Motivated Morton outpaces Addison Trail
Cristian Perez enters game in 2nd half, sparks 4-1 Mustangs win
By Dave Owen
ADDISON – If talent wasn’t enough, Morton also has an increased sense of urgency this season.
The drive of the Mustangs, who are ranked fifth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, was on full display in the second half of a 4-1 West Suburban Conference Gold Division win over a strong Addison Trail side Tuesday.
“We have to take advantage of conference and win something, since we don’t have state this year,” Morton defender Adrian Salto said. “It’s tough, especially since this is our senior year.
“Every game we have to play like it’s a playoff game.”
Senior forward Jesus Perez had similar thoughts and made big things happen, producing a goal and two nice assists to lead the attack for the Mustangs (2-1-1, 2-0-0).
“I told them (my teammates) before the game, this is the conference championship,” said Perez, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. “They’re always a tough team to beat. And we don’t have a state (tournament this season) or anything, so play this game like this is it.”
With Morton star midfielder Cristian Perez missing the first half due to injury, the first 40 minutes were a scoreless back-and-forth battle that epitomized recent meetings between the Mustangs and the Blazers (2-2-1, 2-1-0).
Five minutes in, Morton had two great chances in an 80-second span.
Blazers goalkeeper Mateo Gomez first made a diving block on Ismael Zepeda’s point-blank drive, then Gomez topped that effort by first stopping a Zepeda shot, then recovering to grab Perez’s rebound header.
“We had three chances in the first 10-15 minutes at the doorstep and could have been up 1-0 or 2-0,” Morton coach Jim Bageanis said. “You can’t keep leaving those not finished in those situations, because it will come back and bite us.”
Addison Trail began to show its teeth in the 11th minute on an Alex Sandoval 25-yarder that went just wide of the net.
Then with 22:50 left in the half, Sandoval’s well-placed long send was redirected in front by Ethan Oliva and required a Sebastian Mayorga save.
That chance began the best six-minute stretch of the night for the Blazers, highlighted in the 20th minute by Anthony Hernandez’s dribble in and low liner that Mayorga made a nice block save on.
The increased threats were partially a product of keeping Morton’s first half counterattacks under wraps.
“It was our defense pretty much,” Addison Trail midfielder Angel Gomez said. “We held it strong, we moved the ball well and we were attacking them.
“We were the stronger side in the first half. We found spaces, and our set plays we had them. We just couldn’t finish our chances.”
Dueling chances late in the half included Morton’s threat in the 25th minute (thwarted by a nice Mateo Gomez save on an Edgar Quintero shot and Yani Rendon rebound deflected just wide) and Addison Trail’s bid two minutes later (a powerful 45-yard Angel Gomez free kick smothered on a tough short hop by Mayorga).
Forward Anthony Hernandez was also a big part of the Blazers’ attack.
“I had a lot of shots outside the box,” Hernandez said. “We were testing the keeper. I felt we had such good energy in the first half that we could put one in. But we should have come with that same energy in the second half, and unfortunately we did not.”
That second half began with Cristian Perez back on the field, and motivated Morton kicking things up a notch.
“We talked at halftime that we had to pick it up,” Jesus Perez said. “The rain was crazy, but everyone plays in it. We were missing a key player in the middle in Cristian, and he helped a lot (in the second half) keeping us calm. We made set plays, and we got our goals.”
The first strike came with 34:58 left, when Jesus Perez’s pass set up Gio Alvarez for a 1-0 lead.
That duo produced three goals and three assists between them in an explosive 23-minute stretch.
“They were letting them (Jesus and Gio) play a two-man game,” Bageanis said, “and if we’re on target, we’re dangerous. But in the second half, we made a couple of adjustments in our formation a little bit and freed up Jesus to be able to do more up-top by himself.
“We were almost tempting them to double him and let him play into space. It worked today. We were on target today, and that was good.”
After Mateo Gomez saved a point-blank header by Morton’s Luis Gonzalez with 33 minutes left, Gonzalez went all out to make his next chance count with 31:22 to go.
Off a Jesus Perez left-end line run and cross to the back post, Gonzalez made a diving header on the wet turf that rolled back across the crease and inside the left post for a 2-0 Morton lead.
“In the second half they wanted it more than us,” Angel Gomez said. “They knew they had played a bad first half, and they scrapped it away. And they brought one of their star players Cristian Perez in. He was key.”
Said Bageanis: “Cristian Perez is banged up, so we knew he would only be able to give us about 30 minutes. He started the second half, and that’s when we started having more success.”
That success even came from unlikely distances, thanks to the strong leg of Salto.
The Morton defender’s defensive-end free kick restart with 23:35 to play connected 60-plus yards later with a streaking Alvarez, who chipped a 20-yarder over charging goalkeeper Gomez and into the net for a 3-0 margin.
“Since I have a long kick, coach has me take those,” Salto said. “I just try to get them on goal.”
Beyond that incredible play, Salto’s impact was felt on the defensive end.
“I just had to communicate on the left side,” he said. “Then our center back stepped up in the second half and he started talking more, and that’s when we stepped up on defense. We stayed tighter.”
The loud message for Addison Trail was how missed chances vs. Morton can produce lots of regret.
“We had some opportunities in the first half and a few point-blank chances that we just didn’t finish,” Blazers coach Ryan Dini said. “It’s just something with them; we’ve had so many close games.
“Give them credit. They always find a way to win, especially in conference. It has to be over 50 games now and nobody’s beaten them. But we’re going to keep giving our best effort, and it will be great once we do it.”
Great effort and hustle by Angel Gomez with 19:58 to go led to a Blazers breakthrough.
Gomez collided with Mayorga on a race for a loose ball just inside the box, resulting in both a yellow card and a penalty kick.
Hernandez drove the PK just past a great effort by diving Morton backup keeper Christopher Barajas to cut the Morton lead to 3-1.
“Usually I take five steps diagonally, and I always try to stare down the keeper,” Hernandez said of his PK strategy. “I stare him in his eyes so he gets nervous. I shot to the bottom of the (left) corner, and he almost blocked it.”
It was Hernandez’s fourth goal of the season, and part of a strong night for him that included a 15-yard bicycle kick with 7:20 to play that was saved by Mayorga.
But in the time between Hernandez’s PK and his late acrobatics, Morton reasserted itself with another combination finish.
Alvarez sprung free to open space with 17:07 left, and his cross found Jesus Perez for a nice 15-yard header under the crossbar to ice the 4-1 result.
“Their quality of play with 3 (Jesus Perez), 19 (Cristian Perez) and 10 (Alvarez), they’re all over the place,” Dini said. “And it seems like those guys have been at the school forever. If you give them opportunities, they don’t miss.”
Bageanis has similar respect for Addison Trail.
“This is always a good game,” he said. “It could have just as easily been 4-1 the other way. Usually it’s whoever gets the first one in, and then it’s a little bit of a floodgates opening.”
After the major test of Morton, the Blazers are taking positives with them as the season rolls on.
“We play every game like a championship game,” Angel Gomez said. “We want to win conference – that’s the thing we’re fighting for. Unfortunately, that’s not in our hands anymore, but we’ll move on and focus on our next game.
“We put it in the past and focus on the future. We’re hoping Leyden or any other team can defeat these dudes (Morton). But they’re a great team.”
Starting lineups
Morton
GK Sebastian Mayorga
D Adrian Salto
D Eddie Barranza-Diaz
D Julian Yanez
D Juan Ramirez
M Luis Gonzalez
M Jonathan Murillo
M Gio Alvarez
M Edgar Quintero
F Jesus Perez
F Ismael Zepeda
Addison Trail
GK Mateo Gomez
D Moises Hernandez
D Mert Ahmed
D David Peters
D Adrian Guzman
M Angel Gomez
M Alex Sandoval
M Marcus Baciu
M Eric Garcia
F Brian Flores
F Anthony Hernandez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jesus Perez, sr. F, Morton
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
M- Gio Alvarez (Jesus Perez), 45th min
M- Luis Gonzalez (Perez), 48th min
M- Alvarez (Adrian Salto), 56th min
AT- Anthony Hernandez )PK), 61st min
M- Perez (Alvarez), 63rd min
Cristian Perez enters game in 2nd half, sparks 4-1 Mustangs win
By Dave Owen
ADDISON – If talent wasn’t enough, Morton also has an increased sense of urgency this season.
The drive of the Mustangs, who are ranked fifth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, was on full display in the second half of a 4-1 West Suburban Conference Gold Division win over a strong Addison Trail side Tuesday.
“We have to take advantage of conference and win something, since we don’t have state this year,” Morton defender Adrian Salto said. “It’s tough, especially since this is our senior year.
“Every game we have to play like it’s a playoff game.”
Senior forward Jesus Perez had similar thoughts and made big things happen, producing a goal and two nice assists to lead the attack for the Mustangs (2-1-1, 2-0-0).
“I told them (my teammates) before the game, this is the conference championship,” said Perez, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. “They’re always a tough team to beat. And we don’t have a state (tournament this season) or anything, so play this game like this is it.”
With Morton star midfielder Cristian Perez missing the first half due to injury, the first 40 minutes were a scoreless back-and-forth battle that epitomized recent meetings between the Mustangs and the Blazers (2-2-1, 2-1-0).
Five minutes in, Morton had two great chances in an 80-second span.
Blazers goalkeeper Mateo Gomez first made a diving block on Ismael Zepeda’s point-blank drive, then Gomez topped that effort by first stopping a Zepeda shot, then recovering to grab Perez’s rebound header.
“We had three chances in the first 10-15 minutes at the doorstep and could have been up 1-0 or 2-0,” Morton coach Jim Bageanis said. “You can’t keep leaving those not finished in those situations, because it will come back and bite us.”
Addison Trail began to show its teeth in the 11th minute on an Alex Sandoval 25-yarder that went just wide of the net.
Then with 22:50 left in the half, Sandoval’s well-placed long send was redirected in front by Ethan Oliva and required a Sebastian Mayorga save.
That chance began the best six-minute stretch of the night for the Blazers, highlighted in the 20th minute by Anthony Hernandez’s dribble in and low liner that Mayorga made a nice block save on.
The increased threats were partially a product of keeping Morton’s first half counterattacks under wraps.
“It was our defense pretty much,” Addison Trail midfielder Angel Gomez said. “We held it strong, we moved the ball well and we were attacking them.
“We were the stronger side in the first half. We found spaces, and our set plays we had them. We just couldn’t finish our chances.”
Dueling chances late in the half included Morton’s threat in the 25th minute (thwarted by a nice Mateo Gomez save on an Edgar Quintero shot and Yani Rendon rebound deflected just wide) and Addison Trail’s bid two minutes later (a powerful 45-yard Angel Gomez free kick smothered on a tough short hop by Mayorga).
Forward Anthony Hernandez was also a big part of the Blazers’ attack.
“I had a lot of shots outside the box,” Hernandez said. “We were testing the keeper. I felt we had such good energy in the first half that we could put one in. But we should have come with that same energy in the second half, and unfortunately we did not.”
That second half began with Cristian Perez back on the field, and motivated Morton kicking things up a notch.
“We talked at halftime that we had to pick it up,” Jesus Perez said. “The rain was crazy, but everyone plays in it. We were missing a key player in the middle in Cristian, and he helped a lot (in the second half) keeping us calm. We made set plays, and we got our goals.”
The first strike came with 34:58 left, when Jesus Perez’s pass set up Gio Alvarez for a 1-0 lead.
That duo produced three goals and three assists between them in an explosive 23-minute stretch.
“They were letting them (Jesus and Gio) play a two-man game,” Bageanis said, “and if we’re on target, we’re dangerous. But in the second half, we made a couple of adjustments in our formation a little bit and freed up Jesus to be able to do more up-top by himself.
“We were almost tempting them to double him and let him play into space. It worked today. We were on target today, and that was good.”
After Mateo Gomez saved a point-blank header by Morton’s Luis Gonzalez with 33 minutes left, Gonzalez went all out to make his next chance count with 31:22 to go.
Off a Jesus Perez left-end line run and cross to the back post, Gonzalez made a diving header on the wet turf that rolled back across the crease and inside the left post for a 2-0 Morton lead.
“In the second half they wanted it more than us,” Angel Gomez said. “They knew they had played a bad first half, and they scrapped it away. And they brought one of their star players Cristian Perez in. He was key.”
Said Bageanis: “Cristian Perez is banged up, so we knew he would only be able to give us about 30 minutes. He started the second half, and that’s when we started having more success.”
That success even came from unlikely distances, thanks to the strong leg of Salto.
The Morton defender’s defensive-end free kick restart with 23:35 to play connected 60-plus yards later with a streaking Alvarez, who chipped a 20-yarder over charging goalkeeper Gomez and into the net for a 3-0 margin.
“Since I have a long kick, coach has me take those,” Salto said. “I just try to get them on goal.”
Beyond that incredible play, Salto’s impact was felt on the defensive end.
“I just had to communicate on the left side,” he said. “Then our center back stepped up in the second half and he started talking more, and that’s when we stepped up on defense. We stayed tighter.”
The loud message for Addison Trail was how missed chances vs. Morton can produce lots of regret.
“We had some opportunities in the first half and a few point-blank chances that we just didn’t finish,” Blazers coach Ryan Dini said. “It’s just something with them; we’ve had so many close games.
“Give them credit. They always find a way to win, especially in conference. It has to be over 50 games now and nobody’s beaten them. But we’re going to keep giving our best effort, and it will be great once we do it.”
Great effort and hustle by Angel Gomez with 19:58 to go led to a Blazers breakthrough.
Gomez collided with Mayorga on a race for a loose ball just inside the box, resulting in both a yellow card and a penalty kick.
Hernandez drove the PK just past a great effort by diving Morton backup keeper Christopher Barajas to cut the Morton lead to 3-1.
“Usually I take five steps diagonally, and I always try to stare down the keeper,” Hernandez said of his PK strategy. “I stare him in his eyes so he gets nervous. I shot to the bottom of the (left) corner, and he almost blocked it.”
It was Hernandez’s fourth goal of the season, and part of a strong night for him that included a 15-yard bicycle kick with 7:20 to play that was saved by Mayorga.
But in the time between Hernandez’s PK and his late acrobatics, Morton reasserted itself with another combination finish.
Alvarez sprung free to open space with 17:07 left, and his cross found Jesus Perez for a nice 15-yard header under the crossbar to ice the 4-1 result.
“Their quality of play with 3 (Jesus Perez), 19 (Cristian Perez) and 10 (Alvarez), they’re all over the place,” Dini said. “And it seems like those guys have been at the school forever. If you give them opportunities, they don’t miss.”
Bageanis has similar respect for Addison Trail.
“This is always a good game,” he said. “It could have just as easily been 4-1 the other way. Usually it’s whoever gets the first one in, and then it’s a little bit of a floodgates opening.”
After the major test of Morton, the Blazers are taking positives with them as the season rolls on.
“We play every game like a championship game,” Angel Gomez said. “We want to win conference – that’s the thing we’re fighting for. Unfortunately, that’s not in our hands anymore, but we’ll move on and focus on our next game.
“We put it in the past and focus on the future. We’re hoping Leyden or any other team can defeat these dudes (Morton). But they’re a great team.”
Starting lineups
Morton
GK Sebastian Mayorga
D Adrian Salto
D Eddie Barranza-Diaz
D Julian Yanez
D Juan Ramirez
M Luis Gonzalez
M Jonathan Murillo
M Gio Alvarez
M Edgar Quintero
F Jesus Perez
F Ismael Zepeda
Addison Trail
GK Mateo Gomez
D Moises Hernandez
D Mert Ahmed
D David Peters
D Adrian Guzman
M Angel Gomez
M Alex Sandoval
M Marcus Baciu
M Eric Garcia
F Brian Flores
F Anthony Hernandez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jesus Perez, sr. F, Morton
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
M- Gio Alvarez (Jesus Perez), 45th min
M- Luis Gonzalez (Perez), 48th min
M- Alvarez (Adrian Salto), 56th min
AT- Anthony Hernandez )PK), 61st min
M- Perez (Alvarez), 63rd min