Waubonsie Valley gets an overdue W
Warriors end 8-game winless streak with 4-2 victory at E. Aurora
By Chris Walker
AURORA – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a 19-time NBA all-star who also won 3 consecutive NCAA titles and was on six NBA championship teams, said, “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”
Vince Lombardi, who won the first two Super Bowls, asserted “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
Tennis player Jimmy Connors, a winner of eight majors, said “I hate to lose more than I love to win.”
Recently retired announcer Vin Scully, who won the hearts of baseball fans as the voice of the Dodgers for more than 67 years, even said, “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”
And Waubonsie Valley coach Jose Garcia had this to say about his Warriors after they posted their second win of the season and first in September:
“It’s a big win,” he said. “I’m proud of them because they’re peaking now like they’re supposed to be going into the playoffs. They’re getting some more confidence in themselves, and I knew they had it in them. It’s just a matter of getting it out and finding the team camaraderie together. I think that’s what we wanted since the beginning of the season, but being a young team we knew it would take time to build up.”
East Aurora (3-7-5) struck first with 17:27 remaining before halftime as Giovanni Villegas connected.
Waubonsie Valley (2-10-1) answered when Jerry Perez converted with 12:11 left.
“After they scored the first goal we were like, ‘This game is not over so we’ve got to keep fighting,’” Perez said. “We felt like we could still win this. When I found that first goal, Noah (Glorioso) found me and I was like over the defender, and he didn’t see me. Once Noah chipped it over, I settled the ball and found the top right corner.”
That set the stage for Jorge Gallegos to deliver what undoubtedly was the turning point play of the game when he broke free and scored on a blast with just 7 seconds left before halftime to give the Warriors their first lead of the game at 2-1.
“It’s a lot of motivation to get a goal right before halftime, and it affects the other team mentally,” Gallegos said. “It motivated us for the next half to play hard and to win this game.”
The Warriors carried that momentum right into the second half as Ryan Sanchez scored off a set play just 70 seconds after the teams returned to action to make it 3-1.
“We have a couple of set plays on those free kicks,” Sanchez said. “Maybe like three or four of them and the positioning was great. There was nothing between me and the goalie so there was no reason to do anything extra that would make it too difficult. If I did anything more it would have created conflict. The ball was right there and not any reason to make it more complex than it needed to be, so I put it in.”
East Aurora did not go away. Villegas found another opportunity to punish the Warriors, and like he has so often this fall, he delivered, scoring his 12th goal of the season with 28:12 still remaining in the game to make it 3-2.
“I was hoping we could get the third goal, but unfortunately we didn’t,” East Aurora coach Nathan Parry said. “With that game (Wednesday night, a 3-2 win against South Elgin) and the game tonight we got some more people in that normally don’t get some time. We’re fighting injuries and eligibility issues so we weren’t at full capacity. The guys who did play, I thought their effort was pretty good, especially the guys who didn’t get as much time last night got more time tonight so between the two nights everyone got good time so that was positive.”
Waubonsie Valley added some insurance with 23:28 remaining in the game after Gallegos was taken down in the penalty box. He buried the ensuing PK which certainly gave the team some added confidence to holding a lead, something they hadn’t done since beating Minooka, 2-1 Aug. 28.
The Tomcats came close to pulling to within a single goal once again with 6:24 left in the game as Jaziel Enriquez unloaded a shot at Waubonsie Valley goalkeeper Bryan Grimaldo, but the sophomore held his ground, punching it out and allowing the Warriors to maintain their two-goal advantage.
“I was impressed by the way they played,” Parry said. “They were sound in passing and putting some good shots up there. They’re quick, and they’re a good team. But I was happy our guys were able to compete with them in the second half. We switched up some things tactically, and we were able to put some shots on net and get guys in new positions which was nice.”
Now that they’re basking in the pleasure of victory, the Warriors will try to do it again and the time is right with their own WarStang Invitational. Waubonsie Valley hosts Glenbard West at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Since they won’t play this weekend, they can enjoy the win for a bit. Still, that feeling will soon subside so they need to figure out how to duplicate the effort.
“We have reason to be motivated,” Gallegos said. “We can see now that we can beat tough teams, and East Aurora is a tough team. Don’t get me wrong, we played really well as a team, and this shows what can happen when we play well.”
Sanchez said the Warriors have been much better than their record indicates.
“I don’t think we’ve had many games where we’ve played like a (2-10-1) team,” he said. “We’ve stayed competitive in halves. I think we have it in us for this to continue. We have to stay positive, keep the momentum going and find the back of the net.”
With a DuPage Valley Conference schedule and teams like Barrington, Benet and York on the nonconference schedule, nothing has come easy for the Warriors and that makes their record a bit misleading.
“Our numbers are deceiving because of our competition,” Garcia said. “So I’m glad for these guys to come out here and get a W because they wanted it, and we needed it.”
Sanchez acknowledged that team morale could’ve sunk after the losses continued to pile up, but that the Warriors have remained optimistic through it all.
“Working hard at practice and getting motivation from our coach, we’ve kept our heads up all season,” he said. “Our leadership is strong, and we know our season is not over until it’s over. We’ve got to play competitively until the last minute. We haven’t given up yet. We’re still here and we’re going to compete.”
Waubonsie Valley hadn’t scored four or more goals in a regular season game since a 7-0 victory over Lemont on Oct. 3, 2016. They last scored four in a game in last year’s thrilling 4-3 double OT win against West Aurora in regional play.
Starting lineups
Waubonsie Valley
GK: Bryan Grimaldo
D: Diego Carillo
D: Sahit Reddy
D: Ryan Sanchez
D: Matthew Shannon
MF: Jerry Perez
MF: Brandon Garduno
MF: Zach Stanley
MF: Noah Glorioso
MF: Daniel Fritz
F: Milan Erastus-Obilo
East Aurora
GK: Gustavo Lazcano
D: Joshua Gomez
D: Marco Junez
D: Jesus L. Nicacio
D: Mauricio Ortiz
MF: Jose Alonso
MF: Ulysses Cepeda
MF: Jaziel Enriquez
MF: Giovanni Villegas
F: Sergio Reyes Jr.
F: Bryan Torres
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jorge Gallegos, jr., MF, Waubonsie Valley
Scoring summary
First Half
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (unassisted), 17:27
Waubonsie Valley – Jerry Perez (Noah Glorioso), 12:11
Waubonsie Valley – Jorge Gallegos (unassisted), 0:07
Second Half
Waubonsie Valley – Ryan Sanchez (unassisted), 38:50
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (Sergio Reyes Jr.), 28:12
Waubonsie Valley – Jorge Gallegos PK, 23:28
Warriors end 8-game winless streak with 4-2 victory at E. Aurora
By Chris Walker
AURORA – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a 19-time NBA all-star who also won 3 consecutive NCAA titles and was on six NBA championship teams, said, “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”
Vince Lombardi, who won the first two Super Bowls, asserted “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
Tennis player Jimmy Connors, a winner of eight majors, said “I hate to lose more than I love to win.”
Recently retired announcer Vin Scully, who won the hearts of baseball fans as the voice of the Dodgers for more than 67 years, even said, “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”
And Waubonsie Valley coach Jose Garcia had this to say about his Warriors after they posted their second win of the season and first in September:
“It’s a big win,” he said. “I’m proud of them because they’re peaking now like they’re supposed to be going into the playoffs. They’re getting some more confidence in themselves, and I knew they had it in them. It’s just a matter of getting it out and finding the team camaraderie together. I think that’s what we wanted since the beginning of the season, but being a young team we knew it would take time to build up.”
East Aurora (3-7-5) struck first with 17:27 remaining before halftime as Giovanni Villegas connected.
Waubonsie Valley (2-10-1) answered when Jerry Perez converted with 12:11 left.
“After they scored the first goal we were like, ‘This game is not over so we’ve got to keep fighting,’” Perez said. “We felt like we could still win this. When I found that first goal, Noah (Glorioso) found me and I was like over the defender, and he didn’t see me. Once Noah chipped it over, I settled the ball and found the top right corner.”
That set the stage for Jorge Gallegos to deliver what undoubtedly was the turning point play of the game when he broke free and scored on a blast with just 7 seconds left before halftime to give the Warriors their first lead of the game at 2-1.
“It’s a lot of motivation to get a goal right before halftime, and it affects the other team mentally,” Gallegos said. “It motivated us for the next half to play hard and to win this game.”
The Warriors carried that momentum right into the second half as Ryan Sanchez scored off a set play just 70 seconds after the teams returned to action to make it 3-1.
“We have a couple of set plays on those free kicks,” Sanchez said. “Maybe like three or four of them and the positioning was great. There was nothing between me and the goalie so there was no reason to do anything extra that would make it too difficult. If I did anything more it would have created conflict. The ball was right there and not any reason to make it more complex than it needed to be, so I put it in.”
East Aurora did not go away. Villegas found another opportunity to punish the Warriors, and like he has so often this fall, he delivered, scoring his 12th goal of the season with 28:12 still remaining in the game to make it 3-2.
“I was hoping we could get the third goal, but unfortunately we didn’t,” East Aurora coach Nathan Parry said. “With that game (Wednesday night, a 3-2 win against South Elgin) and the game tonight we got some more people in that normally don’t get some time. We’re fighting injuries and eligibility issues so we weren’t at full capacity. The guys who did play, I thought their effort was pretty good, especially the guys who didn’t get as much time last night got more time tonight so between the two nights everyone got good time so that was positive.”
Waubonsie Valley added some insurance with 23:28 remaining in the game after Gallegos was taken down in the penalty box. He buried the ensuing PK which certainly gave the team some added confidence to holding a lead, something they hadn’t done since beating Minooka, 2-1 Aug. 28.
The Tomcats came close to pulling to within a single goal once again with 6:24 left in the game as Jaziel Enriquez unloaded a shot at Waubonsie Valley goalkeeper Bryan Grimaldo, but the sophomore held his ground, punching it out and allowing the Warriors to maintain their two-goal advantage.
“I was impressed by the way they played,” Parry said. “They were sound in passing and putting some good shots up there. They’re quick, and they’re a good team. But I was happy our guys were able to compete with them in the second half. We switched up some things tactically, and we were able to put some shots on net and get guys in new positions which was nice.”
Now that they’re basking in the pleasure of victory, the Warriors will try to do it again and the time is right with their own WarStang Invitational. Waubonsie Valley hosts Glenbard West at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Since they won’t play this weekend, they can enjoy the win for a bit. Still, that feeling will soon subside so they need to figure out how to duplicate the effort.
“We have reason to be motivated,” Gallegos said. “We can see now that we can beat tough teams, and East Aurora is a tough team. Don’t get me wrong, we played really well as a team, and this shows what can happen when we play well.”
Sanchez said the Warriors have been much better than their record indicates.
“I don’t think we’ve had many games where we’ve played like a (2-10-1) team,” he said. “We’ve stayed competitive in halves. I think we have it in us for this to continue. We have to stay positive, keep the momentum going and find the back of the net.”
With a DuPage Valley Conference schedule and teams like Barrington, Benet and York on the nonconference schedule, nothing has come easy for the Warriors and that makes their record a bit misleading.
“Our numbers are deceiving because of our competition,” Garcia said. “So I’m glad for these guys to come out here and get a W because they wanted it, and we needed it.”
Sanchez acknowledged that team morale could’ve sunk after the losses continued to pile up, but that the Warriors have remained optimistic through it all.
“Working hard at practice and getting motivation from our coach, we’ve kept our heads up all season,” he said. “Our leadership is strong, and we know our season is not over until it’s over. We’ve got to play competitively until the last minute. We haven’t given up yet. We’re still here and we’re going to compete.”
Waubonsie Valley hadn’t scored four or more goals in a regular season game since a 7-0 victory over Lemont on Oct. 3, 2016. They last scored four in a game in last year’s thrilling 4-3 double OT win against West Aurora in regional play.
Starting lineups
Waubonsie Valley
GK: Bryan Grimaldo
D: Diego Carillo
D: Sahit Reddy
D: Ryan Sanchez
D: Matthew Shannon
MF: Jerry Perez
MF: Brandon Garduno
MF: Zach Stanley
MF: Noah Glorioso
MF: Daniel Fritz
F: Milan Erastus-Obilo
East Aurora
GK: Gustavo Lazcano
D: Joshua Gomez
D: Marco Junez
D: Jesus L. Nicacio
D: Mauricio Ortiz
MF: Jose Alonso
MF: Ulysses Cepeda
MF: Jaziel Enriquez
MF: Giovanni Villegas
F: Sergio Reyes Jr.
F: Bryan Torres
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jorge Gallegos, jr., MF, Waubonsie Valley
Scoring summary
First Half
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (unassisted), 17:27
Waubonsie Valley – Jerry Perez (Noah Glorioso), 12:11
Waubonsie Valley – Jorge Gallegos (unassisted), 0:07
Second Half
Waubonsie Valley – Ryan Sanchez (unassisted), 38:50
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (Sergio Reyes Jr.), 28:12
Waubonsie Valley – Jorge Gallegos PK, 23:28