St. Ignatius, OPRF find intensity in draw
Possible preview of postseason meeting plays out in Chicago
By Gary Larsen
CHICAGO -- A late-season game without conference or sectional-seeding ramifications might have made for a lackluster Saturday match, but Oak Park and River Forest and St. Ignatius turned it into a preview of the looming intensity of postseason soccer.
Well, at least in the game’s second half.
“The first half was a little slow but both teams played much faster in the second half,” Oak Park and River Forest coach Jason Fried said. “Both ways, we picked it up a notch.
“It was a good test for us against a good team. That’s the type of game we’ll see in the playoffs soon. It was a good atmosphere, and it will just help to get us ready. Now we just have to finish.”
After a sluggish first half, the Huskies' James Maguire scored off a throw-in from Andrew Barkidjija four minutes into the second half. St. Ignatius answered quickly with a Kendalle Rice goal on a counter and an assist from Misha Simon.
That was all the scoring in an eventual 1-1 tie between two highly ranked teams in the Class 3A Hinsdale Central Section. Oak Park and River Forest (12-2-1) is seeded second, and St. Ignatius (11-3-3) is ranked fourth.
“They’re a good, solid team,” St. Ignatius coach Ryan Kearns said. “They were covering almost every aspect of the field, and they made very few mistakes. They had a lot of good looks, but I think they got a little lucky on their goal. And then we got lucky on the counter for what was really our only good shot of the game.”
After the two quick strikes, intensity marked play to the final buzzer.
St. Ignatius played on Thursday and had a fairly intense training session on Friday, before taking on a a deep team from Oak Park that last played on Wednesday.
The visitors applied most of the attacking pressure in the second half, but St. Ignatius proved up to the challenge at every turn.
St. Ignatius keeper Keenan Troy was named Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match for his leadership and aggressive play in the face of numerous Oak Park and River Forest serves to his goalmouth.
Troy applauded the play of St. Ignatius outside backs Carlos Sierra, Sachin Medler, and Jack Galante.
“I just think we got a little winded,” Troy said of his side. “(OPRF's) outside wings did a really nice job of trying to isolate our outside backs, cutting in and cutting out, trying to get our outside backs to mess up. But they did a really good job.”
For Oak Park and River Forest, persistent attacking pressure came courtesy of a team-wide effort led by midfielder Barkidjija and forward Brody Bliss. But it was the throng of fresh bodies that Fried rotated in that fueled the Huskies’ aggressive play.
“We put a lot of guys in today, and they played well across the board in the second half," said Fried. "Matt Hawthorne, Sam Menzies, I thought Nigel Sykes came in and gave us a spark, and Cam Duncan really hustled on the outside today.”
When coaches of the best teams in soccer make substitutions, there doesn’t seem to be any discernible drop-off in the level of their team’s play. OPRF has a bench full of players that kept the Huskies playing at a high level. That's a big reason they are ranked ninth in Chicagoland Soccer Top 25.
OPRF’s starting backline features Eric Gusloff, Blake Soto, Jai Hsieh-Bailey, and Nick Humbert, but Tommy Pasternak and Ryan Stutz have been key defenders rotating in off the bench all season.
And there’s consistently been no discernible difference or drop-off in the Huskies’ play.
“You see the intensity and you want to be on the field, and you don’t want to be the person that brings it down,” Pasternak said. “Last year we didn’t have as much depth. I tore my ACL last year and didn’t get to play at all. But this year I think our whole group of subs could be a starting team.”
Pasternak gets no argument from his coach.
“This year I can send out any one of them, and they all work extremely hard,” Fried said. “We’ve had great depth this year. Now we have to (play) just one more little notch faster.”
Both teams know they likely won’t get away with playing sluggishly once the postseason arrives.
“We’ve been good about that but the Saturday games have been the hardest,” Gusloff said. “We tend to come out slow on Saturdays. In the first half I thought we played all right, we just didn’t finish our chances. We had them but we didn’t put them away and in the second half, we came out with a lot more energy.”
Kearns applauded OPRF’s play in the second half and likes the test the Huskies provided to his side.
“We used to play Oak Park at the beginning of September,” Kearns said. “Playing good teams late in the year makes it worthwhile for the postseason. That’s why I added Leyden to the end of the season instead of the beginning.”
Kearns is pleased with the way his boys have played this season.
“I’ve been really happy with (Troy) the last couple games and (midfielder) Danny Fernandez has been awesome almost every game since the beginning of the season,” Kearns said. “He didn’t start at the beginning of the year as a sophomore but then he gave us no reasons to not start him.
“And I love the way (midfielder) Eduardo Lopez is playing. I pulled (forward) Kendalle Rice up because his JV season is coming to an end, and he's been awesome for us. And Christian Telles in the back has stepped up.”
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK Keenan Troy
D Carlos Sierra
D Christian Telles
D Sachin Medler
M Rudy Biegimeier
M Jason Pratt
M Eduardo Lopez
M Brendan Lynch
M Daniel Fernandez
F Owen Allen
F Quinn Troy
OPRF
GK Kel Felton
D Eric Gusloff
D Jai Hsieh-Bailey
D Blake Soto
D Nick Humbert
M Bobby Iwashima
M Sam Menzies
M James Maguire
M Andrew Barkidjija
F Brody Bliss
F Matt Hawthorne
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Keenan Troy, jr. GK, St. Ignatius
Scoring summary
Second half
St. Ignatius — Rice (Simon)
OPRF — Maguire (Barkidjija)
Possible preview of postseason meeting plays out in Chicago
By Gary Larsen
CHICAGO -- A late-season game without conference or sectional-seeding ramifications might have made for a lackluster Saturday match, but Oak Park and River Forest and St. Ignatius turned it into a preview of the looming intensity of postseason soccer.
Well, at least in the game’s second half.
“The first half was a little slow but both teams played much faster in the second half,” Oak Park and River Forest coach Jason Fried said. “Both ways, we picked it up a notch.
“It was a good test for us against a good team. That’s the type of game we’ll see in the playoffs soon. It was a good atmosphere, and it will just help to get us ready. Now we just have to finish.”
After a sluggish first half, the Huskies' James Maguire scored off a throw-in from Andrew Barkidjija four minutes into the second half. St. Ignatius answered quickly with a Kendalle Rice goal on a counter and an assist from Misha Simon.
That was all the scoring in an eventual 1-1 tie between two highly ranked teams in the Class 3A Hinsdale Central Section. Oak Park and River Forest (12-2-1) is seeded second, and St. Ignatius (11-3-3) is ranked fourth.
“They’re a good, solid team,” St. Ignatius coach Ryan Kearns said. “They were covering almost every aspect of the field, and they made very few mistakes. They had a lot of good looks, but I think they got a little lucky on their goal. And then we got lucky on the counter for what was really our only good shot of the game.”
After the two quick strikes, intensity marked play to the final buzzer.
St. Ignatius played on Thursday and had a fairly intense training session on Friday, before taking on a a deep team from Oak Park that last played on Wednesday.
The visitors applied most of the attacking pressure in the second half, but St. Ignatius proved up to the challenge at every turn.
St. Ignatius keeper Keenan Troy was named Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match for his leadership and aggressive play in the face of numerous Oak Park and River Forest serves to his goalmouth.
Troy applauded the play of St. Ignatius outside backs Carlos Sierra, Sachin Medler, and Jack Galante.
“I just think we got a little winded,” Troy said of his side. “(OPRF's) outside wings did a really nice job of trying to isolate our outside backs, cutting in and cutting out, trying to get our outside backs to mess up. But they did a really good job.”
For Oak Park and River Forest, persistent attacking pressure came courtesy of a team-wide effort led by midfielder Barkidjija and forward Brody Bliss. But it was the throng of fresh bodies that Fried rotated in that fueled the Huskies’ aggressive play.
“We put a lot of guys in today, and they played well across the board in the second half," said Fried. "Matt Hawthorne, Sam Menzies, I thought Nigel Sykes came in and gave us a spark, and Cam Duncan really hustled on the outside today.”
When coaches of the best teams in soccer make substitutions, there doesn’t seem to be any discernible drop-off in the level of their team’s play. OPRF has a bench full of players that kept the Huskies playing at a high level. That's a big reason they are ranked ninth in Chicagoland Soccer Top 25.
OPRF’s starting backline features Eric Gusloff, Blake Soto, Jai Hsieh-Bailey, and Nick Humbert, but Tommy Pasternak and Ryan Stutz have been key defenders rotating in off the bench all season.
And there’s consistently been no discernible difference or drop-off in the Huskies’ play.
“You see the intensity and you want to be on the field, and you don’t want to be the person that brings it down,” Pasternak said. “Last year we didn’t have as much depth. I tore my ACL last year and didn’t get to play at all. But this year I think our whole group of subs could be a starting team.”
Pasternak gets no argument from his coach.
“This year I can send out any one of them, and they all work extremely hard,” Fried said. “We’ve had great depth this year. Now we have to (play) just one more little notch faster.”
Both teams know they likely won’t get away with playing sluggishly once the postseason arrives.
“We’ve been good about that but the Saturday games have been the hardest,” Gusloff said. “We tend to come out slow on Saturdays. In the first half I thought we played all right, we just didn’t finish our chances. We had them but we didn’t put them away and in the second half, we came out with a lot more energy.”
Kearns applauded OPRF’s play in the second half and likes the test the Huskies provided to his side.
“We used to play Oak Park at the beginning of September,” Kearns said. “Playing good teams late in the year makes it worthwhile for the postseason. That’s why I added Leyden to the end of the season instead of the beginning.”
Kearns is pleased with the way his boys have played this season.
“I’ve been really happy with (Troy) the last couple games and (midfielder) Danny Fernandez has been awesome almost every game since the beginning of the season,” Kearns said. “He didn’t start at the beginning of the year as a sophomore but then he gave us no reasons to not start him.
“And I love the way (midfielder) Eduardo Lopez is playing. I pulled (forward) Kendalle Rice up because his JV season is coming to an end, and he's been awesome for us. And Christian Telles in the back has stepped up.”
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK Keenan Troy
D Carlos Sierra
D Christian Telles
D Sachin Medler
M Rudy Biegimeier
M Jason Pratt
M Eduardo Lopez
M Brendan Lynch
M Daniel Fernandez
F Owen Allen
F Quinn Troy
OPRF
GK Kel Felton
D Eric Gusloff
D Jai Hsieh-Bailey
D Blake Soto
D Nick Humbert
M Bobby Iwashima
M Sam Menzies
M James Maguire
M Andrew Barkidjija
F Brody Bliss
F Matt Hawthorne
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Keenan Troy, jr. GK, St. Ignatius
Scoring summary
Second half
St. Ignatius — Rice (Simon)
OPRF — Maguire (Barkidjija)