York’s inconsistent offense flips on vs. DGS
Dukes ride early explosion to 5-1 road victory
By Matt Le Cren
DOWNERS GROVE – York coach Lukasz Majewski doesn’t have a lot in common with Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
But he can commiserate with Maddon over one thing – both coach teams with potent but infuriatingly inconsistent offenses.
Like the Cubs, the Dukes have plenty of talented offensive players. They also don’t know from day to day which version of themselves will turn up.
Through 10 games, York is averaging 3.1 goals per game, a stat that would make any coach happy. Yet the Dukes have been shutout three times, all by 1-0 margins.
So how can such an experienced, talented offense be so fickle?
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” York senior Jack Musial said. “We’ve been changing guys around; we’ve changed formations.
“We’re just trying to get everything ready for the playoffs, but that’s never an excuse to be up and down. We need to be more consistent as we finish the year.”
The Dukes were impressively consistent, not to mention efficient, Saturday. They scored on 33 percent of their shots, including four goals in the first half, en route to a 5-1 win over host Downers Grove South.
Senior Joe Meade scored on the first two shots of the game – the Dukes converted on three of their first four – and later added a nifty assist to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors. He now has a team-leading 11 goals.
“I think we know we’re a team that can score,” Meade said. “It’s just a matter if our finishing is on that day.
“Some days we’ll have 20 shots and no goals. Today shots were just falling, so it felt good.”
Majewski, who saw his team score at least three goals for the sixth time this fall, was pleased with the result. He’d like to see it more often.
“We’re capable of producing those kinds of results,” Majewski said. “It’s just a matter of being consistent with it.
“We’ve had games 5-1 and then we’ve been in some close ones where we can’t find the back of the net for some reason or another. We’re working on it.
“We’re a work in progress, but it’s a nice win for us. We got the ball moving in the right direction.”
It didn’t take the Dukes (6-4) long to do so. Just five minutes into the game, Meade got the ball in the right side of the box, settled it and chipped over the head of Downers South goalie Kenny Rosales.
The host Mustangs (2-7-0) wanted a hand ball call against Meade but didn’t get it.
Instead, Meade gave them a double dose of angst 3:41 later. Parker Gawne took the ball to the right endline and looped a cross to the near post, where Meade won a three-way challenge with Rosales and a defender and tapped in for a 2-0 lead.
“We were pretty amped up to play,” Meade said. “We haven’t played a game all this week, so we all came out ready to play. We were just on top of it.”
The early lead gave the visitors plenty of confidence.
“Scoring early matters a lot, especially for us,” Meade said. “Games where we’ve scored early, we get a lot of confidence and then go on and score more and win the game.”
More was to come for the Dukes, but not before the Mustangs tried to make things interesting.
Downers South got on the board just 52 seconds later when Ethan Kelly’s long throw-in from the right wing to the far post was headed home by Josh Venouziou with 30:20 to go in the first half.
At that point, the teams had combined for three shots, all of which resulted in goals. So Downers South coach Jon Stapleton could be forgiven for speculating that a shootout might be in the offing.
“Not taking anything away from York, but I think we created a lot of our own mess,” Stapleton said. “From our vantage point, we felt there was a handball in that situation that led to that (first goal).
“But those things happen, and even after that it’s still 1-0. York capitalized on the opportunities that I think we presented them defensively and credit to them for doing that.”
Indeed, the Dukes paid Downers South’s tally little mind and got right back to work. Meade had a hard shot blocked at the top of the box, but Musial got the rebound and ripped a 25-yard cracker into the upper left corner to regain the two-goal lead for the Dukes at the 24:18 mark.
It was Musial’s first goal of the season.
“I just saw the ball coming, and I saw an open lane,” Musial said. “The guy might have gotten a little tip on it, but I saw the goal open so I decided to take a shot, and it went in.”
The Mustangs’ hopes at victory went down with it.
“At 2-1 you feel a little different; you’ve responded to that 2-0 deficit,” Stapleton said. “Even at 3-1, I think we felt that if we get to halftime, we can make some adjustments.
“I think we had been dangerous at times early in the first half, and we could have done that in the second half. But when they got that fourth goal, that was a little bit of backbreaker in that situation.”
It sure was. The Dukes, who outshot the Mustangs 11-2 before intermission, forced a corner kick in the final minute.
Rosales couldn’t corral the serve from Ryan Woolfe, but a defender poked it away. The ball didn’t get far, however, before York defender Sebastian Benavides ran in and volleyed a 12-yard shot into the net to make it 4-1 with 54 seconds left.
Play in the second half was a bit more even but by then the game was out of reach. The Dukes put an exclamation point on the win with 26:01 remaining when Gawne got a tap-in goal after Meade made a great effort to bamboozle a defender on the left side of the box, cutting back to his right before spotting the wide-open Gawne.
“I took the defender down to the endline, and I think he thought I was going to cross it,” Meade said. “But then I cut back to my right foot and I saw Parker at the back post, and I just put it right in front of him.”
Musial’s goal came one day shy of a year since the Mustangs routed the Dukes 4-1 on the same field, a fact he hadn’t forgotten.
“Last year we had a little downfall when we played them,” Musial said. “This was our time to come back and take it from them, and we did exactly that.”
As for what the Mustangs can take out of the defeat, that remains to be seen. Stapleton was at a loss to decipher his team’s struggles, which include conceding 3.1 goals per game.
“If you look at every level of the field, I think we’ve been inconsistent,” Stapleton said. “Prior to the fifth goal tonight, we’ve given up five goals in the last two games and four of those five, we’ve gifted to our opponents.
“That’s not just the backline. It could be keeper error, it could be the backline, or turnovers at midfield that put our backline and keeper in bad situations.”
Stapleton has been around long enough to know that in soccer fortunes can turn in an instant. He hopes a breakthrough is coming for the Mustangs.
“We have 10 games left and we’ll see if we can turn things around,” Stapleton said. “Things can click and go right.
“The kids have worked hard, but we talked about it today in the locker room. I think today might have been that breaking point of the frustrating first half of a season, so as a player you reexamine yourself and see if you can’t make it right the last half.”
Starting lineups
York
GK James Sampson
D Boyd Puckett
D Kalvin Glodz
D Chase McNeil
D Sebastian Benavides
M Sam Musial
M Jack Musial
M Ethan Oder
M Chase McNeil
M Paolo Favuzzi
F Parker Gawne
F Joe Meade
Downers Grove South
GK Kenny Rosales
D Michael Loughran
D Ethan Kelly
D Jack Storrs
M Devin Boone
M Stefano Espinosa
M Jon Flores
M Kyle Fenner
F Josh Venouziou
F Erick Gonzalez
F Blazo Jovicevic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Joe Meade, sr., F, York.
Scoring summary
First half
York – Joe Meade 34:53
York – Meade 31:12
DGS – Joshe Venouziou (Ethan Kelly) 30:20
York – Jack Musial 24:18
York – Sebastian Beavides :54
Second half
York – Parker Gawne (Meade) 26:01
Dukes ride early explosion to 5-1 road victory
By Matt Le Cren
DOWNERS GROVE – York coach Lukasz Majewski doesn’t have a lot in common with Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
But he can commiserate with Maddon over one thing – both coach teams with potent but infuriatingly inconsistent offenses.
Like the Cubs, the Dukes have plenty of talented offensive players. They also don’t know from day to day which version of themselves will turn up.
Through 10 games, York is averaging 3.1 goals per game, a stat that would make any coach happy. Yet the Dukes have been shutout three times, all by 1-0 margins.
So how can such an experienced, talented offense be so fickle?
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” York senior Jack Musial said. “We’ve been changing guys around; we’ve changed formations.
“We’re just trying to get everything ready for the playoffs, but that’s never an excuse to be up and down. We need to be more consistent as we finish the year.”
The Dukes were impressively consistent, not to mention efficient, Saturday. They scored on 33 percent of their shots, including four goals in the first half, en route to a 5-1 win over host Downers Grove South.
Senior Joe Meade scored on the first two shots of the game – the Dukes converted on three of their first four – and later added a nifty assist to earn Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors. He now has a team-leading 11 goals.
“I think we know we’re a team that can score,” Meade said. “It’s just a matter if our finishing is on that day.
“Some days we’ll have 20 shots and no goals. Today shots were just falling, so it felt good.”
Majewski, who saw his team score at least three goals for the sixth time this fall, was pleased with the result. He’d like to see it more often.
“We’re capable of producing those kinds of results,” Majewski said. “It’s just a matter of being consistent with it.
“We’ve had games 5-1 and then we’ve been in some close ones where we can’t find the back of the net for some reason or another. We’re working on it.
“We’re a work in progress, but it’s a nice win for us. We got the ball moving in the right direction.”
It didn’t take the Dukes (6-4) long to do so. Just five minutes into the game, Meade got the ball in the right side of the box, settled it and chipped over the head of Downers South goalie Kenny Rosales.
The host Mustangs (2-7-0) wanted a hand ball call against Meade but didn’t get it.
Instead, Meade gave them a double dose of angst 3:41 later. Parker Gawne took the ball to the right endline and looped a cross to the near post, where Meade won a three-way challenge with Rosales and a defender and tapped in for a 2-0 lead.
“We were pretty amped up to play,” Meade said. “We haven’t played a game all this week, so we all came out ready to play. We were just on top of it.”
The early lead gave the visitors plenty of confidence.
“Scoring early matters a lot, especially for us,” Meade said. “Games where we’ve scored early, we get a lot of confidence and then go on and score more and win the game.”
More was to come for the Dukes, but not before the Mustangs tried to make things interesting.
Downers South got on the board just 52 seconds later when Ethan Kelly’s long throw-in from the right wing to the far post was headed home by Josh Venouziou with 30:20 to go in the first half.
At that point, the teams had combined for three shots, all of which resulted in goals. So Downers South coach Jon Stapleton could be forgiven for speculating that a shootout might be in the offing.
“Not taking anything away from York, but I think we created a lot of our own mess,” Stapleton said. “From our vantage point, we felt there was a handball in that situation that led to that (first goal).
“But those things happen, and even after that it’s still 1-0. York capitalized on the opportunities that I think we presented them defensively and credit to them for doing that.”
Indeed, the Dukes paid Downers South’s tally little mind and got right back to work. Meade had a hard shot blocked at the top of the box, but Musial got the rebound and ripped a 25-yard cracker into the upper left corner to regain the two-goal lead for the Dukes at the 24:18 mark.
It was Musial’s first goal of the season.
“I just saw the ball coming, and I saw an open lane,” Musial said. “The guy might have gotten a little tip on it, but I saw the goal open so I decided to take a shot, and it went in.”
The Mustangs’ hopes at victory went down with it.
“At 2-1 you feel a little different; you’ve responded to that 2-0 deficit,” Stapleton said. “Even at 3-1, I think we felt that if we get to halftime, we can make some adjustments.
“I think we had been dangerous at times early in the first half, and we could have done that in the second half. But when they got that fourth goal, that was a little bit of backbreaker in that situation.”
It sure was. The Dukes, who outshot the Mustangs 11-2 before intermission, forced a corner kick in the final minute.
Rosales couldn’t corral the serve from Ryan Woolfe, but a defender poked it away. The ball didn’t get far, however, before York defender Sebastian Benavides ran in and volleyed a 12-yard shot into the net to make it 4-1 with 54 seconds left.
Play in the second half was a bit more even but by then the game was out of reach. The Dukes put an exclamation point on the win with 26:01 remaining when Gawne got a tap-in goal after Meade made a great effort to bamboozle a defender on the left side of the box, cutting back to his right before spotting the wide-open Gawne.
“I took the defender down to the endline, and I think he thought I was going to cross it,” Meade said. “But then I cut back to my right foot and I saw Parker at the back post, and I just put it right in front of him.”
Musial’s goal came one day shy of a year since the Mustangs routed the Dukes 4-1 on the same field, a fact he hadn’t forgotten.
“Last year we had a little downfall when we played them,” Musial said. “This was our time to come back and take it from them, and we did exactly that.”
As for what the Mustangs can take out of the defeat, that remains to be seen. Stapleton was at a loss to decipher his team’s struggles, which include conceding 3.1 goals per game.
“If you look at every level of the field, I think we’ve been inconsistent,” Stapleton said. “Prior to the fifth goal tonight, we’ve given up five goals in the last two games and four of those five, we’ve gifted to our opponents.
“That’s not just the backline. It could be keeper error, it could be the backline, or turnovers at midfield that put our backline and keeper in bad situations.”
Stapleton has been around long enough to know that in soccer fortunes can turn in an instant. He hopes a breakthrough is coming for the Mustangs.
“We have 10 games left and we’ll see if we can turn things around,” Stapleton said. “Things can click and go right.
“The kids have worked hard, but we talked about it today in the locker room. I think today might have been that breaking point of the frustrating first half of a season, so as a player you reexamine yourself and see if you can’t make it right the last half.”
Starting lineups
York
GK James Sampson
D Boyd Puckett
D Kalvin Glodz
D Chase McNeil
D Sebastian Benavides
M Sam Musial
M Jack Musial
M Ethan Oder
M Chase McNeil
M Paolo Favuzzi
F Parker Gawne
F Joe Meade
Downers Grove South
GK Kenny Rosales
D Michael Loughran
D Ethan Kelly
D Jack Storrs
M Devin Boone
M Stefano Espinosa
M Jon Flores
M Kyle Fenner
F Josh Venouziou
F Erick Gonzalez
F Blazo Jovicevic
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Joe Meade, sr., F, York.
Scoring summary
First half
York – Joe Meade 34:53
York – Meade 31:12
DGS – Joshe Venouziou (Ethan Kelly) 30:20
York – Jack Musial 24:18
York – Sebastian Beavides :54
Second half
York – Parker Gawne (Meade) 26:01