Young’s offense breaks out
in win over Steinmetz
7 different Dolphins score in 8-0 league victory
By Michael Wojtychiw
CHICAGO -- Scoring goals hasn't been something that’s easy to come by for Young's this fall. In three of the team's six contests, the Dolphins scored one goal or less.
So coming into the conference game against Steinmetz on Monday afternoon, the squad hoped to find more offensive output as it ramps up conference play over the next couple weeks.
That happened it a big way.
The Dolphins (2-5-0, 2-1-0) went on a scoring rampage in an 8-0 win over the Silver Streaks at the Michelle Obama Athletic Complex.
"Lately, we've been focusing on being super dangerous on set pieces, because every time there's a dead ball, you've got a decent opportunity to score," said Young assistant Nick Maksa, who handled a good portion of the coaching reins Monday. "I think today, athletically, that allowed us to take over a little bit.
"But Steinmetz played hard the whole game. We know what it's like to have a tough season, but those kids are grinding and grinding and never gave up."
"We felt like it was important to us for us to come out strong because we haven't had this type of day before," Young junior defender Benjamin Lopez Scala said. “It was important for us to get back on track, get a confidence boost and know we can go in Wednesday at Lane hyper-focused and get the win.”
Young's Colin Moran, got the scoring started 5 minutes, 25 seconds into the game when the senior midfielder took a pass from junior forward Diego Delgado and drilled home a shot for a fast 1-0 lead.
"I saw my centerback Diego (Delgado) had the ball and sprinted through a gap in the defense and just ran right under it," he said. "I took a couple touches, saw I was in front of the goal and slipped it past the goalie."
About a minute-and-a-half later, Moran again charged toward the goal, but his shot just high.
The offensive pressure on goal was a common theme for the Dolphins, who put up 11 shots in the first half alone.
Senior forward Harry Sparks got on the score sheet in the 11th minute when he knocked in a pass from senior defender Dieter Boecler. Moran soon followed with his second off of a corner kick by Nikhil Bapat.
The game offered an opportunity for Young to experiment with different lineups. Coming into the game, the team played Saturday in the Pepsi Showdown, followed by Monday's game as well as games Wednesday and Friday of this week. So the Young coaching staff had planned on giving chances to some of the players who might not get as much time on the field.
"We started the game a little differently today, we started a lot of guys that haven't been playing a lot, and they did a great job," Maksa said. "We like to play everyone when we can as it is, but with the way the week was forming out, the plan today was always to get some fresh legs in there. Bet some guys some rest because we still have two games this week.
"I really liked that the level didn't drop. The guys that went in, they did a really nice job keeping it at the level we want it to be at."
Steinmetz coach Nicholas Kotcherha-Campora likee some of the things he saw from his squad.
"We've got guys who don't give up," he said. "We know we don't have the experienced players, but they've got a fighting spirit. It's something we hope can be shown to the younger players as well."
Unlike Young, which is one of the city's magnet schools and has students take entrance exams to be admitted, Steinmetz is a neighborhood school that accepts students that live in its attendance boundaries.
Kotcherha-Campora's hope is that the Silver Streaks can build up their program to match the likes of a Young, Lane or Payton even with its set boundaries.
"We're very young and inexperienced, but the hope is to try to get some of them to play with some good clubs where they practice in the offseason,” he said. “Playing against teams like these will motivate them to get to that next level."
Young started off the second half hotter than they ended the first with three goals in the half's first 5:50.
Sascha Frias-Kaehler got the scoring started when he put a ball past the keeper 2:07 into the half. Cesar Lopez scored on an assist from Garen Petrulis a minute-and-a-half later. That pair flipped roles on the sixth goal, Petrulis scoring just over two minutes later.
Bapat scored on a penalty kick with 23:44 remaining and Cristian Garcia scored out the scoring with just over a minute remaining.
While Young walked away happy with the win and the scoring output, it knows that it needs to step up against the toughest conference teams to compete for league glory.
With the majority of its nonconference season behind it, playing in tournaments like the Pepsi Showdown and the Windy City Classic has prepared the squad for the meat of the conference season, starting with a matchup with Lane on Wednesday.
"If we put it all together, we've got a really good team, we've just got to start trending in the right direction," Young manager Ross LaBauex said. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish. I think people forget the caveat that you need to start going in that direction, start trending in an upward trajectory.
"You can't wait until the next game, the next game, because if you blink, it's the last game. Hopefully we're trending in the right direction. We saw some good things today, some things we can improve on, and we keep it moving. That's all we can do."
"Tournaments, are they great to win? Obviously, but once conference comes, these guys know you can't make any mistakes," Maksa said. "You lose one game, you're probably not going to win the outright title. We always want to win conference. We want to show we're the best team in CPS and I think that we're trending in the right direction."
Steinmetz, which carries only 15 players on its roster, is also looking forward to what the rest of the season holds.
With Lane and Young out of the way on their schedule already, the Silver Streaks will look to make some noise against teams they feel like they're more competitive with.
"We're really looking to just get better," the Steinmetz manager said. "We have been doing that against Lane, some better opponents. We've had some good moments, but it's all about improving.
"As long as I see improvement and we see them not being so intimidated by the bigger teams and feeling we can go up against these teams, that’s what we want.”
Starting lineups
Steinmetz
GK: Jason Gonzalez
D: Bejamin Mojica
D: Joseph Sanchez
D: Deangelo Martinez
D: Kacper Jaworski
MF: Bryan Arroyo
MF: Aaron Encarnacion
MF: Xavier Aruijo
MF: Edwin Menez
F: Angel Gudino
F: Edwin Avilez
Young
GK: Jackson Sprenger
D: Liam Herrada-Maher
D: Benjamin Lopez Scala
D: Dieter Boecler
D: Diego Delgado
MF: Nikhil Bapat
MF: Gabe Lopez
MF: Alejandro Goldstein
F: Colin Moran
F: Harry Spark
F: Cole Hockman
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Colin Moran, sr., MF, Young
Scoring summary
First half
Young: Colin Moran (Diego Delgado), 3rd minute
Young: Harry Spark (Dieter Boecler), 11th minute
Young: Moran (Nikhil Bapat), 16th minute
Second half
Young: Sascha Frias-Kaehler (unassisted), 44th minute
Young: Cesar Lopez (Garen Petrulis), 45th minute
Young: Petrulis (Lopez), 47th minute
Young: Bapat (PK), 58th minute
Young: Cristian Garcia (Liam Herrada-Maher), 79th minute
in win over Steinmetz
7 different Dolphins score in 8-0 league victory
By Michael Wojtychiw
CHICAGO -- Scoring goals hasn't been something that’s easy to come by for Young's this fall. In three of the team's six contests, the Dolphins scored one goal or less.
So coming into the conference game against Steinmetz on Monday afternoon, the squad hoped to find more offensive output as it ramps up conference play over the next couple weeks.
That happened it a big way.
The Dolphins (2-5-0, 2-1-0) went on a scoring rampage in an 8-0 win over the Silver Streaks at the Michelle Obama Athletic Complex.
"Lately, we've been focusing on being super dangerous on set pieces, because every time there's a dead ball, you've got a decent opportunity to score," said Young assistant Nick Maksa, who handled a good portion of the coaching reins Monday. "I think today, athletically, that allowed us to take over a little bit.
"But Steinmetz played hard the whole game. We know what it's like to have a tough season, but those kids are grinding and grinding and never gave up."
"We felt like it was important to us for us to come out strong because we haven't had this type of day before," Young junior defender Benjamin Lopez Scala said. “It was important for us to get back on track, get a confidence boost and know we can go in Wednesday at Lane hyper-focused and get the win.”
Young's Colin Moran, got the scoring started 5 minutes, 25 seconds into the game when the senior midfielder took a pass from junior forward Diego Delgado and drilled home a shot for a fast 1-0 lead.
"I saw my centerback Diego (Delgado) had the ball and sprinted through a gap in the defense and just ran right under it," he said. "I took a couple touches, saw I was in front of the goal and slipped it past the goalie."
About a minute-and-a-half later, Moran again charged toward the goal, but his shot just high.
The offensive pressure on goal was a common theme for the Dolphins, who put up 11 shots in the first half alone.
Senior forward Harry Sparks got on the score sheet in the 11th minute when he knocked in a pass from senior defender Dieter Boecler. Moran soon followed with his second off of a corner kick by Nikhil Bapat.
The game offered an opportunity for Young to experiment with different lineups. Coming into the game, the team played Saturday in the Pepsi Showdown, followed by Monday's game as well as games Wednesday and Friday of this week. So the Young coaching staff had planned on giving chances to some of the players who might not get as much time on the field.
"We started the game a little differently today, we started a lot of guys that haven't been playing a lot, and they did a great job," Maksa said. "We like to play everyone when we can as it is, but with the way the week was forming out, the plan today was always to get some fresh legs in there. Bet some guys some rest because we still have two games this week.
"I really liked that the level didn't drop. The guys that went in, they did a really nice job keeping it at the level we want it to be at."
Steinmetz coach Nicholas Kotcherha-Campora likee some of the things he saw from his squad.
"We've got guys who don't give up," he said. "We know we don't have the experienced players, but they've got a fighting spirit. It's something we hope can be shown to the younger players as well."
Unlike Young, which is one of the city's magnet schools and has students take entrance exams to be admitted, Steinmetz is a neighborhood school that accepts students that live in its attendance boundaries.
Kotcherha-Campora's hope is that the Silver Streaks can build up their program to match the likes of a Young, Lane or Payton even with its set boundaries.
"We're very young and inexperienced, but the hope is to try to get some of them to play with some good clubs where they practice in the offseason,” he said. “Playing against teams like these will motivate them to get to that next level."
Young started off the second half hotter than they ended the first with three goals in the half's first 5:50.
Sascha Frias-Kaehler got the scoring started when he put a ball past the keeper 2:07 into the half. Cesar Lopez scored on an assist from Garen Petrulis a minute-and-a-half later. That pair flipped roles on the sixth goal, Petrulis scoring just over two minutes later.
Bapat scored on a penalty kick with 23:44 remaining and Cristian Garcia scored out the scoring with just over a minute remaining.
While Young walked away happy with the win and the scoring output, it knows that it needs to step up against the toughest conference teams to compete for league glory.
With the majority of its nonconference season behind it, playing in tournaments like the Pepsi Showdown and the Windy City Classic has prepared the squad for the meat of the conference season, starting with a matchup with Lane on Wednesday.
"If we put it all together, we've got a really good team, we've just got to start trending in the right direction," Young manager Ross LaBauex said. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish. I think people forget the caveat that you need to start going in that direction, start trending in an upward trajectory.
"You can't wait until the next game, the next game, because if you blink, it's the last game. Hopefully we're trending in the right direction. We saw some good things today, some things we can improve on, and we keep it moving. That's all we can do."
"Tournaments, are they great to win? Obviously, but once conference comes, these guys know you can't make any mistakes," Maksa said. "You lose one game, you're probably not going to win the outright title. We always want to win conference. We want to show we're the best team in CPS and I think that we're trending in the right direction."
Steinmetz, which carries only 15 players on its roster, is also looking forward to what the rest of the season holds.
With Lane and Young out of the way on their schedule already, the Silver Streaks will look to make some noise against teams they feel like they're more competitive with.
"We're really looking to just get better," the Steinmetz manager said. "We have been doing that against Lane, some better opponents. We've had some good moments, but it's all about improving.
"As long as I see improvement and we see them not being so intimidated by the bigger teams and feeling we can go up against these teams, that’s what we want.”
Starting lineups
Steinmetz
GK: Jason Gonzalez
D: Bejamin Mojica
D: Joseph Sanchez
D: Deangelo Martinez
D: Kacper Jaworski
MF: Bryan Arroyo
MF: Aaron Encarnacion
MF: Xavier Aruijo
MF: Edwin Menez
F: Angel Gudino
F: Edwin Avilez
Young
GK: Jackson Sprenger
D: Liam Herrada-Maher
D: Benjamin Lopez Scala
D: Dieter Boecler
D: Diego Delgado
MF: Nikhil Bapat
MF: Gabe Lopez
MF: Alejandro Goldstein
F: Colin Moran
F: Harry Spark
F: Cole Hockman
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Colin Moran, sr., MF, Young
Scoring summary
First half
Young: Colin Moran (Diego Delgado), 3rd minute
Young: Harry Spark (Dieter Boecler), 11th minute
Young: Moran (Nikhil Bapat), 16th minute
Second half
Young: Sascha Frias-Kaehler (unassisted), 44th minute
Young: Cesar Lopez (Garen Petrulis), 45th minute
Young: Petrulis (Lopez), 47th minute
Young: Bapat (PK), 58th minute
Young: Cristian Garcia (Liam Herrada-Maher), 79th minute