Hernandez Flores’ big effort drives Glenbard North past Batavia
Senior shines in 3-0 DuKane road victory
By Chris Walker
BATAVIA – October is a great month for sports fans with the baseball playoffs beginning, the start of new NHL and NBA seasons, and it ends with seemingly bag after bag after bag after bag of Halloween candy everywhere to enjoy while sitting down in your favorite chair to relax and enjoy the action.
It’s also a important time for the high school soccer boys of fall as the finish line of the regular season schedule quickly approaches. The focus is the fight until the end of the season to be at your best once regional play begins in a couple of weeks.
Speaking of being at your best, Glenbard North senior Erik Hernandez Flores was terrific during Thursday’s Upstate Eight Conference game at Batavia. The senior scored a goal and was a force in the midfield throughout the evening in the Panthers 3-0 victory.
“Erik Hernandez has been kind of a little slow with his transition in the first third, and we talked about that, and he really had an awesome game today,” Glenbard North coach Spero Mandakas said. “If it was basketball, he was dishing dimes all over the place.”
That included a great pass to Gabe Jurado that ended up with a missed opportunity, but Herandez Flores bounced right back and curved in an incredible blast from 35 yards just a couple minutes into the second half to give Glenbard North a 2-0 lead.
“He played one of the best balls I’ve seen to Gabe, and Gabe kind of had an off-touch,” Mandakas said. "But he (Hernandez Flores) wins it right back, sees the goal and picks it up and puts it up upper 90. So good for him to get a finish and get in the stat sheet after having such a great game in the middle.”
After receiving a nice pass from Nestor Dominguez, Hernandez Flores said he knew he had an opportunity to score so he took it.
“I took the shot, and it went in,” he said. “We had a pretty good night with ball movement, touch of the ball. And our distribution and communication were really good. We’ve got great chemistry, and when we got the ball we built up some chances. We didn’t make all of them, but at the end of the day we got the ‘W.’”
The good news for Mandakas is not only did the Panthers go on the road and get a conference win, but they probably saw Hernandez Flores playing at his best, which is a great sign and would really help the Panthers finish the season strong.
“We’ve had glimpses of what he’s capable of doing, but in that second half that was the best 40 minutes we’ve seen from him,” Mandakas said. “We’ve got Nathan (Enriquez) and Manny (Castanon) in the middle and just rock solid, and having Erik as that final piece is going to really make us dynamic.”
Batavia (1-11-0, 0-5-0) showed fight, but the Bulldogs were unable to find the back of the net for the fourth-straight game.
“Today we had some good sequences which was good to see,” Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “A little bit of grit from the boys was nice to see. It was long-distance shots, but that’s been the season though. I thought we did a good job today of connecting some passes, and it helps us build for Saturday against Plainfield Central.”
A lot of wonderful things happen, and incredible memories are established, during a prep soccer season. Many of those great times are only experienced internally by the coaching staff and team since the parents, other fans and media don't go to most practice, team dinners, gatherings and other team events.
The same can also be said for when a team is going through what Batavia is dealing with now with the tragic loss of teammate Kyle Nicely. No one knows exactly how the kids are dealing with it on a daily basis except for each kid himself.
And while one would think soccer would provide an escape from grieving, at the same time there probably is also sadness on the field where some thoughts are the most intense since Nicely was not only a friend, but also a teammate.
“(Mandakas) was saying how they had a senior, not a soccer player, but a student, who died in a car accident, but it happened in an instant,” Gianfrancesco said. “This was like three weeks of going through it every day and asking how he’s doing and then it’s done. It’s been such a hard thing. It’s something you can’t even imagine and then trying to recover afterward has been challenging.”
Gianfrancesco said that he and the kids are probably doing as well as one could expect them to do at this time.
As for the soccer that was played by the Bulldogs on Thursday, they did some nice things.
“I liked what I saw today,” Gianfrancesco said. “The boys played tough and physical and connected some passes. It just would be nice to get a goal. We’ve been struggling with that. Just to have one, I think they’d be really excited.”
Everyone has made a contribution for the Bulldogs.
“Everybody is doing something,” Gianfrancesco said. “We’ve got three or four guys hurt who are not playing so we’ve had four subs the last couple of games and one got dinged and sat out the second half. We already pulled one up from JV earlier, but we don’t want to deplete their squad so it’s kind of a skeleton crew too.
"We’re moving in the right direction. I think they’re doing the right things. They’ve been kind of coming out of it a bit in the last week.”
Glenbard North (8-8-1, 2-2-1) went ahead 1-0 on Ode Emena’s 30-yard blast that hit off the crossbar and then off of Batavia goalkeeper Logan Saenz’s back with 11:56 to play in the first half.
“We have to work on our transition defense,” Mandakas said. “As we’ve seen the last few weeks, we’ve given up a few goals that have cost us games so in training we’re going to work on just keeping the pedal down. And we had that the first 25 minutes where he had all of it and then finding that goal from Ode gave us the momentum going forward.”
In a 2-1 loss to Wheaton North on Sept. 24, the Panthers were in a similar position but lost.
“We had it against Wheaton North, but we didn’t put that goal in. And then they put one in on a 40-yard free kick,” Mandakas said. “We need to capitalize on our chances in the first half and really lock down games which we did today.”
Senior Jesus “Jessie” Aragon finished off the scoring with 3:20 left in the game, netting a rebound goal for the second time this year.
“It always feels good following the ball like that,” he said. “You never know if there’s going to be a rebound. I was fortunate to be on the other end of a rebound today. We’re feeling pretty good with the win, and we got good goals today.”
Aragon also recognized the strong presence in the midfield, including the play of the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“We were doing pretty good, and the midfield was pretty solid today,” Aragon said. “Erik did a great job today of being able to find our wings today.”
Starting lineups
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Ramon Acosta
D Christopher Arroyo
D Ode Emena
D Ren Santillan
MF Raul Pasillas
MF Emmanuel Castanon
MF Erik Hernandez Flores
MF Nathaniel Enriquez
F Gabriel Jurado
F Ethan VanPouke
Batavia
GK Logan Saenz
D Ethan Wright
D Will Chandler
D Andy Barry
D Quinn Carlson
D Hector Morales
MF Rodrigo Maldonado
MF Will Bardol
F Dylan Knapp
F Mark Lillig
F Isaac Hager
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Erik Hernandez Flores, sr., MF, Glenbard North,
Scoring summary
Glenbard North 3, Batavia 0
Glenbard North 1 2 - 3
Batavia 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First half
Glenbard North– Ode Emena (Nathaniel Enriquez) 11:56
Second half
Glenbard North – Erik Hernandez Flores (Nestor Dominguez) 37:36
Glenbard North – Jesus Aragon (u/a) 3:20
Senior shines in 3-0 DuKane road victory
By Chris Walker
BATAVIA – October is a great month for sports fans with the baseball playoffs beginning, the start of new NHL and NBA seasons, and it ends with seemingly bag after bag after bag after bag of Halloween candy everywhere to enjoy while sitting down in your favorite chair to relax and enjoy the action.
It’s also a important time for the high school soccer boys of fall as the finish line of the regular season schedule quickly approaches. The focus is the fight until the end of the season to be at your best once regional play begins in a couple of weeks.
Speaking of being at your best, Glenbard North senior Erik Hernandez Flores was terrific during Thursday’s Upstate Eight Conference game at Batavia. The senior scored a goal and was a force in the midfield throughout the evening in the Panthers 3-0 victory.
“Erik Hernandez has been kind of a little slow with his transition in the first third, and we talked about that, and he really had an awesome game today,” Glenbard North coach Spero Mandakas said. “If it was basketball, he was dishing dimes all over the place.”
That included a great pass to Gabe Jurado that ended up with a missed opportunity, but Herandez Flores bounced right back and curved in an incredible blast from 35 yards just a couple minutes into the second half to give Glenbard North a 2-0 lead.
“He played one of the best balls I’ve seen to Gabe, and Gabe kind of had an off-touch,” Mandakas said. "But he (Hernandez Flores) wins it right back, sees the goal and picks it up and puts it up upper 90. So good for him to get a finish and get in the stat sheet after having such a great game in the middle.”
After receiving a nice pass from Nestor Dominguez, Hernandez Flores said he knew he had an opportunity to score so he took it.
“I took the shot, and it went in,” he said. “We had a pretty good night with ball movement, touch of the ball. And our distribution and communication were really good. We’ve got great chemistry, and when we got the ball we built up some chances. We didn’t make all of them, but at the end of the day we got the ‘W.’”
The good news for Mandakas is not only did the Panthers go on the road and get a conference win, but they probably saw Hernandez Flores playing at his best, which is a great sign and would really help the Panthers finish the season strong.
“We’ve had glimpses of what he’s capable of doing, but in that second half that was the best 40 minutes we’ve seen from him,” Mandakas said. “We’ve got Nathan (Enriquez) and Manny (Castanon) in the middle and just rock solid, and having Erik as that final piece is going to really make us dynamic.”
Batavia (1-11-0, 0-5-0) showed fight, but the Bulldogs were unable to find the back of the net for the fourth-straight game.
“Today we had some good sequences which was good to see,” Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “A little bit of grit from the boys was nice to see. It was long-distance shots, but that’s been the season though. I thought we did a good job today of connecting some passes, and it helps us build for Saturday against Plainfield Central.”
A lot of wonderful things happen, and incredible memories are established, during a prep soccer season. Many of those great times are only experienced internally by the coaching staff and team since the parents, other fans and media don't go to most practice, team dinners, gatherings and other team events.
The same can also be said for when a team is going through what Batavia is dealing with now with the tragic loss of teammate Kyle Nicely. No one knows exactly how the kids are dealing with it on a daily basis except for each kid himself.
And while one would think soccer would provide an escape from grieving, at the same time there probably is also sadness on the field where some thoughts are the most intense since Nicely was not only a friend, but also a teammate.
“(Mandakas) was saying how they had a senior, not a soccer player, but a student, who died in a car accident, but it happened in an instant,” Gianfrancesco said. “This was like three weeks of going through it every day and asking how he’s doing and then it’s done. It’s been such a hard thing. It’s something you can’t even imagine and then trying to recover afterward has been challenging.”
Gianfrancesco said that he and the kids are probably doing as well as one could expect them to do at this time.
As for the soccer that was played by the Bulldogs on Thursday, they did some nice things.
“I liked what I saw today,” Gianfrancesco said. “The boys played tough and physical and connected some passes. It just would be nice to get a goal. We’ve been struggling with that. Just to have one, I think they’d be really excited.”
Everyone has made a contribution for the Bulldogs.
“Everybody is doing something,” Gianfrancesco said. “We’ve got three or four guys hurt who are not playing so we’ve had four subs the last couple of games and one got dinged and sat out the second half. We already pulled one up from JV earlier, but we don’t want to deplete their squad so it’s kind of a skeleton crew too.
"We’re moving in the right direction. I think they’re doing the right things. They’ve been kind of coming out of it a bit in the last week.”
Glenbard North (8-8-1, 2-2-1) went ahead 1-0 on Ode Emena’s 30-yard blast that hit off the crossbar and then off of Batavia goalkeeper Logan Saenz’s back with 11:56 to play in the first half.
“We have to work on our transition defense,” Mandakas said. “As we’ve seen the last few weeks, we’ve given up a few goals that have cost us games so in training we’re going to work on just keeping the pedal down. And we had that the first 25 minutes where he had all of it and then finding that goal from Ode gave us the momentum going forward.”
In a 2-1 loss to Wheaton North on Sept. 24, the Panthers were in a similar position but lost.
“We had it against Wheaton North, but we didn’t put that goal in. And then they put one in on a 40-yard free kick,” Mandakas said. “We need to capitalize on our chances in the first half and really lock down games which we did today.”
Senior Jesus “Jessie” Aragon finished off the scoring with 3:20 left in the game, netting a rebound goal for the second time this year.
“It always feels good following the ball like that,” he said. “You never know if there’s going to be a rebound. I was fortunate to be on the other end of a rebound today. We’re feeling pretty good with the win, and we got good goals today.”
Aragon also recognized the strong presence in the midfield, including the play of the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“We were doing pretty good, and the midfield was pretty solid today,” Aragon said. “Erik did a great job today of being able to find our wings today.”
Starting lineups
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Ramon Acosta
D Christopher Arroyo
D Ode Emena
D Ren Santillan
MF Raul Pasillas
MF Emmanuel Castanon
MF Erik Hernandez Flores
MF Nathaniel Enriquez
F Gabriel Jurado
F Ethan VanPouke
Batavia
GK Logan Saenz
D Ethan Wright
D Will Chandler
D Andy Barry
D Quinn Carlson
D Hector Morales
MF Rodrigo Maldonado
MF Will Bardol
F Dylan Knapp
F Mark Lillig
F Isaac Hager
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Erik Hernandez Flores, sr., MF, Glenbard North,
Scoring summary
Glenbard North 3, Batavia 0
Glenbard North 1 2 - 3
Batavia 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First half
Glenbard North– Ode Emena (Nathaniel Enriquez) 11:56
Second half
Glenbard North – Erik Hernandez Flores (Nestor Dominguez) 37:36
Glenbard North – Jesus Aragon (u/a) 3:20