Bartlett shows growth in Senior Night shutout over Glenbard South
Hawks turning around season after tough start
By Curt Herron
BARTLETT -- It's not always about how you start, but it is usually all about how you finish.
Sometimes a team has to go deep into the season to develop. The fact that they struggled in the early going, especially while facing good competition, may not be that big of a deal later on in the season.
Bartlett learned that lesson a year ago when it went 1-6-0 to start the season and only had five wins heading into the playoffs. But because of its season-long improvement, coach Vince Revak's 14th-seeded squad knocked off third-seed Addison Trail in its regional opener. The Hawks battled to take the regional title before falling 1-0 to an 11th-seeded Geneva team that also had struggled early.
The Hawks started 0-7-0 this season but have split their last eight matches. They captured their first Upstate Eight Conference victory Wednesday when they scored two second half goals to record a 2-0 victory over Glenbard South on Senior Night. Bartlett recognized 11 seniors on the varsity team and 17 overall who are in the program.
Senior Oscar Medina put in two goals during an 8:22 span in the final 20 minutes to account for the scoring. Senior defenders Spencer Medendorp, Joel Perez, Adan Rueda and Adrian Martinez and sophomore Nathan Preissig helped senior goalies Alex Brown and Andri Matiychyk earn the team's third shutout.
It helped erase a sour memory, though it came against a ranked team.
"The result against East Aurora (a 1-0 loss Monday) … was a difficult one, because it came down to one mistake by us, But that's kind of been the story of our season," Revak said. "Some times we just struggle to find the net and also find that attacking prowess in the final third.
“But on Senior Night, Oscar stepped up big time and had two really nice goals, and the defense played well. And you're happy any time you can keep them off the board, and they didn't have too many great opportunities.
"We have people who are stepping up and talking and holding each other accountable and the communications are better. The effort was never a problem, it was just the cohesiveness. In a year like this when we go winless for so long at the beginning of the season, I told the guys that I don't care if we go winless the entire season as long as we figure it out by the time playoffs begin.
"Our record doesn't indicate what type of team we are. At the same point, the results that we're not getting we're trying to fix, so tonight was a good start. We have a lot of returners from last year and the Addison Trail upset was huge, so hopefully they remember that going into the playoffs."
In its defense, Bartlett (4-11-0, 1-3-0) has faced numerous teams from the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. In the early going they met no. 15 St. Charles East, and then ran a gauntlet at the super-tough Best of the West against no. 4 Naperville Central, no. 9 Plainfield North and no. 13 Sandburg. Recently they’ve played no. 23 Geneva, no. 1 Elgin and no. 25 East Aurora.
The Hawks hope to perform well in their final five regular-season matches and then see how well they can fare in the Class 3A St. Charles East Sectional, which features ranked teams like no. 2 York, no. 6 Conant, no. 23 Geneva, no. 24 St. Charles North and the host Saints.
With Medina providing many of his team's top chances to score throughout the match, it wasn't that surprising when he broke the ice in the 64th minute when he placed a liner from about 30 yards in the net to put the hosts in front for good.
In the 72nd minute, Medina added another goal when he nailed another deep one from about 25 yards that was set up by a well-placed corner kick from senior Adan Rueda.
"It was a hard start to the season, but we had to keep our heads up, because it wasn't over yet," Medina said. "So, we have to keep on fighting and hopefully we get a couple of more wins in.
“We try to push everyone for their best. After each loss, since you can't do anything about the past game, you just have to look forward to the next games.
"It's getting better and better each game as we get progressively better. We're coming together more as a team, playing together and having more shots and more goals. We don't give up; we keep on fighting. Even after our losses, we keep our heads up and just keep on fighting in the next game."
Glenbard South (2-11-2, 0-5-0) is the smallest school in the Upstate Eight and joins Fenton as the only Class AA schools in the 10-team conference. After getting off to a 2-1-1 start to the season, the Raiders have struggled and collected only two draws since then. The last came via a 1-1 result Tuesday against Illinois Math and Science Academy.
But despite their recent struggles, coach Adam Szyszko's Raiders hung tough for over an hour with the Hawks and kept battling until the end. They actually got some of their best efforts shortly before the match ended.
The first came in the 78th minute when Glenbard South's senior goalie Sean Miller had to exit after a foul was called in the box. Classmate Andrew Pressley, a defender, had to step into the net and face the subsequent penalty kick. Despite the near impossible nature of the situation, Pressley made a big save on the try by senior Will Poulopoulos.
About a minute later, Raiders sophomore Diesel Oleksak got free in front of the net but Medendorp blocked the attempt. Moments later, senior Jacob Lichtenheld sent in a long free kick that deflected off a defender before being pulled in by Matiychyk.
"Our numbers are down, and Bartlett's a good school, but we play as hard as we can," Lichtenheld said. "We have a lot of big schools in our conference and we're one of the only AA schools in a 3A conference, so we just have to persevere.
"It's all about character and also to keep pushing and see what we can do. This team is great, and I like the team bonding overall. Everybody knows each other well, and it's a fun program. And obviously we go out and have fun and try our hardest in every single game."
Szyszko is proud of how his team has continued to battle against quality Upstate Eight programs. He hopes that all of the good competition helps his team when it competes in the sub-sectional of the sectional tournament that it hosts.
"The Upstate Eight is a ridiculously tough conference, and you've got quality programs like Streamwood and West Chicago, and Elgin is tough this year. Larkin is on an upswing, and Glenbard East is tough," Szyszko said. "There's so many teams in this conference that are good, and we're a AA school. So we're going into some of these games without the weapons that these other teams have.
"I'm immensely proud of our guys. We've battled in every game. The effort is there. It's just one or two mistakes and the other teams are so good that they capitalize on us. Hopefully we get a little bit of a respite when we play in the AA playoffs and the season has hardened us. We're ready to play against some AA teams. The hardest thing is making sure that the morale is up.
"This is a great group of kids, and they've been working their tails off for us. Guys like Jacob, Tres Moore, Esteban Godinez, Andrew Pressley, Andrew Park and David Page, all of our seniors, are working and showing the way for the younger kids. I'm proud of them. The record doesn't reflect it, but I'm very proud of their effort."
Bartlett got several top scoring chances earlier in the final half from seniors Josh Taylor, Perez, Poulopoulos and sophomore Preissig. Medina had most of the limited threatening attempts in the opening half.
It was the third shutout in the last eight matches for Bartlett, which now faces four conference matches in eight days. That string includes Saturday against Fenton in the Upstate Eight Conference Showcase at West Chicago, Monday at Streamwood, Thursday hosting Larkin and Saturday at South Elgin. The Hawks end their league and regular-season against Glenbard East on October 12.
"A lot of our season was coming together as a team and building chemistry because we all come from different places," Medendorp said. "So, it's really important for us to unify as one whole team. We're getting into it toward the end of the season and by playoffs, we'll be ready for it.
“I've played here for three years, and every year we grow as a team throughout the season. We don't always have the best record but last year we were the 14th-seed and we beat the three-seed. Once we hit the playoffs, everyone is 0-0. We're just playing for the win. That's all that matters.
"Everyone on my defense communicates really well. Nate (Preissig) is always talking, Adan (Rueda) has really good long balls and he plays good balls up-top and Joel (Perez) kind of has the mindset of an attacker, so it's nice to have that in a defender.
“I like that our team is willing to put in the work. At the start of the season, we weren't going well and everyone was kind of giving up. But we all just came together as a team and talked and decided, 'What do we want from this season?' So we've put it together, and we've been putting in the work."
Starting lineups
Glenbard South
GK: Sean Miller
D: Jacob Lichtenheld
D: Patricio Garza
D: Andrew Pressley
MF: Andrew Park
MF: Nick Miranda
MF: David Page
MF: Tres Moore
F: Robby Smith
F: Yusuf Afzal
F: Esteban Godinez
Bartlett
GK: Alex Brown
D: Joel Perez
D: Nathan Preissig
D: Adrian Martinez
D: Spencer Medendorp
MF: David Hernandez
MF: Oscar Medina
MF: Mauricio Bortolussi
MF: Will Poulopoulos
F: Edwin Perez
F: Josh Taylor
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Oscar Medina, sr., MF, Bartlett
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Bartlett: Oscar Medina, 64'
Bartlett: Oscar Medina (Adan Rueda, CK), 72'
Hawks turning around season after tough start
By Curt Herron
BARTLETT -- It's not always about how you start, but it is usually all about how you finish.
Sometimes a team has to go deep into the season to develop. The fact that they struggled in the early going, especially while facing good competition, may not be that big of a deal later on in the season.
Bartlett learned that lesson a year ago when it went 1-6-0 to start the season and only had five wins heading into the playoffs. But because of its season-long improvement, coach Vince Revak's 14th-seeded squad knocked off third-seed Addison Trail in its regional opener. The Hawks battled to take the regional title before falling 1-0 to an 11th-seeded Geneva team that also had struggled early.
The Hawks started 0-7-0 this season but have split their last eight matches. They captured their first Upstate Eight Conference victory Wednesday when they scored two second half goals to record a 2-0 victory over Glenbard South on Senior Night. Bartlett recognized 11 seniors on the varsity team and 17 overall who are in the program.
Senior Oscar Medina put in two goals during an 8:22 span in the final 20 minutes to account for the scoring. Senior defenders Spencer Medendorp, Joel Perez, Adan Rueda and Adrian Martinez and sophomore Nathan Preissig helped senior goalies Alex Brown and Andri Matiychyk earn the team's third shutout.
It helped erase a sour memory, though it came against a ranked team.
"The result against East Aurora (a 1-0 loss Monday) … was a difficult one, because it came down to one mistake by us, But that's kind of been the story of our season," Revak said. "Some times we just struggle to find the net and also find that attacking prowess in the final third.
“But on Senior Night, Oscar stepped up big time and had two really nice goals, and the defense played well. And you're happy any time you can keep them off the board, and they didn't have too many great opportunities.
"We have people who are stepping up and talking and holding each other accountable and the communications are better. The effort was never a problem, it was just the cohesiveness. In a year like this when we go winless for so long at the beginning of the season, I told the guys that I don't care if we go winless the entire season as long as we figure it out by the time playoffs begin.
"Our record doesn't indicate what type of team we are. At the same point, the results that we're not getting we're trying to fix, so tonight was a good start. We have a lot of returners from last year and the Addison Trail upset was huge, so hopefully they remember that going into the playoffs."
In its defense, Bartlett (4-11-0, 1-3-0) has faced numerous teams from the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. In the early going they met no. 15 St. Charles East, and then ran a gauntlet at the super-tough Best of the West against no. 4 Naperville Central, no. 9 Plainfield North and no. 13 Sandburg. Recently they’ve played no. 23 Geneva, no. 1 Elgin and no. 25 East Aurora.
The Hawks hope to perform well in their final five regular-season matches and then see how well they can fare in the Class 3A St. Charles East Sectional, which features ranked teams like no. 2 York, no. 6 Conant, no. 23 Geneva, no. 24 St. Charles North and the host Saints.
With Medina providing many of his team's top chances to score throughout the match, it wasn't that surprising when he broke the ice in the 64th minute when he placed a liner from about 30 yards in the net to put the hosts in front for good.
In the 72nd minute, Medina added another goal when he nailed another deep one from about 25 yards that was set up by a well-placed corner kick from senior Adan Rueda.
"It was a hard start to the season, but we had to keep our heads up, because it wasn't over yet," Medina said. "So, we have to keep on fighting and hopefully we get a couple of more wins in.
“We try to push everyone for their best. After each loss, since you can't do anything about the past game, you just have to look forward to the next games.
"It's getting better and better each game as we get progressively better. We're coming together more as a team, playing together and having more shots and more goals. We don't give up; we keep on fighting. Even after our losses, we keep our heads up and just keep on fighting in the next game."
Glenbard South (2-11-2, 0-5-0) is the smallest school in the Upstate Eight and joins Fenton as the only Class AA schools in the 10-team conference. After getting off to a 2-1-1 start to the season, the Raiders have struggled and collected only two draws since then. The last came via a 1-1 result Tuesday against Illinois Math and Science Academy.
But despite their recent struggles, coach Adam Szyszko's Raiders hung tough for over an hour with the Hawks and kept battling until the end. They actually got some of their best efforts shortly before the match ended.
The first came in the 78th minute when Glenbard South's senior goalie Sean Miller had to exit after a foul was called in the box. Classmate Andrew Pressley, a defender, had to step into the net and face the subsequent penalty kick. Despite the near impossible nature of the situation, Pressley made a big save on the try by senior Will Poulopoulos.
About a minute later, Raiders sophomore Diesel Oleksak got free in front of the net but Medendorp blocked the attempt. Moments later, senior Jacob Lichtenheld sent in a long free kick that deflected off a defender before being pulled in by Matiychyk.
"Our numbers are down, and Bartlett's a good school, but we play as hard as we can," Lichtenheld said. "We have a lot of big schools in our conference and we're one of the only AA schools in a 3A conference, so we just have to persevere.
"It's all about character and also to keep pushing and see what we can do. This team is great, and I like the team bonding overall. Everybody knows each other well, and it's a fun program. And obviously we go out and have fun and try our hardest in every single game."
Szyszko is proud of how his team has continued to battle against quality Upstate Eight programs. He hopes that all of the good competition helps his team when it competes in the sub-sectional of the sectional tournament that it hosts.
"The Upstate Eight is a ridiculously tough conference, and you've got quality programs like Streamwood and West Chicago, and Elgin is tough this year. Larkin is on an upswing, and Glenbard East is tough," Szyszko said. "There's so many teams in this conference that are good, and we're a AA school. So we're going into some of these games without the weapons that these other teams have.
"I'm immensely proud of our guys. We've battled in every game. The effort is there. It's just one or two mistakes and the other teams are so good that they capitalize on us. Hopefully we get a little bit of a respite when we play in the AA playoffs and the season has hardened us. We're ready to play against some AA teams. The hardest thing is making sure that the morale is up.
"This is a great group of kids, and they've been working their tails off for us. Guys like Jacob, Tres Moore, Esteban Godinez, Andrew Pressley, Andrew Park and David Page, all of our seniors, are working and showing the way for the younger kids. I'm proud of them. The record doesn't reflect it, but I'm very proud of their effort."
Bartlett got several top scoring chances earlier in the final half from seniors Josh Taylor, Perez, Poulopoulos and sophomore Preissig. Medina had most of the limited threatening attempts in the opening half.
It was the third shutout in the last eight matches for Bartlett, which now faces four conference matches in eight days. That string includes Saturday against Fenton in the Upstate Eight Conference Showcase at West Chicago, Monday at Streamwood, Thursday hosting Larkin and Saturday at South Elgin. The Hawks end their league and regular-season against Glenbard East on October 12.
"A lot of our season was coming together as a team and building chemistry because we all come from different places," Medendorp said. "So, it's really important for us to unify as one whole team. We're getting into it toward the end of the season and by playoffs, we'll be ready for it.
“I've played here for three years, and every year we grow as a team throughout the season. We don't always have the best record but last year we were the 14th-seed and we beat the three-seed. Once we hit the playoffs, everyone is 0-0. We're just playing for the win. That's all that matters.
"Everyone on my defense communicates really well. Nate (Preissig) is always talking, Adan (Rueda) has really good long balls and he plays good balls up-top and Joel (Perez) kind of has the mindset of an attacker, so it's nice to have that in a defender.
“I like that our team is willing to put in the work. At the start of the season, we weren't going well and everyone was kind of giving up. But we all just came together as a team and talked and decided, 'What do we want from this season?' So we've put it together, and we've been putting in the work."
Starting lineups
Glenbard South
GK: Sean Miller
D: Jacob Lichtenheld
D: Patricio Garza
D: Andrew Pressley
MF: Andrew Park
MF: Nick Miranda
MF: David Page
MF: Tres Moore
F: Robby Smith
F: Yusuf Afzal
F: Esteban Godinez
Bartlett
GK: Alex Brown
D: Joel Perez
D: Nathan Preissig
D: Adrian Martinez
D: Spencer Medendorp
MF: David Hernandez
MF: Oscar Medina
MF: Mauricio Bortolussi
MF: Will Poulopoulos
F: Edwin Perez
F: Josh Taylor
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Oscar Medina, sr., MF, Bartlett
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Bartlett: Oscar Medina, 64'
Bartlett: Oscar Medina (Adan Rueda, CK), 72'