Missed mark costs Deerfield in loss
Lakes takes advantage of miscue to win 2-0 over the host Warriors
By Patrick Z. McGavin
DEERFIELD -- Andrew Gaetano picked his spot. Then Deerfield lost track of the most important man on the field.
“When you release the players you are marking on a dead ball play, bad things are going to happen,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said.
A junior midfielder at Lakes, Gaetano took advantage of the Warriors’ lapse and smashed in a header in the 38th minute off a free kick for the crucial opening goal the Eagles parlayed into a 2-0 victory over the hosts on a hot and windy day Saturday afternoon.
The game marked a reunion for Hurtig and his counterpart at Lakes, Kevin Kullby, who is also his University of Wisconsin at Madison teammate. Lakes (9-4-0) won the coaches' rivalry for the second-consecutive year.
“We have always been good this year on the set pieces, we have converted a lot of them,” Gaetano said. “I knew that Zach was going to put it right in the six, so I made that run from the top of the box. Shane (McKeever) faked that he was going to head it, and I made my run and lost my defender at the top of the box.”
Gaetano earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match distinction for his superb play and creating the moment that fundamentally changed the momentum and outcome. The play frustrated the Warriors (5-8-0) on multiple fronts, underlining a recurrent problem of defending set pieces, denying their momentum and putting them down a crucial score.
“We said at halftime, and we said before the game, one of the keys was our ability to defend the set pieces because we are not doing so well,” Hurtig said. “We had a handball on a ball that was over our head. We set up a player, who we were marking, no. 7 (Gaetano), and he ran right by us and he buried it, because the player who was marking him just let him go.”
Lakes keeper Danny Wieczorek registered his sixth shutout. He made the decisive play of the first half, coming off his line to challenge a shot by Warriors’ star forward Cory Johnson. In the 36th minute, freshman forward Logan Willis delivered a cross to the deep far post that Johnson ran under, controlled and fired a close-range ball that Wieczorek turned into a goal-saving denial.
That constituted the Warriors’ best scoring chance until a late ball that hit off the post when the game was out of reach.
“At halftime I thought we were going to win the game,” Hurtig said. “I thought we had shifted the momentum. I thought we were playing with more energy. But it just takes one play to turn a game, and they got the play. The other thing hurting us right now is we are not winning anything in the air. We are very inconsistent. We are not judging balls well, and we are not finishing our headers, and we are not strong. We have been working on it, but we have to work more.”
Deerfield has now followed a season-best three game winning streak without a goal scored and a two-game slide.
“As an individual player and a team, I think we are all getting frustrated when we are not finding the net the way that we expect, or how we used to scoring,” senior midfielder Louis Solovy said. “We have to rest up, get back to practice, work on our touches and be more confident with the ball.”
Solovoy suffered a torn acromioclavicular (AC) joint in the Tuesday loss against Glenbrook North. “It’s holding up kind of well,” he said. “If you saw, I had just the one flip-throw in (the first half) and that was part of it. I have iced it a lot since the (original) injury. Otherwise I am fine.”
Lakes enjoyed the wind in the second half and worked exceptionally hard to make it work in its favor. Lakes offensive attack improved in the first half. Deerfield’s offensive attack became more scattered and strung out.
“It was a hard-fought match, especially given the conditions, the wind and the heat,” Kullby said. “It was not always the prettiest of games. In the first half, there was a lot of fighting for loose balls. They were much better in the first half at getting the loose balls and winning them. I did not think the wind was going to be that big of a factor, but obviously we had the better of the play in the second half.”
The Gaetano goal was the product of keen execution.
“It was a good delivery by Zach Dydo, and then we had the players make the run and the keeper (Ryan Grady) was a little tentative,” Kullby said. “Even though the keeper was a great player -- he made a lot of great plays for his team -- in that situation because of the flight of the ball he had to hold his ground and our guys had a nice play on the goal.”
The unusual late September weather turned the game into one of attrition. The air was thick and the heat complicated, in ways small and larger, every significant action. Johnson, the team’s most dangerous offensive talent, was able to get some shots on goal. Each time Wieczorek was able to get on top of those shots.
“I did think, given the heat and everything, the guys played very hard,” Hurtig said. “We lost (midfielder) Jacob Bronstein. (Midfielder) Adam (Odzer) could not play in the second half. I thought we could have gotten so more balls in the box, but for some reason we did not get enough numbers in the box to be there, or to finish them. It was a disappointing result.”
Senior forward Daniel Stiegel put the game out of reach with an insurance goal in the 73rd minute. Defender Alec Meyer played a through-ball over the top that enabled Stiegel to fight off a defender and drill a ball from about 14 yards inside the near post.
“The coach told (Meyer) to take it long,” he said. “I did not know if I was offside or not. When I started chasing after it I found out I wasn’t. The (defender) missed the ball, and I was able to get it. Deerfield had a solid game, but I think what this game means is we are able to compete and beat anyone if we play as a team.”
Deerfield must now regroup and recapture that edge it demonstrated just a week ago with three wins in five days.
“One of the keywords we talk about is being resilient, and we did not show it today,” Hurtig said. “We have to get back to what we do well, starting with Vernon Hills in our next game Tuesday, like winning 50-50 balls and winning head balls. We are not finding feet, and that is frustrating. This is a good group of guys, and the foundation of our team is our resilience.”
Starting lineups
Lakes
GK: Danny Wieczorek
D: Dustin Baca
D: Adam Hagman
D: Drew Sweeney
D: Alec Meyer
MF: Zach Dydo
MF: Andrew Gaetano
MF: Charlie Gaida
F: Shane McKeever
F: Jeff Milostan
F: Daniel Stiegel
Deerfield
GK: Ryan Grady
D: Dylan Capp
D: Jeff Lehrman
D: Jack Hammontree
D: Eric Kenney
MF: Louis Solovy
MF: Adam Odzer
MF: Noah Braunstein
F: Cory Johnson
F: Nikita Bankevich
F: Ryan David
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Andrew Gaetano, jr., MF, Lakes,
Scoring summary
First half
Lakes—Andrew Gaetano (Zach Dydo), 38th minute
Second half
Lakes—Daniel Stiegel (Alec Meyer), 73rd minute
Lakes takes advantage of miscue to win 2-0 over the host Warriors
By Patrick Z. McGavin
DEERFIELD -- Andrew Gaetano picked his spot. Then Deerfield lost track of the most important man on the field.
“When you release the players you are marking on a dead ball play, bad things are going to happen,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said.
A junior midfielder at Lakes, Gaetano took advantage of the Warriors’ lapse and smashed in a header in the 38th minute off a free kick for the crucial opening goal the Eagles parlayed into a 2-0 victory over the hosts on a hot and windy day Saturday afternoon.
The game marked a reunion for Hurtig and his counterpart at Lakes, Kevin Kullby, who is also his University of Wisconsin at Madison teammate. Lakes (9-4-0) won the coaches' rivalry for the second-consecutive year.
“We have always been good this year on the set pieces, we have converted a lot of them,” Gaetano said. “I knew that Zach was going to put it right in the six, so I made that run from the top of the box. Shane (McKeever) faked that he was going to head it, and I made my run and lost my defender at the top of the box.”
Gaetano earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match distinction for his superb play and creating the moment that fundamentally changed the momentum and outcome. The play frustrated the Warriors (5-8-0) on multiple fronts, underlining a recurrent problem of defending set pieces, denying their momentum and putting them down a crucial score.
“We said at halftime, and we said before the game, one of the keys was our ability to defend the set pieces because we are not doing so well,” Hurtig said. “We had a handball on a ball that was over our head. We set up a player, who we were marking, no. 7 (Gaetano), and he ran right by us and he buried it, because the player who was marking him just let him go.”
Lakes keeper Danny Wieczorek registered his sixth shutout. He made the decisive play of the first half, coming off his line to challenge a shot by Warriors’ star forward Cory Johnson. In the 36th minute, freshman forward Logan Willis delivered a cross to the deep far post that Johnson ran under, controlled and fired a close-range ball that Wieczorek turned into a goal-saving denial.
That constituted the Warriors’ best scoring chance until a late ball that hit off the post when the game was out of reach.
“At halftime I thought we were going to win the game,” Hurtig said. “I thought we had shifted the momentum. I thought we were playing with more energy. But it just takes one play to turn a game, and they got the play. The other thing hurting us right now is we are not winning anything in the air. We are very inconsistent. We are not judging balls well, and we are not finishing our headers, and we are not strong. We have been working on it, but we have to work more.”
Deerfield has now followed a season-best three game winning streak without a goal scored and a two-game slide.
“As an individual player and a team, I think we are all getting frustrated when we are not finding the net the way that we expect, or how we used to scoring,” senior midfielder Louis Solovy said. “We have to rest up, get back to practice, work on our touches and be more confident with the ball.”
Solovoy suffered a torn acromioclavicular (AC) joint in the Tuesday loss against Glenbrook North. “It’s holding up kind of well,” he said. “If you saw, I had just the one flip-throw in (the first half) and that was part of it. I have iced it a lot since the (original) injury. Otherwise I am fine.”
Lakes enjoyed the wind in the second half and worked exceptionally hard to make it work in its favor. Lakes offensive attack improved in the first half. Deerfield’s offensive attack became more scattered and strung out.
“It was a hard-fought match, especially given the conditions, the wind and the heat,” Kullby said. “It was not always the prettiest of games. In the first half, there was a lot of fighting for loose balls. They were much better in the first half at getting the loose balls and winning them. I did not think the wind was going to be that big of a factor, but obviously we had the better of the play in the second half.”
The Gaetano goal was the product of keen execution.
“It was a good delivery by Zach Dydo, and then we had the players make the run and the keeper (Ryan Grady) was a little tentative,” Kullby said. “Even though the keeper was a great player -- he made a lot of great plays for his team -- in that situation because of the flight of the ball he had to hold his ground and our guys had a nice play on the goal.”
The unusual late September weather turned the game into one of attrition. The air was thick and the heat complicated, in ways small and larger, every significant action. Johnson, the team’s most dangerous offensive talent, was able to get some shots on goal. Each time Wieczorek was able to get on top of those shots.
“I did think, given the heat and everything, the guys played very hard,” Hurtig said. “We lost (midfielder) Jacob Bronstein. (Midfielder) Adam (Odzer) could not play in the second half. I thought we could have gotten so more balls in the box, but for some reason we did not get enough numbers in the box to be there, or to finish them. It was a disappointing result.”
Senior forward Daniel Stiegel put the game out of reach with an insurance goal in the 73rd minute. Defender Alec Meyer played a through-ball over the top that enabled Stiegel to fight off a defender and drill a ball from about 14 yards inside the near post.
“The coach told (Meyer) to take it long,” he said. “I did not know if I was offside or not. When I started chasing after it I found out I wasn’t. The (defender) missed the ball, and I was able to get it. Deerfield had a solid game, but I think what this game means is we are able to compete and beat anyone if we play as a team.”
Deerfield must now regroup and recapture that edge it demonstrated just a week ago with three wins in five days.
“One of the keywords we talk about is being resilient, and we did not show it today,” Hurtig said. “We have to get back to what we do well, starting with Vernon Hills in our next game Tuesday, like winning 50-50 balls and winning head balls. We are not finding feet, and that is frustrating. This is a good group of guys, and the foundation of our team is our resilience.”
Starting lineups
Lakes
GK: Danny Wieczorek
D: Dustin Baca
D: Adam Hagman
D: Drew Sweeney
D: Alec Meyer
MF: Zach Dydo
MF: Andrew Gaetano
MF: Charlie Gaida
F: Shane McKeever
F: Jeff Milostan
F: Daniel Stiegel
Deerfield
GK: Ryan Grady
D: Dylan Capp
D: Jeff Lehrman
D: Jack Hammontree
D: Eric Kenney
MF: Louis Solovy
MF: Adam Odzer
MF: Noah Braunstein
F: Cory Johnson
F: Nikita Bankevich
F: Ryan David
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Andrew Gaetano, jr., MF, Lakes,
Scoring summary
First half
Lakes—Andrew Gaetano (Zach Dydo), 38th minute
Second half
Lakes—Daniel Stiegel (Alec Meyer), 73rd minute