Metea Valley denies Oswego East's late bid
MV keeper Cruz stops Huitron shot to preserve 1-1 tie
By Matt Le Cren
OSWEGO – The first 65 minutes were a snooze.
Oswego East and visiting Metea Valley slogged through over an hour of play on a muddy pitch on a chilly Saturday morning like two teams that had been up late watching Friday night football.
But the last 15 minutes, especially the final 40 seconds, produced some highlight-reel moments. The best didn’t even feature a goal, but merely the prevention of one, as Metea Valley goalkeeper Gandhi Cruz again showed why he is one of the state’s top goalkeepers.
Cruz came off his line to block a wide-open shot from point-blank range off the foot of his club teammate, Dimitri Huitron, with 38 seconds left.
Oswego East likewise dodged a bullet with 10 seconds left when Metea’s Matthew Dovalovsky fired a 20-yard runner wide of the left post and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
But the greatest buzz was about the confrontation between Cruz and Huitron, a junior midfielder who had triggered the play that led to the Wolves tying the game with 6:33 left.
“To play against Gandhi is amazing,” Huitron said. “He’s a guy I never thought I would be able to play with in club, and to play against him is good. It’s like playing against a brother.”
Brothers, of course, know each other like no one else knows them. Strengths and weaknesses can’t be hidden.
Huitron says he has scored on Cruz in club practices but never in a game. Cruz made sure Huitron came up empty on what appeared to be Oswego East’s golden opportunity to pull off an unlikely victory.
The Wolves (5-8-2) had a 2-on-1 breakaway, with Kellen Klosterman taking the ball into the left side of the box. Metea’s defender went with him but failed to deny the cross, which found Huitron unmarked about 10 feet in front of the goal.
Huitron had to take one touch to corral the bouncing ball before getting off a clean shot. But Cruz had come off his line just enough to cut down the angle and blocked the shot.
“It was a good ball from Kellen,” Huitron said. “It was the ball I expected, but I knew Gandhi Cruz was the type of player that can close down really quickly.
“I tried to get a shot off as quick as I could because Gandhi is an amazing goalie.”
Huitron was quick, but Cruz was quicker.
“I just saw one of their forwards play a cross to him,” Cruz said. “It was bouncing, and I saw he didn’t control it that well.
“When it was in the air still, I just tried my best to get in front of it as much as I could.
“Fortunately, I was able to get my body behind it, so it just hit me directly.”
If not for Cruz, the Wolves would have followed their worst loss of the season with their arguably their best victory.
“If that’s an average goalie, I think we win the game 2-1,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “Dimitri hit a great ball that was on frame. He came out, and he timed it perfectly.”
But the Wolves did manage to put Thursday’s desultory 3-0 loss to Plainfield East behind them with a late rally against Metea Valley.
The Mustangs (6-5-4) led 1-0 when Huitron sent a 22-yard free kick into a crowd in the middle of the Metea box. Dacarlos Parodis-Yu dug it out of traffic and fired a 10-yard shot past Cruz as he was falling down with 6:33 to go.
“We played probably our worst game of the entire year on Thursday, lost 3-0 to Plainfield East,” Szymanski said. “I was happy with how we responded. We came out and played with a lot more effort, a lot more energy.
There weren’t a lot of high-quality chances in the match, especially in the first half, but both teams had their moments. Cruz had to make only two saves while his counterpart, Owen Kiisgaard, made four for the Wolves, including a diving stop on a header from Colin Bastianoni midway through the first half.
“It was back and forth,” Szymanski said. “We had our stretches where we possessed better, they had stretches where they possessed better.
“They definitely had a couple more dangerous opportunities. Owen made some nice saves but when it came down to it, we were right there.”
That was encouraging to Huitron, who has seen improvement in recent weeks.
“It’s getting better,” Huitron said. “Definitely from the start of the season it’s much better. But there’re still games to play, and I feel like this isn’t the best that we can play.
“I believe that we can play better. There is a lot to work on.”
The sentiment among the Mustangs was similar.
“There’s definitely some good takeaways from this game,” Cruz said. “We have to do better as a team to put the ball in the back of the net more consistently.
“I know we tied, but if they would have scored (at the end), that wouldn’t have mattered. We could have had four or five goals in the second half.”
The Mustangs did get one when Dovalovsky tallied his first goal of the season with 14:39 remaining. Facing a one-man wall, Abraham Antar sent a 22-yard free kick from deep in the left corner in front to Dovalovsky, who went up with a defender for a header.
The ball deflected up in the air back to Dovalovsky, who settled the ball near the left post and flicked a right-footed shot under the crossbar.
“It was a good ball in,” Dovalovsky said. “I was in a good position to head it.
“I don’t know if I got my head on it or if it went by me, but I know it bounced back to me. Then I just hit it with the outside of my foot and got it near post.”
That might have held up as the game-winner if not for Parodis-Yu’s strike.
“I thought there’s a chance, but you can never be sure,” Dovalovsky said. “Good teams like this, there’s always a chance they’re coming back, and you have to stay strong.”
Dovalovsky said the offensively challenged Mustangs have been getting stronger but more needs to be done.
“I think for the most part we had the run of play, and we played really good this game,” Dovalovsky said. “We have to keep our head up for playoffs, because we’re going to be playing good teams like this.
“So we have to work on what we messed up on and how we can do better so when playoff time comes, we’re on our ‘A’ game.”
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Gandhi Cruz
D Justin Hines
D Clarke Simonvich
D Tyler Kero
D Adam Castleman
M Nick Sanchez
M Abraham Antar
M Davis Quarles
M Colin Bastianoni
F Matthew Dovalovsky
F Alex Krehl
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiisgaard
D Cael Cummings
D Ryan D’Adamo
D Zachary Seidel
M Grant Glorioso
M Kellen Klosterman
M Carter Boberg
M Ethan Klosterman
M Dimitri Huitron
F Dacarlos Parodis-Yu
F Andre Cases
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Gandhi Cruz, sr., GK, Metea Valley
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Metea Valley – Matthew Dovalovsky 14:39
Oswego East – Dacarlos Parodis-Yu 6:33
MV keeper Cruz stops Huitron shot to preserve 1-1 tie
By Matt Le Cren
OSWEGO – The first 65 minutes were a snooze.
Oswego East and visiting Metea Valley slogged through over an hour of play on a muddy pitch on a chilly Saturday morning like two teams that had been up late watching Friday night football.
But the last 15 minutes, especially the final 40 seconds, produced some highlight-reel moments. The best didn’t even feature a goal, but merely the prevention of one, as Metea Valley goalkeeper Gandhi Cruz again showed why he is one of the state’s top goalkeepers.
Cruz came off his line to block a wide-open shot from point-blank range off the foot of his club teammate, Dimitri Huitron, with 38 seconds left.
Oswego East likewise dodged a bullet with 10 seconds left when Metea’s Matthew Dovalovsky fired a 20-yard runner wide of the left post and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
But the greatest buzz was about the confrontation between Cruz and Huitron, a junior midfielder who had triggered the play that led to the Wolves tying the game with 6:33 left.
“To play against Gandhi is amazing,” Huitron said. “He’s a guy I never thought I would be able to play with in club, and to play against him is good. It’s like playing against a brother.”
Brothers, of course, know each other like no one else knows them. Strengths and weaknesses can’t be hidden.
Huitron says he has scored on Cruz in club practices but never in a game. Cruz made sure Huitron came up empty on what appeared to be Oswego East’s golden opportunity to pull off an unlikely victory.
The Wolves (5-8-2) had a 2-on-1 breakaway, with Kellen Klosterman taking the ball into the left side of the box. Metea’s defender went with him but failed to deny the cross, which found Huitron unmarked about 10 feet in front of the goal.
Huitron had to take one touch to corral the bouncing ball before getting off a clean shot. But Cruz had come off his line just enough to cut down the angle and blocked the shot.
“It was a good ball from Kellen,” Huitron said. “It was the ball I expected, but I knew Gandhi Cruz was the type of player that can close down really quickly.
“I tried to get a shot off as quick as I could because Gandhi is an amazing goalie.”
Huitron was quick, but Cruz was quicker.
“I just saw one of their forwards play a cross to him,” Cruz said. “It was bouncing, and I saw he didn’t control it that well.
“When it was in the air still, I just tried my best to get in front of it as much as I could.
“Fortunately, I was able to get my body behind it, so it just hit me directly.”
If not for Cruz, the Wolves would have followed their worst loss of the season with their arguably their best victory.
“If that’s an average goalie, I think we win the game 2-1,” Oswego East coach Steve Szymanski said. “Dimitri hit a great ball that was on frame. He came out, and he timed it perfectly.”
But the Wolves did manage to put Thursday’s desultory 3-0 loss to Plainfield East behind them with a late rally against Metea Valley.
The Mustangs (6-5-4) led 1-0 when Huitron sent a 22-yard free kick into a crowd in the middle of the Metea box. Dacarlos Parodis-Yu dug it out of traffic and fired a 10-yard shot past Cruz as he was falling down with 6:33 to go.
“We played probably our worst game of the entire year on Thursday, lost 3-0 to Plainfield East,” Szymanski said. “I was happy with how we responded. We came out and played with a lot more effort, a lot more energy.
There weren’t a lot of high-quality chances in the match, especially in the first half, but both teams had their moments. Cruz had to make only two saves while his counterpart, Owen Kiisgaard, made four for the Wolves, including a diving stop on a header from Colin Bastianoni midway through the first half.
“It was back and forth,” Szymanski said. “We had our stretches where we possessed better, they had stretches where they possessed better.
“They definitely had a couple more dangerous opportunities. Owen made some nice saves but when it came down to it, we were right there.”
That was encouraging to Huitron, who has seen improvement in recent weeks.
“It’s getting better,” Huitron said. “Definitely from the start of the season it’s much better. But there’re still games to play, and I feel like this isn’t the best that we can play.
“I believe that we can play better. There is a lot to work on.”
The sentiment among the Mustangs was similar.
“There’s definitely some good takeaways from this game,” Cruz said. “We have to do better as a team to put the ball in the back of the net more consistently.
“I know we tied, but if they would have scored (at the end), that wouldn’t have mattered. We could have had four or five goals in the second half.”
The Mustangs did get one when Dovalovsky tallied his first goal of the season with 14:39 remaining. Facing a one-man wall, Abraham Antar sent a 22-yard free kick from deep in the left corner in front to Dovalovsky, who went up with a defender for a header.
The ball deflected up in the air back to Dovalovsky, who settled the ball near the left post and flicked a right-footed shot under the crossbar.
“It was a good ball in,” Dovalovsky said. “I was in a good position to head it.
“I don’t know if I got my head on it or if it went by me, but I know it bounced back to me. Then I just hit it with the outside of my foot and got it near post.”
That might have held up as the game-winner if not for Parodis-Yu’s strike.
“I thought there’s a chance, but you can never be sure,” Dovalovsky said. “Good teams like this, there’s always a chance they’re coming back, and you have to stay strong.”
Dovalovsky said the offensively challenged Mustangs have been getting stronger but more needs to be done.
“I think for the most part we had the run of play, and we played really good this game,” Dovalovsky said. “We have to keep our head up for playoffs, because we’re going to be playing good teams like this.
“So we have to work on what we messed up on and how we can do better so when playoff time comes, we’re on our ‘A’ game.”
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Gandhi Cruz
D Justin Hines
D Clarke Simonvich
D Tyler Kero
D Adam Castleman
M Nick Sanchez
M Abraham Antar
M Davis Quarles
M Colin Bastianoni
F Matthew Dovalovsky
F Alex Krehl
Oswego East
GK Owen Kiisgaard
D Cael Cummings
D Ryan D’Adamo
D Zachary Seidel
M Grant Glorioso
M Kellen Klosterman
M Carter Boberg
M Ethan Klosterman
M Dimitri Huitron
F Dacarlos Parodis-Yu
F Andre Cases
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Gandhi Cruz, sr., GK, Metea Valley
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Metea Valley – Matthew Dovalovsky 14:39
Oswego East – Dacarlos Parodis-Yu 6:33