SCE upends Metea Valley in tourney tussle
Fighting Saints upset no. 7 Mustangs with 2-1 result
By Steve Nemeth
ST. CHARLES --- High-intensity, tooth-and-nail tournament soccer is generally a reference to October postseason play, however, it applied to Friday’s Orange Group-play finale at the inaugural St. Charles Tournament.
St. Charles East scored early in both halves but then had to cling by its fingernails to secure a 2-1 win over Metea Valley. It may well have been the most evenly-battled contest in the new eight-school event being co-hosted by East and rival St. Charles North.
Three days of group play led to the following match-ups for Saturday’s finale: East’s Saints meet Maine South at 11:30 a.m. on St. Charles North’s field to determine third place. That is followed at 1:30 p.m. by the Blue Group-winning North Stars versus Orange Group-victor Elgin for the championship.
Due to lower level football on East’s new turf field, Downers Grove North and Plainfield Central square off at 2 p.m. followed at 4 p.m. by Metea Valley and Leyden.
The last Orange Group match got off to a thrilling start as the Saints (2-2-0) scored just 1:01 into the match. Truitt Battin fed fellow senior Luke Schnitker and the resulting 11-yard blast from the right side had the home fans cheering.
However, Metea Valley’s Jaylen Brooks had the perfect response to silence those folks when he equalized a mere 48 seconds later.
A match-long scoring threat, Battin produced the game-winning goal 3:38 into the second half and earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match accolade. While the next Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 is certain to produce some shifts in this topsy-turvy season, the last one had Metea Valley rated seventh and the Saints listed among the honorable mention teams.
“We work on give-and-go plays with the purpose of always finding the open guy with the best chance to score,” Battin explained. “Noticing Luke making a good follow-up run it was easy to find him in the clear, and he had an excellent finish.”
The evening of work for St. Charles East captain Battin produced his first assist of the young season.
The Fighting Saints buzz in the stands ended abruptly after the restart when Metea VAlley went immediately on the attack. When a ricochet landed just to the right of center, Brooks knocked in his second goal of the season.
“The ball pretty much fell to my feet, and one of coach’s basics is always look far post with the hope it can slip in or be deflected to a teammate, whether from the opposing keeper or a post,” Brooks explained. “It does feel good to score, especially when it’s a quick counter like that, but all we truly care about is winning and that didn’t happen. But knowing my teammates, we’ll be back ready to do that tomorrow.”
Actually it was the Saints who appeared more eager if not ready to end the 1-1 tie. Metea Valley goalie Gandhi Cruz was put to the test earning all but one of his six saves in the opening half. Fortunately for him, midfielder Evan Lang also made a stop while guarding the line.
Nine of the Saints’ 15 overall attempts as well as seven-of-nine shots on goal occurred in the first 40 minutes. While Battin owned a few of those near misses, he exhibited that special quality of learning from one’s failures.
“After one or two of my early chances I believed it would be a matter of time before I made the right kind of kick,” Battin said in regard to his team-high fourth goal of the year that came at 43:38.
His direct kick from 22 yards on the left wing struck the underside of the crossbar and was ruled to have come down and in, however, the Mustangs disputed that view.
“There is a combination of playing under the lights and in front of fans that adds to getting a score,” Battin added. “Ideally it gets our energy up and makes us want to move forward to get another goal.”
Unfortunately for East, that didn’t happen.
“It may sound a little contradictory, but I’m proud of the way we managed the last 15 minutes which Metea actually was better,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “I was happy with our reaction to the goal after they equalized, and we were playing better in the first 20 minutes of the second half but got a little complacent. I know we’re capable, but we’re not finding that third and fourth goal.
“So the plus is that we buckled down and defended the lead,” DiNuzzo said. “But I’d really prefer to see us build on a lead. Facing a team as good as Metea helps you see the issues you need to resolve. Another plus of this tournament was that we have a young group, and they were exposed the other night to the pressure experience of being in a shootout.”
DiNuzzo was referring to the Saints’ Wednesday match with Elgin that ended in a 2-2 draw in regulation. However, Elgin used a 5-4 advantage in that shootout for a victory. Ironically earlier on Friday, the Maroons rallied for a 2-2 deadlock with Downers Grove North, but then came up short 5-3 in penalty kicks.
East senior Grayson Biddle thought the Saints took another step forward in beating Metea Valley.
“We’ve got some proven goal scorers in Truitt, George (Maridis) and Renato (Avendano). We just need to get them the ball either from in back or midfield,” noted Biddle, whose versatility applies to either the backline or midfield.
“I believe the biggest difference for players from last year to this year is having a stronger senior class. But as a team, it’s that coach DiNuzzo has had us doing a lot more fitness work, team-bonding, and film work. Even though we’ve got some young guys on defense, the whole team uses the concept of playing simple and smart,” Biddle said.
Smart was reduced to the form of not giving up a goal. Quite frankly, it wasn’t always pretty or simple for the Saints as Metea Valley fought hard for the equalizer. Statistically the Mustangs had 10 of their 14 overall tries in the second half along with five of their seven shots on goal. Within the last 10 minutes, there were two occasions when Metea Valley attempted three-straight corner kicks which led to a 9-2 edge in that category.
“We know as a team that we can fight to the end in close games,” Mustang senior Lang said. “Coming off last year, we definitely have a ton of people who can score and more chemistry. Unfortunately so far it’s just not quite clicking into place.”
Displaying no signs of panic, Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson pretty much agreed.
“While we’re still trying to find ourselves, somehow they’re feeling pressure to perform instead of just playing,” Robinson said. “It’s like we played poorly on Monday and great in many ways on Wednesday. They are their own biggest competitor. Tonight we worked our butts off. Credit them (East) for working real hard, but we matched them. We gave up a couple of silly goals and then we hit the post and just missed on a couple opportunities.”
East goalie Zach Doerr had to withstand a variety of tests including a late blast by Matthew Berry. In addition to the numerous corner kicks, James Lynch demonstrated several times his skill at landing dangerous throw-ins in front of the cage.
“Our right back, Ulises (Caballero) really worked hard at keeping Lynch from breaking us down,” DiNuzzo noted. “He goes from one side of the box to the other and also looks for ways to ignite or get in on the offense.”
That unsung hero role in Metea Valley’s line-up belonged to Spencer Collins.
“He was making his second start at center back, and I really like his effort,” Robinson said. “He has brought a lot of grit to the backline.”
After Saturday’s matches, both teams turn their attentions to the start of league play. Metea Valley has a Tuesday DuPage Valley Conference visit to Naperville Central while the Saints welcome Glenbard North in one of four matches that day that begin the history of DuKane Conference action.
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Gandhi Cruz
D Andrew Wang
D Tony Sanchez
D Spencer Collins
D Erik Severson
M Matthew Berry
M Evan Lang
M Joey Donovan
F James Lynch
F Dominic Capezzuto
F Jaylen Brooks
St. Charles East
GK Zach Doerr
D Grayson Biddle
D Ryan Champine
D Renato Avendano
D Alex Mancera
M Andrew Cayton
M Brandan Adams
M Geoff Unterberg
M Luke Schnitker
M Ulises Cabellero
F Sebastian Carranza
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Truitt Battin, sr., M, St. Charles East
Referees: Trevor Fulk (center), Kevin O’Conner, Jay McGrane
Game summary
South Elgin 2, St. Charles East 1
Metea Valley 1 0 --- 1 2-2-1
St. Charles East 1 1 --- 2 2-2-0
Scoring
First half
SCE – Schnitker 11-yarder from right side (Battin assist), 1:01 gone
MV – Brooks 11-yard loose ball follow-up (unassisted), 1:49 gone
Second half
SCE – Battin 22-yard direct kick from left wing (unassisted), 43:38 gone
Shots
MV 4 – 10 --- 14
SCE 9 – 6 --- 15
Shots on goal
MV 2 – 5 --- 7
SCE 7 – 2 --- 9
Saves
MV (goalie Cruz 5 / Lang 1) 6 – 1 --- 7
SCE (Doerr) 1 – 5 --- 6
Corner kicks
MV 1 – 8 --- 9
SCE 1 – 1 --- 2
Offsides
MV 0 – 0 --- 0
SCE 1 – 0 --- 1
Fighting Saints upset no. 7 Mustangs with 2-1 result
By Steve Nemeth
ST. CHARLES --- High-intensity, tooth-and-nail tournament soccer is generally a reference to October postseason play, however, it applied to Friday’s Orange Group-play finale at the inaugural St. Charles Tournament.
St. Charles East scored early in both halves but then had to cling by its fingernails to secure a 2-1 win over Metea Valley. It may well have been the most evenly-battled contest in the new eight-school event being co-hosted by East and rival St. Charles North.
Three days of group play led to the following match-ups for Saturday’s finale: East’s Saints meet Maine South at 11:30 a.m. on St. Charles North’s field to determine third place. That is followed at 1:30 p.m. by the Blue Group-winning North Stars versus Orange Group-victor Elgin for the championship.
Due to lower level football on East’s new turf field, Downers Grove North and Plainfield Central square off at 2 p.m. followed at 4 p.m. by Metea Valley and Leyden.
The last Orange Group match got off to a thrilling start as the Saints (2-2-0) scored just 1:01 into the match. Truitt Battin fed fellow senior Luke Schnitker and the resulting 11-yard blast from the right side had the home fans cheering.
However, Metea Valley’s Jaylen Brooks had the perfect response to silence those folks when he equalized a mere 48 seconds later.
A match-long scoring threat, Battin produced the game-winning goal 3:38 into the second half and earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match accolade. While the next Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 is certain to produce some shifts in this topsy-turvy season, the last one had Metea Valley rated seventh and the Saints listed among the honorable mention teams.
“We work on give-and-go plays with the purpose of always finding the open guy with the best chance to score,” Battin explained. “Noticing Luke making a good follow-up run it was easy to find him in the clear, and he had an excellent finish.”
The evening of work for St. Charles East captain Battin produced his first assist of the young season.
The Fighting Saints buzz in the stands ended abruptly after the restart when Metea VAlley went immediately on the attack. When a ricochet landed just to the right of center, Brooks knocked in his second goal of the season.
“The ball pretty much fell to my feet, and one of coach’s basics is always look far post with the hope it can slip in or be deflected to a teammate, whether from the opposing keeper or a post,” Brooks explained. “It does feel good to score, especially when it’s a quick counter like that, but all we truly care about is winning and that didn’t happen. But knowing my teammates, we’ll be back ready to do that tomorrow.”
Actually it was the Saints who appeared more eager if not ready to end the 1-1 tie. Metea Valley goalie Gandhi Cruz was put to the test earning all but one of his six saves in the opening half. Fortunately for him, midfielder Evan Lang also made a stop while guarding the line.
Nine of the Saints’ 15 overall attempts as well as seven-of-nine shots on goal occurred in the first 40 minutes. While Battin owned a few of those near misses, he exhibited that special quality of learning from one’s failures.
“After one or two of my early chances I believed it would be a matter of time before I made the right kind of kick,” Battin said in regard to his team-high fourth goal of the year that came at 43:38.
His direct kick from 22 yards on the left wing struck the underside of the crossbar and was ruled to have come down and in, however, the Mustangs disputed that view.
“There is a combination of playing under the lights and in front of fans that adds to getting a score,” Battin added. “Ideally it gets our energy up and makes us want to move forward to get another goal.”
Unfortunately for East, that didn’t happen.
“It may sound a little contradictory, but I’m proud of the way we managed the last 15 minutes which Metea actually was better,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “I was happy with our reaction to the goal after they equalized, and we were playing better in the first 20 minutes of the second half but got a little complacent. I know we’re capable, but we’re not finding that third and fourth goal.
“So the plus is that we buckled down and defended the lead,” DiNuzzo said. “But I’d really prefer to see us build on a lead. Facing a team as good as Metea helps you see the issues you need to resolve. Another plus of this tournament was that we have a young group, and they were exposed the other night to the pressure experience of being in a shootout.”
DiNuzzo was referring to the Saints’ Wednesday match with Elgin that ended in a 2-2 draw in regulation. However, Elgin used a 5-4 advantage in that shootout for a victory. Ironically earlier on Friday, the Maroons rallied for a 2-2 deadlock with Downers Grove North, but then came up short 5-3 in penalty kicks.
East senior Grayson Biddle thought the Saints took another step forward in beating Metea Valley.
“We’ve got some proven goal scorers in Truitt, George (Maridis) and Renato (Avendano). We just need to get them the ball either from in back or midfield,” noted Biddle, whose versatility applies to either the backline or midfield.
“I believe the biggest difference for players from last year to this year is having a stronger senior class. But as a team, it’s that coach DiNuzzo has had us doing a lot more fitness work, team-bonding, and film work. Even though we’ve got some young guys on defense, the whole team uses the concept of playing simple and smart,” Biddle said.
Smart was reduced to the form of not giving up a goal. Quite frankly, it wasn’t always pretty or simple for the Saints as Metea Valley fought hard for the equalizer. Statistically the Mustangs had 10 of their 14 overall tries in the second half along with five of their seven shots on goal. Within the last 10 minutes, there were two occasions when Metea Valley attempted three-straight corner kicks which led to a 9-2 edge in that category.
“We know as a team that we can fight to the end in close games,” Mustang senior Lang said. “Coming off last year, we definitely have a ton of people who can score and more chemistry. Unfortunately so far it’s just not quite clicking into place.”
Displaying no signs of panic, Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson pretty much agreed.
“While we’re still trying to find ourselves, somehow they’re feeling pressure to perform instead of just playing,” Robinson said. “It’s like we played poorly on Monday and great in many ways on Wednesday. They are their own biggest competitor. Tonight we worked our butts off. Credit them (East) for working real hard, but we matched them. We gave up a couple of silly goals and then we hit the post and just missed on a couple opportunities.”
East goalie Zach Doerr had to withstand a variety of tests including a late blast by Matthew Berry. In addition to the numerous corner kicks, James Lynch demonstrated several times his skill at landing dangerous throw-ins in front of the cage.
“Our right back, Ulises (Caballero) really worked hard at keeping Lynch from breaking us down,” DiNuzzo noted. “He goes from one side of the box to the other and also looks for ways to ignite or get in on the offense.”
That unsung hero role in Metea Valley’s line-up belonged to Spencer Collins.
“He was making his second start at center back, and I really like his effort,” Robinson said. “He has brought a lot of grit to the backline.”
After Saturday’s matches, both teams turn their attentions to the start of league play. Metea Valley has a Tuesday DuPage Valley Conference visit to Naperville Central while the Saints welcome Glenbard North in one of four matches that day that begin the history of DuKane Conference action.
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Gandhi Cruz
D Andrew Wang
D Tony Sanchez
D Spencer Collins
D Erik Severson
M Matthew Berry
M Evan Lang
M Joey Donovan
F James Lynch
F Dominic Capezzuto
F Jaylen Brooks
St. Charles East
GK Zach Doerr
D Grayson Biddle
D Ryan Champine
D Renato Avendano
D Alex Mancera
M Andrew Cayton
M Brandan Adams
M Geoff Unterberg
M Luke Schnitker
M Ulises Cabellero
F Sebastian Carranza
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Truitt Battin, sr., M, St. Charles East
Referees: Trevor Fulk (center), Kevin O’Conner, Jay McGrane
Game summary
South Elgin 2, St. Charles East 1
Metea Valley 1 0 --- 1 2-2-1
St. Charles East 1 1 --- 2 2-2-0
Scoring
First half
SCE – Schnitker 11-yarder from right side (Battin assist), 1:01 gone
MV – Brooks 11-yard loose ball follow-up (unassisted), 1:49 gone
Second half
SCE – Battin 22-yard direct kick from left wing (unassisted), 43:38 gone
Shots
MV 4 – 10 --- 14
SCE 9 – 6 --- 15
Shots on goal
MV 2 – 5 --- 7
SCE 7 – 2 --- 9
Saves
MV (goalie Cruz 5 / Lang 1) 6 – 1 --- 7
SCE (Doerr) 1 – 5 --- 6
Corner kicks
MV 1 – 8 --- 9
SCE 1 – 1 --- 2
Offsides
MV 0 – 0 --- 0
SCE 1 – 0 --- 1