Jurado provides offensive magic,
Glenbard North dazzles WWS
Senior's brace tops pretty 2nd half goals in 3-0 win
By Dave Owen
CAROL STREAM – Glenbard North won’t have to look far to find material for this season’s highlight film.
A 15-minute stretch of the second half in the Panthers’ 3-0 DuKane Conference win over Wheaton Warrenville South provided plenty.
The first eye-opener came with 29:31 left in a nil-nil match. A Tigers foul on the right sideline 29 yards out set up a free kick for Glenbard North (4-4-0, 2-2-0).
After Raul Pasillas faked a shot as he ran by the ball, Gabe Jurado delivered a perfect strike to the upper back corner of the net. It bounced off the crossbar and ricocheted back across the goal line for a 1-0 Panthers edge.
“I was trying to aim for that spot,’ Jurado said, “but at first I thought I hit it a little too wide. Then the wind picked it up and shifted it. That was good.
“I was telling the whole backline to get in. They got in and did like a little dummy, and the keeper didn’t realize it; and it went in the top corner. We got excited, happy, and that sets us up for the second goal.”
The next Panthers free kick produced that second score with 22:05 to go, and another worth watching over and over.
From virtually the same spot 28 yards out right sideline, Pasillas lined a nice send to the front of the net. Pablo De La Cruz was there for a header inside the right post for a 2-0 lead.
The two finishes were a pleasant change for Panthers coach Spero Mandakas.
“We’ve been wasting a lot of set pieces this year,” Mandakas said. “We’ve just been telling these guys to put them on frame and give them a chance.
“Gabe was right there. He puts a good ball back post, then the next one Raul. Again, we get numbers in the box and Pablo does a great job of just getting up and redirecting it. So, it’s them just having a little composure, realizing what their role is and just executing it. And we get results out of it.”
If those two works of set piece magic weren’t enough, Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match Jurado added another play to remember with 14:07 to play.
Off a long send from the defensive end by Luis Roman, Jurado raced past a defender to reach the ball, headed it forward to open space and then lined a 20-yard shot inside the left post.
“It was kind of hard to control,” Jurado said. “I headed it down, I saw the keeper a little bit too far to his left side. I took a shot to the opposite side, and it went in.”
The goal was one part incredible, one part old news.
“Great settle by Gabe with his head,” Mandakas said, “He literally did the same thing last year against St. Pat’s, right there, a rocket to the back post. That was a pretty goal.”
The second half wasn’t so pretty from the Wheaton Warrenville South perspective.
With head coach Guy Callipari absent to attend son Brayden’s Senior Day soccer festivities at DePaul, JV coach Eric Stajduhar saw the Tigers’ solid first half dissolve into two small mistakes that led to big Panther finishes.
“We just made a couple uncharacteristic unforced errors on our part, fouls thar cost us,” Stajduhar said.
“They just took advantage of those set pieces, the first one on a free kick finding the back of the net on the back post, kudos to them on a great strike. And on the second one they just kind of out-challenged us. It seemed like they were a little more hungry, a little bit more aggressive on that.”
The Tigers’ offense ran into aggressive resistance in that half from a strong effort by the Panthers defense and goalkeeper Martin Argirov.
One top-quality chance came 3:50 before halftime. Issa Husseini broke in 1-v-1 off a long pass, but Panthers defender Tyler Nack made a great play to first deny a shot and then draw a foul on a battle for the now loose ball.
Nack and Mark Szklarczyk were rock solid at the center back spots all day.
“I was talking to the backline,” Szklarczyk said. “And when one steps, one will always cover. We just kept doing that, and we didn’t concede any goals.”
There was plenty of credit to go around.
“Our whole backline did great today,” Mandakas said. “Ren (Santillan) has been starting in the middle with Mark. We’re down a few guys with injuries and spring break, so we pushed Ren outside, and Tyler stepped in and did a great job today.
“And Mark just leads them back there, being able to win (50-50 balls) and getting involved in set pieces. The backline played exceptional today.”
Nack made another nice individual play with 3:30 left to go -- fa sliding steal and clear to deny a would-be Jackson Moran shot.
Then there was goalkeeper Argirov, who set the tone with nice first half saves that included a catch of Brian Tunney’s left-side drive and his one-hop stop on a Moran line drive free kick just 10 seconds before halftime.
His best save may have been his last. In the 78th minute, an Eric Vargas 34-yard free kick connected with Jason Weisheit in the box. But Argirov raced off his line to smother Weisheit’s 10-yard try and cover any potential rebound.
“He (Argirov) is good,” Stajduhar said. “He’s tall; he commands the box well; he’s smart. Kudos to him.”
Argirov also made a nifty save with 17 minutes left, a diving grab of a well-struck 30-yard free kick by Vargas.
The kudos were even bigger from Argirov’s teammates.
“He is phenomenal,” Szklarczyk said. “It give us really good confidence (as a defense). It boosts up everyone.”
Said Jurado: “He’s like a wall.”
Glenbard North ran into a proverbial wall early in a 3-0 loss Thursday to St. Charles North, which is ranked seventh in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, but the Panthers rebounded nicely.
“We came out flat Thursday and gave up three goals in the first half against St. Charles North,” Mandakas said. “and then had a great second half. We just talked about building off of that and getting that reward of finally finishing a few off and getting that 3-0 win today. That was good to see.”
“It’s been tough these last couple of weeks. We got a result, a good win, with good hustle. I’m glad for the team.”
Jurado saw Saturday’s start as a good sign.
“The first half we came off feeling pretty good; it was 0-0,” he said. “We didn’t concede any goals. Then we got the first goal off a set piece, and we just got our confidence from there.”
Even in defeat, Wheaton Warrenville South found plenty of good signs for the future.
“I feel like we played a really good game, especially in the first half,” Vargas said. “But we just weren’t being aggressive enough and didn’t really test the keeper. That’s why we didn’t score today.
“We were getting frustrated. We usually don’t get shut out.”
That lack of scoring was the one missing element in a solid first half.
“I thought it was a great contest (in the first half) back and forth,” Stajduhar said. “We did a nice job possessing; we were able to find ourselves centrally and get ourselves going offensively. We just couldn’t find that pass in the final third to get us in and have a good look at goal.
“But I was pleased with the effort. These guys played hard, up until a couple of minor mistakes that kind of ultimately sunk us unfortunately. But they’re young; they work hard, and I know we’ll bounce back.
“It was just about being a little more aggressive in the final third,” he added. “For whatever reason we didn’t want to pull the trigger. We created; we built; we threatened; we just couldn’t put it together at the end.”
Coming off a fall without soccer and with a playoff-less truncated spring season ahead, the Tigers are like most other teams: learning on the fly.
“We just learn that we can’t play down against anybody,” Vargas said. “We have to play our own game, and if we do that we can have a really good team and have a lot of success. We have four games this week, so it’s really hard. We have to treat our bodies right.
“A lot of players haven’t played with each other before, so it’s kind of hard. We’re still not all on the same page. But I think we’re growing as a team, and we’ll find success.”
Glenbard North had its own early year ups and downs but appears on the upswing.
“At the beginning (of the year) we started off pretty poor,” Szklarczyk said. “We didn’t really know how to play together. But we kept growing off of that, every game and every practice, and now we did really good today.
“It (the win) boosts the whole team’s confidence. It feels amazing.”
Starting lineups
WWS
GK Kieran Cassidy
D Patrick Brocious
D Jerry Cuatz
D Jackson Moran
D Andrew Murman
M Gael Alfara
M Eric Vargas
M Brian Tunney
M Nikhil Bawa
F Logan Hary
F Jason Weisheit
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Ren Santillan
D Mark Szklarczyk
D Tyler Nack
D Christian Escobedo
M Nick Partington
M Pablo De La Cruz
M John Salazar
M Lucas Tran
F Gabe Jurado
F Raul Pasillas
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Gabe Jurado sr. F, Glenbard North
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
GN- Gabe Jurado (free kick), 51st min
GN- Pablo De La Cruz (Raul Pasillas), 58th min
GN- Jurado (Luis Roman), 66th min
Glenbard North dazzles WWS
Senior's brace tops pretty 2nd half goals in 3-0 win
By Dave Owen
CAROL STREAM – Glenbard North won’t have to look far to find material for this season’s highlight film.
A 15-minute stretch of the second half in the Panthers’ 3-0 DuKane Conference win over Wheaton Warrenville South provided plenty.
The first eye-opener came with 29:31 left in a nil-nil match. A Tigers foul on the right sideline 29 yards out set up a free kick for Glenbard North (4-4-0, 2-2-0).
After Raul Pasillas faked a shot as he ran by the ball, Gabe Jurado delivered a perfect strike to the upper back corner of the net. It bounced off the crossbar and ricocheted back across the goal line for a 1-0 Panthers edge.
“I was trying to aim for that spot,’ Jurado said, “but at first I thought I hit it a little too wide. Then the wind picked it up and shifted it. That was good.
“I was telling the whole backline to get in. They got in and did like a little dummy, and the keeper didn’t realize it; and it went in the top corner. We got excited, happy, and that sets us up for the second goal.”
The next Panthers free kick produced that second score with 22:05 to go, and another worth watching over and over.
From virtually the same spot 28 yards out right sideline, Pasillas lined a nice send to the front of the net. Pablo De La Cruz was there for a header inside the right post for a 2-0 lead.
The two finishes were a pleasant change for Panthers coach Spero Mandakas.
“We’ve been wasting a lot of set pieces this year,” Mandakas said. “We’ve just been telling these guys to put them on frame and give them a chance.
“Gabe was right there. He puts a good ball back post, then the next one Raul. Again, we get numbers in the box and Pablo does a great job of just getting up and redirecting it. So, it’s them just having a little composure, realizing what their role is and just executing it. And we get results out of it.”
If those two works of set piece magic weren’t enough, Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match Jurado added another play to remember with 14:07 to play.
Off a long send from the defensive end by Luis Roman, Jurado raced past a defender to reach the ball, headed it forward to open space and then lined a 20-yard shot inside the left post.
“It was kind of hard to control,” Jurado said. “I headed it down, I saw the keeper a little bit too far to his left side. I took a shot to the opposite side, and it went in.”
The goal was one part incredible, one part old news.
“Great settle by Gabe with his head,” Mandakas said, “He literally did the same thing last year against St. Pat’s, right there, a rocket to the back post. That was a pretty goal.”
The second half wasn’t so pretty from the Wheaton Warrenville South perspective.
With head coach Guy Callipari absent to attend son Brayden’s Senior Day soccer festivities at DePaul, JV coach Eric Stajduhar saw the Tigers’ solid first half dissolve into two small mistakes that led to big Panther finishes.
“We just made a couple uncharacteristic unforced errors on our part, fouls thar cost us,” Stajduhar said.
“They just took advantage of those set pieces, the first one on a free kick finding the back of the net on the back post, kudos to them on a great strike. And on the second one they just kind of out-challenged us. It seemed like they were a little more hungry, a little bit more aggressive on that.”
The Tigers’ offense ran into aggressive resistance in that half from a strong effort by the Panthers defense and goalkeeper Martin Argirov.
One top-quality chance came 3:50 before halftime. Issa Husseini broke in 1-v-1 off a long pass, but Panthers defender Tyler Nack made a great play to first deny a shot and then draw a foul on a battle for the now loose ball.
Nack and Mark Szklarczyk were rock solid at the center back spots all day.
“I was talking to the backline,” Szklarczyk said. “And when one steps, one will always cover. We just kept doing that, and we didn’t concede any goals.”
There was plenty of credit to go around.
“Our whole backline did great today,” Mandakas said. “Ren (Santillan) has been starting in the middle with Mark. We’re down a few guys with injuries and spring break, so we pushed Ren outside, and Tyler stepped in and did a great job today.
“And Mark just leads them back there, being able to win (50-50 balls) and getting involved in set pieces. The backline played exceptional today.”
Nack made another nice individual play with 3:30 left to go -- fa sliding steal and clear to deny a would-be Jackson Moran shot.
Then there was goalkeeper Argirov, who set the tone with nice first half saves that included a catch of Brian Tunney’s left-side drive and his one-hop stop on a Moran line drive free kick just 10 seconds before halftime.
His best save may have been his last. In the 78th minute, an Eric Vargas 34-yard free kick connected with Jason Weisheit in the box. But Argirov raced off his line to smother Weisheit’s 10-yard try and cover any potential rebound.
“He (Argirov) is good,” Stajduhar said. “He’s tall; he commands the box well; he’s smart. Kudos to him.”
Argirov also made a nifty save with 17 minutes left, a diving grab of a well-struck 30-yard free kick by Vargas.
The kudos were even bigger from Argirov’s teammates.
“He is phenomenal,” Szklarczyk said. “It give us really good confidence (as a defense). It boosts up everyone.”
Said Jurado: “He’s like a wall.”
Glenbard North ran into a proverbial wall early in a 3-0 loss Thursday to St. Charles North, which is ranked seventh in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, but the Panthers rebounded nicely.
“We came out flat Thursday and gave up three goals in the first half against St. Charles North,” Mandakas said. “and then had a great second half. We just talked about building off of that and getting that reward of finally finishing a few off and getting that 3-0 win today. That was good to see.”
“It’s been tough these last couple of weeks. We got a result, a good win, with good hustle. I’m glad for the team.”
Jurado saw Saturday’s start as a good sign.
“The first half we came off feeling pretty good; it was 0-0,” he said. “We didn’t concede any goals. Then we got the first goal off a set piece, and we just got our confidence from there.”
Even in defeat, Wheaton Warrenville South found plenty of good signs for the future.
“I feel like we played a really good game, especially in the first half,” Vargas said. “But we just weren’t being aggressive enough and didn’t really test the keeper. That’s why we didn’t score today.
“We were getting frustrated. We usually don’t get shut out.”
That lack of scoring was the one missing element in a solid first half.
“I thought it was a great contest (in the first half) back and forth,” Stajduhar said. “We did a nice job possessing; we were able to find ourselves centrally and get ourselves going offensively. We just couldn’t find that pass in the final third to get us in and have a good look at goal.
“But I was pleased with the effort. These guys played hard, up until a couple of minor mistakes that kind of ultimately sunk us unfortunately. But they’re young; they work hard, and I know we’ll bounce back.
“It was just about being a little more aggressive in the final third,” he added. “For whatever reason we didn’t want to pull the trigger. We created; we built; we threatened; we just couldn’t put it together at the end.”
Coming off a fall without soccer and with a playoff-less truncated spring season ahead, the Tigers are like most other teams: learning on the fly.
“We just learn that we can’t play down against anybody,” Vargas said. “We have to play our own game, and if we do that we can have a really good team and have a lot of success. We have four games this week, so it’s really hard. We have to treat our bodies right.
“A lot of players haven’t played with each other before, so it’s kind of hard. We’re still not all on the same page. But I think we’re growing as a team, and we’ll find success.”
Glenbard North had its own early year ups and downs but appears on the upswing.
“At the beginning (of the year) we started off pretty poor,” Szklarczyk said. “We didn’t really know how to play together. But we kept growing off of that, every game and every practice, and now we did really good today.
“It (the win) boosts the whole team’s confidence. It feels amazing.”
Starting lineups
WWS
GK Kieran Cassidy
D Patrick Brocious
D Jerry Cuatz
D Jackson Moran
D Andrew Murman
M Gael Alfara
M Eric Vargas
M Brian Tunney
M Nikhil Bawa
F Logan Hary
F Jason Weisheit
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Ren Santillan
D Mark Szklarczyk
D Tyler Nack
D Christian Escobedo
M Nick Partington
M Pablo De La Cruz
M John Salazar
M Lucas Tran
F Gabe Jurado
F Raul Pasillas
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Gabe Jurado sr. F, Glenbard North
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
GN- Gabe Jurado (free kick), 51st min
GN- Pablo De La Cruz (Raul Pasillas), 58th min
GN- Jurado (Luis Roman), 66th min