Plainfield PK master Noser
leads North over rival South
Senior GK perfect in regulation, shootout; Tigers tame Cougars
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Plainfield North’s Alex Noser may not be full time, but he is big time.
Sharing the Tigers’ starting goalkeeper job this fall with fellow senior Marcos Papakostas, Noser was in the nets Thursday for his team’s crosstown battle with Plainfield South.
And when the match went 100 minutes of play (two halves and two 10-minute overtimes) as a nil-nil draw, Noser stepped up with an incredible penalty kick session.
While Tigers shooters Shea Bechtel and freshmen Cooper Allen and Brady Harwood converted their PKs, Noser made saves on all three Cougars shots he faced.
His leaping deflection over the crossbar of the third South shot wrapped up a 3-0 win in the PK session for Plainfield North (9-4-0, 4-0-0 in the Suburban Prairie Conference) over the Cougars (4-9-0, 3-3-0).
“If we didn’t get the (regulation) win, I knew I would be OK in PKs,” said Noser, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. “I love PKs. I’m comfortable in them.”
Noser showed versatility on the three shots. One was a diving block to his left, then to his right, and the third a swat of a high straight-on bid.
“I’m pretty good at reading their (PK shooters’) body language,” Noser said. “I just did the best I could and made the saves.”
Tigers offensive star Bechtel (12 goals this season) summed up his team’s approach to the PK session.
“Noser is great at PKs,” Bechtel said. “I just told the guys (shooting) ‘Hit your spot and don’t even think about going anywhere else.’ If you can hit your shots, no one can save it.”
Formerly the head coach at Plainfield South, Tigers coach Dave Brown had empathy for the Cougars’ great effort and praise for his keeper’s brilliant clutch saves.
“That’s a good high school soccer game, just two teams playing hard,” Brown said. “Walking off that field, it really did feel like a tie.
“In the end, PKs are PKs. Our goalie had their number tonight; that’s all it was.”
Taking over as coach earlier this season, Brown inherited a situation with two strong goalkeepers and has stuck with predecessor Steve Berry’s rotation.
“I had never had that (alternating goalkeeper starts) situation before,” Brown said. “I walked into it. We’re lucky to have both for sure.”
Even more unusual is having goalkeepers from the same team earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors in successive games in the same week. Popakostas earned the recognition for his work in a 3-1 SPC win over Oswego East on Tuesday.
Plainfield North had dropped its only previous 2019 game decided by PKs last Saturday to Waubonsie Valley in the semifinals of the Plainfield Classic.
“Marcos played that game for us, and he did a great job in that shootout too,” Brown said. “Tonight was Noser’s turn to play goalie, and he stepped up big in the shootout for sure.”
While Noser stole the thunder with his PK heroics, Plainfield South sophomore goalkeeper Robin Coetzee and the Cougar defense were just as brilliant during the regulation and overtimes.
Coetzee was especially sharp in the pressurized late stages of play.
With 10:30 left in regulation, he came off his line to deflect an Allen 15-yard shot just wide left.
A nice offensive end win and 18-yard shot by North’s Avery Bell with 8:50 to go was also grabbed by Coetzee.
Then the shots got closer, and Coetzee got better.
With 6:20 left in regulation, passes by Bechtel and Dilan Anweiler (cross) set up a great Jake Gruben 8-yard shot in front – which Coetzee saved.
Coetzee came up even bigger with 40 seconds until overtime.
Bechtel burst up the middle and lined a rising 18-yard rocket, but Coetzee somehow met the star striker’s challenge with a leaping one-handed deflection straight up and ensuing catch.
“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” Coetzee said of his clutch saves. “(Defensively) we were just trying not to make stupid mistakes. This is our biggest rival, so we have to beat them.”
The Cougars did everything but win Thursday, continuing to stand tall against threats in the two overtimes.
Plainfield North had a corner kick two minutes in to the first OT. Then with 4:20 left in the session, another Bechtel run and 10-yard drive met a familiar fate – a Coetzee high block, folllowed by South defender Fabian Alvarado’s block of a Bechtel rebound try.
“We kept getting forward and getting shots,” Bechtel said, “and we probably had multiple ones that could have gone as PKs that weren’t called.
“But I think we did really good at keeping our heads up and creating more and more chances.”
After the Tigers survived a 22-yard Josue Jimenez free kick with 3:50 left in the first OT (cleared from in front by Sam Dachman), the second OT brought more heat on the Cougars defense.
Off a Bechtel corner kick 1:55 into the second session, Coetzee made a low save on an Allen shot in front. Coetzee later grabbed a 33-yard Bechtel free kick, then closed the second OT with a nice short hop save of a Bechtel 18-yarder with 3:10 on the clock.
“A really great game for Robin tonight,” Cougars coach Bryant Williams said, “being a sophomore kid who didn’t expect to be the starting varsity keeper until this summer.
“He did a phenomenal job. Tonight was his first shutout. I’m very proud of the way he played.
“And Tyler Whitmire played a really nice game at center back,” Williams added. “He logged a lot of minutes for us tonight and stopped the ball a lot.”
After the Tigers and Cougars traded 1-0 wins over each other the last two years (South winning in 2017, North last fall), the latest showdown was another tight battle.
“I was happy with our effort,” Williams said. “We executed and did a lot of things well that we’ve been working in practice to improve on.
“Coming into this game I was telling the boys all week that it would take a darned near perfect game to beat North. They’re always technically so sound, and their center backs played phenomenal tonight. There was just nothing down the center of the field (offensively) for us.”
Whatever offensive frustration the Cougars endured, they caused the Tigers in multiples.
“I thought we had four or five great chances to score, and we squandered all of them,” Brown said. “And when you do that, you give Plainfield South a chance to stay in the game when we could have realistically been up 1-0 one minute into the game.
“They messed up on their kickoff and gave us a great chance, and that kind of set the tone for us. We just did not take care of the chances we had.”
And what was the Tigers’ frustration level as the battle wore on?
“It was terrible,” Noser said. “I kept trying to keep our guys up, keep them going. I knew it would be a dogfight.
“They were just exhausted. Three or four of our starters are injured, but they just kept pushing.”
The Cougars made the Tigers dig extra deep.
“Credit to South,” Brown said. “They made us a play a style we’re not comfortable playing in terms of their formation. They put players in the middle of the field to crowd the middle on us and account for some of our skill and speed, and they did a great job.
“Especially Josue (Jimenez) and the center mids, they did everything you could ask for as a coach in terms of competing.”
Usual offensive standout Jimenez dropped back into Plainfield South's more defensive posture Thursday and helped his team produce 100 minutes of shutout soccer.
“Josue Jimenez in the middle of the field had to play a little more defensive than we like,” Williams said, “but credit that to North. We like to get him more involved offensively, but because of the pressure they were creating we couldn’t get him forward as much as we wanted to. But he really played well.”
Besides Noser’s clutch goalkeeping, the Tigers had plenty of other standouts.
“I thought Ryan Kuffel was a great defender for us tonight,” Brown said. “He found himself matched up with (Cougars standout Carlos) Sagols a lot because of the positions they were playing, and he had some good 1-on-1 battles.
“Shea created chances for us in and around the box, getting the ball wide, and Jake Gruben was very clever for us out wide, getting around the corner and getting crosses up.”
Despite the Tigers late-game threats, the Cougars had their own solid scoring bids. Those included Miki Derka’s 12-yard header off a cross saved by Noser with 27:20 left in regulation, and a strong Jimenez free kick from midfield that Noser grabbed just before a racing Alvarado arrived.
Then 11 minutes later, Sagols’ midfield steal and rush with 16:30 left was denied by a Lloyd Quezada steal inside the 30. Sagols also was a catalyst for some Cougars first half threats.
“Sagols had some dangerous chances up-top,” Brown said. “It could have easily been 2-0 South at one point.
“They had a few good looks that we either blocked in late, or they just missed. It was by no means a done deal for either team.
“It was one of those games where we didn’t play our style,” Brown added, “so it didn’t feel like our team, but that’s all a credit to South. They made us play the way they wanted us to play.”
The mutual admiration between Brown and his former assistant Williams showed in the praise for the rival programs – and the focus on Thursday’s match.
“Against North, they’re never going to give up,” Williams said. “There’s not going to be mistakes and easy goals. You’ll have to earn everything you get.
“Fortunately we were equal to the task. I really feel it’s the best game we’ve played. There are games we’ve scored more goals, but the level of competition we were going against tonight was a lot tougher than probably anybody we’ve played this year. So I’m happy from that standpoint, but I hate the fact it went to a shootout and somebody has to lose when you have two teams that battle for 100 minutes like that.”
The result dropped the Cougars to 0-3 in 2019 matches decided by PKs.
“Overall we’re a pretty good team,” Coetzee said, “but some days we have off days.”
And the focus going forward?
“Mainly it’s just speaking more,” Coetzee said, “and work on PKs more.”
Plainfield North perfected the art of PKs on Thursday and emerged with a key rivalry win and added momentum.
“I think it’s been a great season,” Bechtel said. “We lost last Saturday, but since then we’ve picked our heads up and are 2-0 since with another huge game on Saturday (at Oswego).”
Said Noser: “This really motivates us. We’re undefeated in conference, and I feel like going into Oswego, this will give us a lot of boost.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
GK Alex Noser
D Lloyd Quezada
D Ryan Kuffel
D James Wu
D Kanon Woodill
M Sam Dachman
M John Seeley
M Brady Harwood
M Sean Elster
F Cooper Allen
F Shea Bechtel
Plainfield South
GK Robin Coetzee
D Fabian Alvarado
D Trinidad Vazquez
D Zach Kolb
D Tyler Whitmire
M David Sanchez
M Josue Jimenez
M Owen O’Shea
M Carlos Sagols
F Miki Derka
F Max Treptow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alex Noser, sr. GK, Plainfield North
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring
First OT
No scoring
Second OT
No scoring
PKs
Plainfield N. (3) – Shea Bechtel, Cooper Allen, Brady Harwood
Plainfield S. (0)
leads North over rival South
Senior GK perfect in regulation, shootout; Tigers tame Cougars
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Plainfield North’s Alex Noser may not be full time, but he is big time.
Sharing the Tigers’ starting goalkeeper job this fall with fellow senior Marcos Papakostas, Noser was in the nets Thursday for his team’s crosstown battle with Plainfield South.
And when the match went 100 minutes of play (two halves and two 10-minute overtimes) as a nil-nil draw, Noser stepped up with an incredible penalty kick session.
While Tigers shooters Shea Bechtel and freshmen Cooper Allen and Brady Harwood converted their PKs, Noser made saves on all three Cougars shots he faced.
His leaping deflection over the crossbar of the third South shot wrapped up a 3-0 win in the PK session for Plainfield North (9-4-0, 4-0-0 in the Suburban Prairie Conference) over the Cougars (4-9-0, 3-3-0).
“If we didn’t get the (regulation) win, I knew I would be OK in PKs,” said Noser, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. “I love PKs. I’m comfortable in them.”
Noser showed versatility on the three shots. One was a diving block to his left, then to his right, and the third a swat of a high straight-on bid.
“I’m pretty good at reading their (PK shooters’) body language,” Noser said. “I just did the best I could and made the saves.”
Tigers offensive star Bechtel (12 goals this season) summed up his team’s approach to the PK session.
“Noser is great at PKs,” Bechtel said. “I just told the guys (shooting) ‘Hit your spot and don’t even think about going anywhere else.’ If you can hit your shots, no one can save it.”
Formerly the head coach at Plainfield South, Tigers coach Dave Brown had empathy for the Cougars’ great effort and praise for his keeper’s brilliant clutch saves.
“That’s a good high school soccer game, just two teams playing hard,” Brown said. “Walking off that field, it really did feel like a tie.
“In the end, PKs are PKs. Our goalie had their number tonight; that’s all it was.”
Taking over as coach earlier this season, Brown inherited a situation with two strong goalkeepers and has stuck with predecessor Steve Berry’s rotation.
“I had never had that (alternating goalkeeper starts) situation before,” Brown said. “I walked into it. We’re lucky to have both for sure.”
Even more unusual is having goalkeepers from the same team earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors in successive games in the same week. Popakostas earned the recognition for his work in a 3-1 SPC win over Oswego East on Tuesday.
Plainfield North had dropped its only previous 2019 game decided by PKs last Saturday to Waubonsie Valley in the semifinals of the Plainfield Classic.
“Marcos played that game for us, and he did a great job in that shootout too,” Brown said. “Tonight was Noser’s turn to play goalie, and he stepped up big in the shootout for sure.”
While Noser stole the thunder with his PK heroics, Plainfield South sophomore goalkeeper Robin Coetzee and the Cougar defense were just as brilliant during the regulation and overtimes.
Coetzee was especially sharp in the pressurized late stages of play.
With 10:30 left in regulation, he came off his line to deflect an Allen 15-yard shot just wide left.
A nice offensive end win and 18-yard shot by North’s Avery Bell with 8:50 to go was also grabbed by Coetzee.
Then the shots got closer, and Coetzee got better.
With 6:20 left in regulation, passes by Bechtel and Dilan Anweiler (cross) set up a great Jake Gruben 8-yard shot in front – which Coetzee saved.
Coetzee came up even bigger with 40 seconds until overtime.
Bechtel burst up the middle and lined a rising 18-yard rocket, but Coetzee somehow met the star striker’s challenge with a leaping one-handed deflection straight up and ensuing catch.
“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” Coetzee said of his clutch saves. “(Defensively) we were just trying not to make stupid mistakes. This is our biggest rival, so we have to beat them.”
The Cougars did everything but win Thursday, continuing to stand tall against threats in the two overtimes.
Plainfield North had a corner kick two minutes in to the first OT. Then with 4:20 left in the session, another Bechtel run and 10-yard drive met a familiar fate – a Coetzee high block, folllowed by South defender Fabian Alvarado’s block of a Bechtel rebound try.
“We kept getting forward and getting shots,” Bechtel said, “and we probably had multiple ones that could have gone as PKs that weren’t called.
“But I think we did really good at keeping our heads up and creating more and more chances.”
After the Tigers survived a 22-yard Josue Jimenez free kick with 3:50 left in the first OT (cleared from in front by Sam Dachman), the second OT brought more heat on the Cougars defense.
Off a Bechtel corner kick 1:55 into the second session, Coetzee made a low save on an Allen shot in front. Coetzee later grabbed a 33-yard Bechtel free kick, then closed the second OT with a nice short hop save of a Bechtel 18-yarder with 3:10 on the clock.
“A really great game for Robin tonight,” Cougars coach Bryant Williams said, “being a sophomore kid who didn’t expect to be the starting varsity keeper until this summer.
“He did a phenomenal job. Tonight was his first shutout. I’m very proud of the way he played.
“And Tyler Whitmire played a really nice game at center back,” Williams added. “He logged a lot of minutes for us tonight and stopped the ball a lot.”
After the Tigers and Cougars traded 1-0 wins over each other the last two years (South winning in 2017, North last fall), the latest showdown was another tight battle.
“I was happy with our effort,” Williams said. “We executed and did a lot of things well that we’ve been working in practice to improve on.
“Coming into this game I was telling the boys all week that it would take a darned near perfect game to beat North. They’re always technically so sound, and their center backs played phenomenal tonight. There was just nothing down the center of the field (offensively) for us.”
Whatever offensive frustration the Cougars endured, they caused the Tigers in multiples.
“I thought we had four or five great chances to score, and we squandered all of them,” Brown said. “And when you do that, you give Plainfield South a chance to stay in the game when we could have realistically been up 1-0 one minute into the game.
“They messed up on their kickoff and gave us a great chance, and that kind of set the tone for us. We just did not take care of the chances we had.”
And what was the Tigers’ frustration level as the battle wore on?
“It was terrible,” Noser said. “I kept trying to keep our guys up, keep them going. I knew it would be a dogfight.
“They were just exhausted. Three or four of our starters are injured, but they just kept pushing.”
The Cougars made the Tigers dig extra deep.
“Credit to South,” Brown said. “They made us a play a style we’re not comfortable playing in terms of their formation. They put players in the middle of the field to crowd the middle on us and account for some of our skill and speed, and they did a great job.
“Especially Josue (Jimenez) and the center mids, they did everything you could ask for as a coach in terms of competing.”
Usual offensive standout Jimenez dropped back into Plainfield South's more defensive posture Thursday and helped his team produce 100 minutes of shutout soccer.
“Josue Jimenez in the middle of the field had to play a little more defensive than we like,” Williams said, “but credit that to North. We like to get him more involved offensively, but because of the pressure they were creating we couldn’t get him forward as much as we wanted to. But he really played well.”
Besides Noser’s clutch goalkeeping, the Tigers had plenty of other standouts.
“I thought Ryan Kuffel was a great defender for us tonight,” Brown said. “He found himself matched up with (Cougars standout Carlos) Sagols a lot because of the positions they were playing, and he had some good 1-on-1 battles.
“Shea created chances for us in and around the box, getting the ball wide, and Jake Gruben was very clever for us out wide, getting around the corner and getting crosses up.”
Despite the Tigers late-game threats, the Cougars had their own solid scoring bids. Those included Miki Derka’s 12-yard header off a cross saved by Noser with 27:20 left in regulation, and a strong Jimenez free kick from midfield that Noser grabbed just before a racing Alvarado arrived.
Then 11 minutes later, Sagols’ midfield steal and rush with 16:30 left was denied by a Lloyd Quezada steal inside the 30. Sagols also was a catalyst for some Cougars first half threats.
“Sagols had some dangerous chances up-top,” Brown said. “It could have easily been 2-0 South at one point.
“They had a few good looks that we either blocked in late, or they just missed. It was by no means a done deal for either team.
“It was one of those games where we didn’t play our style,” Brown added, “so it didn’t feel like our team, but that’s all a credit to South. They made us play the way they wanted us to play.”
The mutual admiration between Brown and his former assistant Williams showed in the praise for the rival programs – and the focus on Thursday’s match.
“Against North, they’re never going to give up,” Williams said. “There’s not going to be mistakes and easy goals. You’ll have to earn everything you get.
“Fortunately we were equal to the task. I really feel it’s the best game we’ve played. There are games we’ve scored more goals, but the level of competition we were going against tonight was a lot tougher than probably anybody we’ve played this year. So I’m happy from that standpoint, but I hate the fact it went to a shootout and somebody has to lose when you have two teams that battle for 100 minutes like that.”
The result dropped the Cougars to 0-3 in 2019 matches decided by PKs.
“Overall we’re a pretty good team,” Coetzee said, “but some days we have off days.”
And the focus going forward?
“Mainly it’s just speaking more,” Coetzee said, “and work on PKs more.”
Plainfield North perfected the art of PKs on Thursday and emerged with a key rivalry win and added momentum.
“I think it’s been a great season,” Bechtel said. “We lost last Saturday, but since then we’ve picked our heads up and are 2-0 since with another huge game on Saturday (at Oswego).”
Said Noser: “This really motivates us. We’re undefeated in conference, and I feel like going into Oswego, this will give us a lot of boost.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
GK Alex Noser
D Lloyd Quezada
D Ryan Kuffel
D James Wu
D Kanon Woodill
M Sam Dachman
M John Seeley
M Brady Harwood
M Sean Elster
F Cooper Allen
F Shea Bechtel
Plainfield South
GK Robin Coetzee
D Fabian Alvarado
D Trinidad Vazquez
D Zach Kolb
D Tyler Whitmire
M David Sanchez
M Josue Jimenez
M Owen O’Shea
M Carlos Sagols
F Miki Derka
F Max Treptow
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alex Noser, sr. GK, Plainfield North
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
No scoring
First OT
No scoring
Second OT
No scoring
PKs
Plainfield N. (3) – Shea Bechtel, Cooper Allen, Brady Harwood
Plainfield S. (0)