Rochelle Zell can't hold Cristo Rey at bay
Hosts score goals in 11-minute span in 4-1 league win
By Kaleb Carter
CHICAGO -- It took 30 minutes for Cristo Rey to find the back of a net in a 4-1 victory at Harrison Park over defending Chicago Prep Conference champions Rochelle Zell. Once Miguel Puntos’ bouncing shot from about 30 yards bounced off keeper Jacob Weiss and into the back right corner of the net, the flurry began.
A handball in the box by the Tigers yielded a clean penalty kick try for Brandon Perez in the 34th minute for a 2-0 Lions lead.
“I feel like we needed to take advantage that they were trying to attack a lot in our third and there was not a lot of players on their side of the field,” Alvarez said. “I feel like we took advantage of when all the players were on our side. We took the opportunity to send the balls and just recover and start pushing up to score the goals that we did.”
Fernando Alvarez was on the receiving end of a long pass from teammate Saviour Medrano on a switch well across the pitch to the far-left wing. Alvarez gathered himself, pushed the ball back to the to his right foot, then swiftly crushed the ball past the keeper toward the far post for a 3-0 Lions advantage.
Alvarez took advantage of an unselfish look from a teammate once more in the final seconds of the first half. Puntos tapped the ball with his left foot after another long cross, to Alvarez who finished with flair from eight yards.
“We pressure. We play them every year so we know how they play,” Cristo Rey coach Manuel Chavez said. “The amount of pressure that they play, I’m trying to reciprocate it just for them to cough up the ball.
“But what I’m trying to do more as a coach, I don’t want to focus so much on the other team, I want my team to play better as a unit, and that’s what’s coming out.”
Rochelle Zell altered its tactics in the second half, doing more to disrupt the Lions’ consistent possession advantage in the midfield.
“We did change our formation to adjust for Cristo Rey’s possession in the middle, so when we did that, it created… the ability to go up, and send the ball,” Rochelle Zell coach David Martinez said. “If we don’t send the ball we’re not going to have these options. It was good we were able to get through on the sides which, led to these crosses and these shots. That was amazing. We’ve got to keep that up.”
It resulted in a Zach Rosen goal in the 74th minute, as the senior blasted home a bouncing rebound.
Other chances from the likes of Oren Nochimowski, Jesse Shapira and Ben Rosenfeld came with the change of pace from the Tigers.
“We really just have to work on playing a full 80 minutes,” Rosen said. “That first half we played like 30-ish minutes and then those last 10 minutes we got tired, and we let up like three goals.”
Senior defender Shomri Mlotek said that the Tigers defense was fundamentally better and more locked in in the second half.
“Defensive line has always got to be shifting their heads, knowing their marks,” Mlotek said. “We let up one there because we weren’t looking, head on a swivel. We’ve got to come back and be better.
“We started pushing more, and we were fueled because we were down. So we had to get up and really send the ball up to our forwards.”
Mlotek has learned to appreciate the time he’s been able to spend on the pitch. He was a crucial part of last season’s conference title-winning team and now is an integral part of molding a young group.
In the past the senior defender sustained concussions that largely kept him out of action in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Because of COVID, his true prep debut was delayed until last spring.
“It’s amazing,” Martinez said. “His first two years he probably played one and a half games on varsity games just from many injuries. Last year, it was amazing to see him be an integral part of our backline that helped us win conference. Now that he’s a senior back there, he’s leading. He’s a captain. He’s trying to give this positive energy onto everybody else so they can have success too.”
Martinez knows what it takes to beat Cristo Rey. The Tigers enjoyed great success against the Lions in the spring campaign.
“We’ve got to be able to clear better,” Martinez said. “We’ve got to be able to win the first ball in the air, and the second. That’s going to clean up a lot of our mistakes throughout the season. Those things. Other than that, the boys played hard, which was good…we need to play hard for a full 80 minutes.”
Martinez had a pairing of words that he wanted to see his team take to heart.
“Aggressive confidence, the two best words I can come up with,” Martinez said. “Being aggressive when we’re supposed to and being confident in our training and our strengths and implementing them, executing them when they’re there.”
Cristo Rey fell to the Tigers by scores of 6-0 and 5-1 in the spring and had a chance at redemption canceled later in the season.
“That spring season was a write-off I guess I want to say,” Chavez said. “We had a mismatch of players, guys that had never played, just anybody that would come out we had to use. The last two years before that, we’ve had a rough little patch, but the guys are coming together this year.”
With a smaller varsity group at Rochelle Zell this season, Martinez and Rosen were on message about the need to play hard through the whole game and for players on the bench to be ready to make the most of their time with hard play when taking the pitch.
“We only have like 10 or so conference games and they’re all competitive, so just learning those are intense games and to keep that competitiveness high,” said Rosen. “Earlier in the year we were playing like 60 minutes of a whole game and now we’re playing like 70 or 75.”
With the likes of Rosenfeld (sophomore) and his fellow young players learning the ropes, Mlotek wants to factor strongly into their future success. He wants to make sure they take advantage of the time he didn’t get early in his career.
“Hoping to work as a team, hoping to really come out together and help, as this is a really young team to help the underclassmen to prepare for next year,” Mlotek said.
Cristo Rey’s Alvarez and Chavez acknowledged that the ability to play together has started to change the fortunes of the Lions.
“We have a lot of individual talent,” Chavez said. “Some of these guys have never seen each other. This is probably their third week playing together so breaking down their individual talents and making sure that the pieces of the puzzle are coming together as a whole, not just random people doing random things. They’re coming together pretty quick.”
Starting lineups
Rochelle Zell
GK Jacob Weiss
D Coby Halpern
D Gabe Hirsch
D Shomri Mlotek
D Jeremy Budin
MF Ben Rosenfeld
MF Matan Lieberman
MF Zach Rosen
MF Harrison Harkavy
F Oren Nochimowski
F Jesse Shapira
Cristo Rey
GK Liam Tapia
D Kevin Guzman
D Jesus Martinez
D Brandon Perez
D Brian Rodriguez
MF Miguel Puntos
MF Freddy Cardenas
MF Rogelio Varias Avila
F Heriberto Cancinos
F Alexis Hernandez
F Fernando Alvarez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Fernando Alvarez, jr. F, Cristo Rey
Scoring summary
First half
CR: Miguel Puntos (unassisted), 30th minute
CR: Brandon Perez (unassisted), 34th minute
CR: Fernando Alvarez (Saviour Medrano) 38th minute
CR: Fernando Alvarez (Miguel Puntos) 40th minute
Second half
RZ: Zach Rosen (unassisted), 74th minute
Hosts score goals in 11-minute span in 4-1 league win
By Kaleb Carter
CHICAGO -- It took 30 minutes for Cristo Rey to find the back of a net in a 4-1 victory at Harrison Park over defending Chicago Prep Conference champions Rochelle Zell. Once Miguel Puntos’ bouncing shot from about 30 yards bounced off keeper Jacob Weiss and into the back right corner of the net, the flurry began.
A handball in the box by the Tigers yielded a clean penalty kick try for Brandon Perez in the 34th minute for a 2-0 Lions lead.
“I feel like we needed to take advantage that they were trying to attack a lot in our third and there was not a lot of players on their side of the field,” Alvarez said. “I feel like we took advantage of when all the players were on our side. We took the opportunity to send the balls and just recover and start pushing up to score the goals that we did.”
Fernando Alvarez was on the receiving end of a long pass from teammate Saviour Medrano on a switch well across the pitch to the far-left wing. Alvarez gathered himself, pushed the ball back to the to his right foot, then swiftly crushed the ball past the keeper toward the far post for a 3-0 Lions advantage.
Alvarez took advantage of an unselfish look from a teammate once more in the final seconds of the first half. Puntos tapped the ball with his left foot after another long cross, to Alvarez who finished with flair from eight yards.
“We pressure. We play them every year so we know how they play,” Cristo Rey coach Manuel Chavez said. “The amount of pressure that they play, I’m trying to reciprocate it just for them to cough up the ball.
“But what I’m trying to do more as a coach, I don’t want to focus so much on the other team, I want my team to play better as a unit, and that’s what’s coming out.”
Rochelle Zell altered its tactics in the second half, doing more to disrupt the Lions’ consistent possession advantage in the midfield.
“We did change our formation to adjust for Cristo Rey’s possession in the middle, so when we did that, it created… the ability to go up, and send the ball,” Rochelle Zell coach David Martinez said. “If we don’t send the ball we’re not going to have these options. It was good we were able to get through on the sides which, led to these crosses and these shots. That was amazing. We’ve got to keep that up.”
It resulted in a Zach Rosen goal in the 74th minute, as the senior blasted home a bouncing rebound.
Other chances from the likes of Oren Nochimowski, Jesse Shapira and Ben Rosenfeld came with the change of pace from the Tigers.
“We really just have to work on playing a full 80 minutes,” Rosen said. “That first half we played like 30-ish minutes and then those last 10 minutes we got tired, and we let up like three goals.”
Senior defender Shomri Mlotek said that the Tigers defense was fundamentally better and more locked in in the second half.
“Defensive line has always got to be shifting their heads, knowing their marks,” Mlotek said. “We let up one there because we weren’t looking, head on a swivel. We’ve got to come back and be better.
“We started pushing more, and we were fueled because we were down. So we had to get up and really send the ball up to our forwards.”
Mlotek has learned to appreciate the time he’s been able to spend on the pitch. He was a crucial part of last season’s conference title-winning team and now is an integral part of molding a young group.
In the past the senior defender sustained concussions that largely kept him out of action in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Because of COVID, his true prep debut was delayed until last spring.
“It’s amazing,” Martinez said. “His first two years he probably played one and a half games on varsity games just from many injuries. Last year, it was amazing to see him be an integral part of our backline that helped us win conference. Now that he’s a senior back there, he’s leading. He’s a captain. He’s trying to give this positive energy onto everybody else so they can have success too.”
Martinez knows what it takes to beat Cristo Rey. The Tigers enjoyed great success against the Lions in the spring campaign.
“We’ve got to be able to clear better,” Martinez said. “We’ve got to be able to win the first ball in the air, and the second. That’s going to clean up a lot of our mistakes throughout the season. Those things. Other than that, the boys played hard, which was good…we need to play hard for a full 80 minutes.”
Martinez had a pairing of words that he wanted to see his team take to heart.
“Aggressive confidence, the two best words I can come up with,” Martinez said. “Being aggressive when we’re supposed to and being confident in our training and our strengths and implementing them, executing them when they’re there.”
Cristo Rey fell to the Tigers by scores of 6-0 and 5-1 in the spring and had a chance at redemption canceled later in the season.
“That spring season was a write-off I guess I want to say,” Chavez said. “We had a mismatch of players, guys that had never played, just anybody that would come out we had to use. The last two years before that, we’ve had a rough little patch, but the guys are coming together this year.”
With a smaller varsity group at Rochelle Zell this season, Martinez and Rosen were on message about the need to play hard through the whole game and for players on the bench to be ready to make the most of their time with hard play when taking the pitch.
“We only have like 10 or so conference games and they’re all competitive, so just learning those are intense games and to keep that competitiveness high,” said Rosen. “Earlier in the year we were playing like 60 minutes of a whole game and now we’re playing like 70 or 75.”
With the likes of Rosenfeld (sophomore) and his fellow young players learning the ropes, Mlotek wants to factor strongly into their future success. He wants to make sure they take advantage of the time he didn’t get early in his career.
“Hoping to work as a team, hoping to really come out together and help, as this is a really young team to help the underclassmen to prepare for next year,” Mlotek said.
Cristo Rey’s Alvarez and Chavez acknowledged that the ability to play together has started to change the fortunes of the Lions.
“We have a lot of individual talent,” Chavez said. “Some of these guys have never seen each other. This is probably their third week playing together so breaking down their individual talents and making sure that the pieces of the puzzle are coming together as a whole, not just random people doing random things. They’re coming together pretty quick.”
Starting lineups
Rochelle Zell
GK Jacob Weiss
D Coby Halpern
D Gabe Hirsch
D Shomri Mlotek
D Jeremy Budin
MF Ben Rosenfeld
MF Matan Lieberman
MF Zach Rosen
MF Harrison Harkavy
F Oren Nochimowski
F Jesse Shapira
Cristo Rey
GK Liam Tapia
D Kevin Guzman
D Jesus Martinez
D Brandon Perez
D Brian Rodriguez
MF Miguel Puntos
MF Freddy Cardenas
MF Rogelio Varias Avila
F Heriberto Cancinos
F Alexis Hernandez
F Fernando Alvarez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Fernando Alvarez, jr. F, Cristo Rey
Scoring summary
First half
CR: Miguel Puntos (unassisted), 30th minute
CR: Brandon Perez (unassisted), 34th minute
CR: Fernando Alvarez (Saviour Medrano) 38th minute
CR: Fernando Alvarez (Miguel Puntos) 40th minute
Second half
RZ: Zach Rosen (unassisted), 74th minute