Joliet Central takes down Plainfield South
Visiting Steelmen win 4-0 over Cougars in SPC opener
By Gary Larsen
PLAINFIELD — The bus to Plainfield South ran late on Thursday, so Joliet Central only had 10 minutes to warm up for a Southwest Prairie Conference season opener for both teams.
Once the Steelmen warmed up, their attack glowed red hot.
Joliet Central (2-2-0, 1-0-0) won 4-0 over Plainfield South (1-3-0, 0-1-0), scoring once in the first half and three times in the second. Yonny Silva scored twice and the Steelmen got a goal apiece from Vicente Zavala and Alfonso Contreras.
“Give them credit, they really played to their strengths tonight,” Plainfield South coach Bryant Williams said. “They spread us out and took advantage of their speed up-top, and we knew that's what Joliet Central likes to do.”
Steelmen coach Erick Estrada has a team that makes up for its lack of size with speed, skill, and a belief in letting the ball do all the work.
“Yanni played well for us today, and everybody chipped in,” Estrada said. “That's what this system is. We want everybody to get time on the ball, because it's all about the ball. We want ball movement. The ball is faster than any player, so it's one touch and get rid of it.”
On the flip side, while Plainfield South applied plenty of attacking pressure of its own, particularly in the first half, the Cougars were plagued by a problem that Williams has been preaching against this season.
Spacing.
“Part of it is an instinctual thing, where guys see someone in trouble with the ball and they want to help,” Williams said. “I applaud that effort, but sometimes in this game staying away and creating space is the best thing you can do. We bunch up and draw the defenders and then we don't have any room to maneuver the ball.”
Plainfield South pressured well at the outset. Forward Max Treptow fired a shot from distance at 10 minutes that Joliet keeper Eduardo Chavez handled on the hop, and forward Miki Derka busted into the box and fired a shot that deflected to a corner kick at 16 minutes.
Treptow and Derka are a pair of quality forwards and the Cougars know what they need to do for their attacking duo.
“Max and Miki are dangerous, but we have to be able to get them the ball,” Cougars defender Tommy Garner said. “We need to be able to create more shots. But we’re bunched up on one side of the field and we’re not able to switch the ball, to open it up and find shots.”
Joliet Central gave as well as it got from the outset, sending shots just wide as the Steelmen slowly found footing within their pass-it-around system. They also used their speed in the counterattack to great effect.
Steelmen midfielder Gio Sigala simplified what fuels the attack at Joliet Central.
“It just takes everybody to be on the same page, playing simple and playing together, and doing whatever’s best for the team,” Sigala said.
Silva scored the lone goal of the first half at 29 minutes, dribbling into the box with a defender on his hip and firing a left-footed shot that tore past a diving Coetzee and rolled inside the far post.
The Cougars’ best chance of the first half came at 32 minutes. Treptow and midfielder Carlos Sagols played a nice give-and-go that sprung Sagols behind Joliet’s backline, but Chavez made the stop at point-blank range.
With a 1-0 halftime score, it was still anyone’s game.
“We played well in the first half,” Williams said. “We had some opportunities. Offensively, it felt like we could have generated more chances than we even did, but we were putting pressure on.”
It was a four-minute span early in the second half that spelled doom for Plainfield South. At 48 minutes, Zavala scored from 19 yards on a blast that Coetzee dove to get a hand on before it caromed inside the post. Then Silva made it 3-0 at 52 minutes from 10 yards.
While Plainfield South kept fighting, it was the style of that fight that concerned Williams.
“When we get behind, we still have to try to play our game,” Williams said. “We tend to want to freelance way too much when we get behind instead of staying within our style of play.”
Contreras added a goal for Joliet in the waning minutes. Afterwards, Estrada applauded the play of Sigala and Aaron Razo at midfield, and tipped his hat to one of his outside defenders.
“Brian Maldonado at right back played phenomenal today,” Estrada said. “He was making those runs going forward to space, and that's what we want from that position.”
Nobody was making any excuses on the Plainfield South side afterwards, but the Cougars did play Thursday without starting defenders Zach Kolb and Trinidad Vazquez.
One of last year’s starting defenders, Ryan Kabaker, has been out with an injury but should return sometime in the next two weeks.
“Even though we gave up four goals today, I really like our defense,” Williams said. “In our previous three games we had only given up three goals. Even today, overall they played well. We just had those little breakdowns and sometimes even those weren't their fault. We didn’t always have mids tracking back and that put (the defense) in bad positions.”
Despite the loss, the Cougars got solid performances around the pitch.
“Tommy (Garner) had a great game at defensive back and Carlos Sagols came off the bench today and played very well in the middle,” Williams said. “He provided a lot of energy in the middle of the field for us today. (Defender) Tyler Whitmire also played well. He stepped up several times and gave us some big stops.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield South
GK: Robin Coetzee
D: Thomas Garner
D: Rocco Rizzi
D: Tyler Whitmire
D: Fabian Alvarado
M: Ernesto Cortina
M: David Sanchez
M: Josue Jimenez
M: Duval Verdin
F: Max Treptow
F: Miki Derka
Joliet Central
GK: Eduardo Chavez
D: Jesus Hernandez
D: Brian Maldonado
D: Alberto Vargas
D: Alejandro Vega
M: Christian Diaz
M: Aaron Razo
M: Giovanni Sigala
F: Jorge Vargas
F: Alfonso Contreras
F: Jaime Hernandez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Yonny Silva, sr., F, Joliet Central
Scoring summary
First half
Joliet Central — Silva 29th minute
Second half
Joliet Central — Zavala 48th minute
Joliet Central — Silva 52nd minute
Joliet Central — Contreras 75th minute
Visiting Steelmen win 4-0 over Cougars in SPC opener
By Gary Larsen
PLAINFIELD — The bus to Plainfield South ran late on Thursday, so Joliet Central only had 10 minutes to warm up for a Southwest Prairie Conference season opener for both teams.
Once the Steelmen warmed up, their attack glowed red hot.
Joliet Central (2-2-0, 1-0-0) won 4-0 over Plainfield South (1-3-0, 0-1-0), scoring once in the first half and three times in the second. Yonny Silva scored twice and the Steelmen got a goal apiece from Vicente Zavala and Alfonso Contreras.
“Give them credit, they really played to their strengths tonight,” Plainfield South coach Bryant Williams said. “They spread us out and took advantage of their speed up-top, and we knew that's what Joliet Central likes to do.”
Steelmen coach Erick Estrada has a team that makes up for its lack of size with speed, skill, and a belief in letting the ball do all the work.
“Yanni played well for us today, and everybody chipped in,” Estrada said. “That's what this system is. We want everybody to get time on the ball, because it's all about the ball. We want ball movement. The ball is faster than any player, so it's one touch and get rid of it.”
On the flip side, while Plainfield South applied plenty of attacking pressure of its own, particularly in the first half, the Cougars were plagued by a problem that Williams has been preaching against this season.
Spacing.
“Part of it is an instinctual thing, where guys see someone in trouble with the ball and they want to help,” Williams said. “I applaud that effort, but sometimes in this game staying away and creating space is the best thing you can do. We bunch up and draw the defenders and then we don't have any room to maneuver the ball.”
Plainfield South pressured well at the outset. Forward Max Treptow fired a shot from distance at 10 minutes that Joliet keeper Eduardo Chavez handled on the hop, and forward Miki Derka busted into the box and fired a shot that deflected to a corner kick at 16 minutes.
Treptow and Derka are a pair of quality forwards and the Cougars know what they need to do for their attacking duo.
“Max and Miki are dangerous, but we have to be able to get them the ball,” Cougars defender Tommy Garner said. “We need to be able to create more shots. But we’re bunched up on one side of the field and we’re not able to switch the ball, to open it up and find shots.”
Joliet Central gave as well as it got from the outset, sending shots just wide as the Steelmen slowly found footing within their pass-it-around system. They also used their speed in the counterattack to great effect.
Steelmen midfielder Gio Sigala simplified what fuels the attack at Joliet Central.
“It just takes everybody to be on the same page, playing simple and playing together, and doing whatever’s best for the team,” Sigala said.
Silva scored the lone goal of the first half at 29 minutes, dribbling into the box with a defender on his hip and firing a left-footed shot that tore past a diving Coetzee and rolled inside the far post.
The Cougars’ best chance of the first half came at 32 minutes. Treptow and midfielder Carlos Sagols played a nice give-and-go that sprung Sagols behind Joliet’s backline, but Chavez made the stop at point-blank range.
With a 1-0 halftime score, it was still anyone’s game.
“We played well in the first half,” Williams said. “We had some opportunities. Offensively, it felt like we could have generated more chances than we even did, but we were putting pressure on.”
It was a four-minute span early in the second half that spelled doom for Plainfield South. At 48 minutes, Zavala scored from 19 yards on a blast that Coetzee dove to get a hand on before it caromed inside the post. Then Silva made it 3-0 at 52 minutes from 10 yards.
While Plainfield South kept fighting, it was the style of that fight that concerned Williams.
“When we get behind, we still have to try to play our game,” Williams said. “We tend to want to freelance way too much when we get behind instead of staying within our style of play.”
Contreras added a goal for Joliet in the waning minutes. Afterwards, Estrada applauded the play of Sigala and Aaron Razo at midfield, and tipped his hat to one of his outside defenders.
“Brian Maldonado at right back played phenomenal today,” Estrada said. “He was making those runs going forward to space, and that's what we want from that position.”
Nobody was making any excuses on the Plainfield South side afterwards, but the Cougars did play Thursday without starting defenders Zach Kolb and Trinidad Vazquez.
One of last year’s starting defenders, Ryan Kabaker, has been out with an injury but should return sometime in the next two weeks.
“Even though we gave up four goals today, I really like our defense,” Williams said. “In our previous three games we had only given up three goals. Even today, overall they played well. We just had those little breakdowns and sometimes even those weren't their fault. We didn’t always have mids tracking back and that put (the defense) in bad positions.”
Despite the loss, the Cougars got solid performances around the pitch.
“Tommy (Garner) had a great game at defensive back and Carlos Sagols came off the bench today and played very well in the middle,” Williams said. “He provided a lot of energy in the middle of the field for us today. (Defender) Tyler Whitmire also played well. He stepped up several times and gave us some big stops.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield South
GK: Robin Coetzee
D: Thomas Garner
D: Rocco Rizzi
D: Tyler Whitmire
D: Fabian Alvarado
M: Ernesto Cortina
M: David Sanchez
M: Josue Jimenez
M: Duval Verdin
F: Max Treptow
F: Miki Derka
Joliet Central
GK: Eduardo Chavez
D: Jesus Hernandez
D: Brian Maldonado
D: Alberto Vargas
D: Alejandro Vega
M: Christian Diaz
M: Aaron Razo
M: Giovanni Sigala
F: Jorge Vargas
F: Alfonso Contreras
F: Jaime Hernandez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Yonny Silva, sr., F, Joliet Central
Scoring summary
First half
Joliet Central — Silva 29th minute
Second half
Joliet Central — Zavala 48th minute
Joliet Central — Silva 52nd minute
Joliet Central — Contreras 75th minute