about itself and what it had to work on right out of the gate.
"Going into the college showcase, New Trier being our first opponent, we saw we could hang with them," Andersson said. "They scored on an own-goal and a PK. That gives us something to work off of.
"'What are we doing wrong? Why aren't we scoring?' That's what we started to focus on in the next games.
"As we progressed, we learned from our mistakes. That's what I told them. Soccer is all about mistakes. You learn from them."
With the playoffs right around the corner and coming off of a long unbeaten streak, Tuesday's loss is one the team can look back on.
"This is a good wake-up call for us," Andersson said. "I think they were going in on too much of a high, and this is what they needed to bring them down to earth and realize they have to work hard.
"We're starting the state series next week, and we've got to work hard."
Glenbrook North adjustments paying off
The Rams weren't the only squad coming into the match on a hot streak. Since their loss to New Trier on Sept. 23, the Spartans have gone 6-0-2 and according to some of the players, it's thanks to some changes they saw throughout the season.
"We're getting more chemistry with each other," Abrams said. "At the beginning of the season, we didn't have that and now we see what works and what doesn't. We're working with each other much better.
"We're doing a good job of playing directly from the defenders up-top to the forwards. Miles (Wolder) is doing a great job switching the ball and playing the balls in so we can immediately attack and counter more easily, which gives us more opportunities."
Even with those changes, Gibbs and his fellow coaches know the team is still an unfinished product.
"We've got to be proactive with how we train," he said. "We haven't trained anything specific, but we like to train thinking about what we have to do when we get the ball."
Starting lineups
Grayslake Central
GK: Uriel Garcia Perez
D: Lucas Veenstra
D: Eric Garcia-Perez
MF: Marko Marynevych
MF: Lafuntae Floyd
MF: Alan Alonso
MF: Raymond Sereno
MF: Mitchell Fein
F: Cameron Paul
F: Nick Molochnikov
F: Anthony Placencia
Glenbrook North
GK: Max Bachenheimer
D: Alex Link
D: Dylan Mankoff
D: Tal Yedlin
D: Brady Rassin
MF: Miles Wolder
MF: Daniel Ashirov
MF: Daniel Spiggos
MF: Ian Lee
MF: Sam Lappin
F: Michael Abrams
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Michael Abrams, sr., F, Glenbrook North
Scoring summary
First half
GBN: Wes Fagin (Brian Pekala), 8: 14 remaining
Second half
GC: Lucas Veenstra (Cameron Paul), 39:16 remaining
GBN: Miles Wolder (PK), 24:12 remaining
GBN: Ian Lee (Michael Abrams), 18:09 remaining
GBN: Griffin Yoss (unassisted), 13:43 remaining
GBN: Keaton Anderson (Marco Coronado), 0:03 remaining