Gerenraich blows out candles in Young win
Birthday boy's 2-goal night powers Dolphins past Timothy
By Dave Owen
ELMHURST – Jake Gerenraich knows how to celebrate a birthday – even with an occasional unwelcome guest.
Birthday boy Gerenraich provided two beautiful gifts for Young soccer fans Tuesday – a pair of great individual effort goals in a 3-0 win for the Dolphins (7-3-0) at Timothy (6-4-1) in the consolation pool of the PepsiCo Showdown.
About the only thing to spoil the party for the Dolphins star senior midfielder was an unexpected and uncalled foul from an unseen opponent.
“I got bitten by a bee or mosquito,” Gerenraich said while holding an ice pack on the left side of his face. “I don’t know how that happened. When I got called off (for a substitute with about 28 minutes left) my face felt weird.”
The slight redness and swelling on Gerenraich’s face was surpassed by Young coach Ian McCarthy’s swelling with pride over his senior's latest top performance.
“Jake has had a great year,” McCarthy said. “I think this makes 11 goals for him. He’s a force in the midfield. He really leads the team and kind of organizes everybody around him. It’s been a special season for him.”
The birthday factor made Tuesday a little something extra.
“I definitely wanted something to make this game special,” said Gerenraich, also an elite student who scored a perfect 36 on his ACT last spring. “Driving out here (to Elmhurst) on my birthday may not necessarily be my top choice, especially with all the bugs and everything. But this has definitely been good.”
Before Gerenraich took over the game, Young came out with extra fire.
“I think we’re really disappointed we didn’t win on Saturday,” McCarthy said of a 1-0 loss to Bloom in the PepsiCo opener. “We played a team that was very defensively organized against us and kept us on our toes. We had to be perfect with our passes and had to try to get it through so many bodies on shots. They got an early goal and defended, defended, defended.
“Today the game was a little more open, and we were able to kind of expose them from time to time with some through-balls. Caleb’s goal was an example of that.”
That goal came in the 10th minute of play. Off a nice send by junior defender Alex Espino, junior midfielder Caleb Young raced in on net and scored what turned out to be the deciding goal.
From there, the story of the match became the Young defense and the Dolphins’ stellar midfield play led by Gerenraich and fellow senior co-captain Gabriel Regalado.
“Gabriel Regalado has also been playing really well,” McCarthy said. “He keeps the defense off balance because he’s so crafty on the ball. He really opens up the game for a lot of people.”
A wide-open game certainly served Gerenraich well in the 27th minute, when he dribbled around two defenders to put Young up 2-0.
“The ball was in the middle, I was on the left side,” Gerenraich said. “I turned, and I took it down the line. I bodied the first guy off after one touch, and then I took it to the second guy. He beat me to the ball, but I took a touch around him. Then it’s me 1-on-1 with the keeper, and I just curled it front post.”
The talented, motivated Gerenraich was not what Timothy needed to see. On Monday, the Trojans battled to a two-overtime 2-1 win over Elmwood Park (on Jonathan Stremler’s winning goal off an Andrew Petrulakis throw-in).
“We had a tough conference game last night that went into overtime, and we scored in the 99th minute,” Timothy coach Joel Zielke said. “Certainly our legs were tired today. You could kind of see that from the get-go. We did some things well, but we have to possess more and finish in the final third. We’re struggling with that right now.”
Young’s defense had a lot to do with limiting Trojans finishes.
“We were very composed in the back,” Young senior defender Jonathan Perez said. “We were making some mistakes early in the back, making some bad negative balls, but we started communicating a lot more and moving the ball around a lot more smoothly.
“I’m very pleased with how we were moving the ball around in this game, possessing a lot. That’s really what we’re good at.”
And when Gerenraich was in possession, another very good thing happened early in the second half.
Finding some daylight from about 30 yards, Gerenraich rocketed a straight-on shot into the net to up the Young lead to 3-0.
“That was a rip,” Gerenraich said. “I saw it and prepared my body well for it. It’s a good distance for me. The form was good, and I just followed through. That was just repetition.”
That goal added to his senior season of maximum determination.
“Individually I think taking leadership and just trying to seize whatever I can do in a game,” said Gerenraich of his contributions. “I’m trying to do that, trying to succeed. I feel I have less of a tolerance of defeat or failure than I did previously. Not to say that I would ever be fine losing, but this year I’m doing everything in my power to avoid it.”
Opposing teams are noticing.
“He’s a very strong player,” Zielke said of Gerenraich. “Good on the ball, and he can turn well. He’s certainly somebody we needed to keep track of. He had a nice game tonight.”
But with his team facing a 3-0 deficit, Zielke’s side wouldn’t go quietly.
After enduring another Young offensive burst with 22:55 left (an Elias Guzman rush to the end line and cross denied by goalkeeper Kyle Teune), the Trojans put Young’s defense to the test in the late going.
Moments after a Timothy header wide on a corner kick with 20:10 left, Young starting goalkeeper Dan Moderhack departed in favor of senior substitute Andres Recindez. The Trojans kept Recindez on his toes.
His first save came on an 8-yard header by Stremler with 15:30 to play. Then after a nice clear of the box by Perez repelled another Trojans bid with 11:55 to go, Recindez made a short-hop block at the post of a Isaiah Whitaker 12-yard header.
“We have a goalkeeper trainer who works with our six guys and kind of keeps them on their toes and always battling,” McCarthy said of his team’s strength at goalkeeper. “We know if a guy goes out we have a good backup, and good guys on every level.”
A nice header out of danger by Young’s Alan Gaytan of a Trojans corner kick with 7:35 left was followed by a Dolphins offensive push two minutes later. Phillip Denne nicely drove around the Timothy defense off a strong Aidan Chapman throw-in, but Denne chipped his shot just over the net.
Then came a final Young defensive stand to seal the shutout.
With 3:30 to play, a Carson Hooker cross to the open back post was nicely deflected away from two Trojans by Young’s Quinn Greven. Then with 50 seconds left, Recindez made a low save on Hooker’s 8-yard left side 1-v.-1 shot to wrap up the 3-0 win.
The victory showed off another Young strength early in 2018 – adjusting to conditions.
The grass field at Timothy Christian would throw some visitors for a loop, but not the Dolphins.
“As I told the boys, we’re used to playing on surfaces like this,” McCarthy said. “We practice on basically a pitch that looks exactly like this, so we don’t always have to be a turf team. That obviously plays to our advantage sometimes. We don’t mind playing the ball on the ground and dealing with rough surfaces.”
For Timothy, a rough schedule against larger schools is good preparation to try to repeat its 2016 run to the Class A state finals.
“We know we have a tough schedule,” Zielke said. “The Metro Suburban Conference realigned, and we’re in the top division now with that.
“We’ll be tested every night, but we’re very confident these boys will respond. And come playoffs we’ll be set to go.”
With Gerenraich’s two-goal birthday present to himself and the Young soccer program Tuesday, the Dolphins also look ready for bigger and better things.
Whether it is field surfaces or style, ability to adjust on the fly has been key.
“We started the season off well with possession,” Gerenraich said, “and then towards the middle based on the fields we were playing on and the game situations, we had to adapt.
“I felt like especially with our first PepsiCo Showdown game, an unfortunate loss, that was an example of us not being able to adapt and get back to the form of play we’re best with: nice possession, ball switching through the backs, transition up the field easily, like strong, safe play where we’re good at holding the ball.”
Starting lineups
Young
GK: Dan Moderhack
D: Jake Davidson
D: Jonathan Perez
D: Alex Espino
D: Joshua Meyer
M: Owen Anderson
M: Jake Gerenraich
M: Gabriel Regalado
M: Rodney Bejabeng
F: Aidan Chapman
F: Elias Guzman
Timothy
GK Kyle Teune
D Michael Vogt
D Matt Van Zeelt
D Andrew Petrulakis
D Andrew Vogt
M Zach Orange
M Jonathan Stremler
M Isaiah Whitaker
M Connor Teune
M Ben Rowell
F Josh Wise
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jake Gerenraich, sr. M, Young
Scoring summary
First half
Young – Caleb Young (Alex Espino assist), 10th minute
Young – Jake Gerenraich, 27th minute
Second half
Young – Jake Gerenraich, 46th minute
Birthday boy's 2-goal night powers Dolphins past Timothy
By Dave Owen
ELMHURST – Jake Gerenraich knows how to celebrate a birthday – even with an occasional unwelcome guest.
Birthday boy Gerenraich provided two beautiful gifts for Young soccer fans Tuesday – a pair of great individual effort goals in a 3-0 win for the Dolphins (7-3-0) at Timothy (6-4-1) in the consolation pool of the PepsiCo Showdown.
About the only thing to spoil the party for the Dolphins star senior midfielder was an unexpected and uncalled foul from an unseen opponent.
“I got bitten by a bee or mosquito,” Gerenraich said while holding an ice pack on the left side of his face. “I don’t know how that happened. When I got called off (for a substitute with about 28 minutes left) my face felt weird.”
The slight redness and swelling on Gerenraich’s face was surpassed by Young coach Ian McCarthy’s swelling with pride over his senior's latest top performance.
“Jake has had a great year,” McCarthy said. “I think this makes 11 goals for him. He’s a force in the midfield. He really leads the team and kind of organizes everybody around him. It’s been a special season for him.”
The birthday factor made Tuesday a little something extra.
“I definitely wanted something to make this game special,” said Gerenraich, also an elite student who scored a perfect 36 on his ACT last spring. “Driving out here (to Elmhurst) on my birthday may not necessarily be my top choice, especially with all the bugs and everything. But this has definitely been good.”
Before Gerenraich took over the game, Young came out with extra fire.
“I think we’re really disappointed we didn’t win on Saturday,” McCarthy said of a 1-0 loss to Bloom in the PepsiCo opener. “We played a team that was very defensively organized against us and kept us on our toes. We had to be perfect with our passes and had to try to get it through so many bodies on shots. They got an early goal and defended, defended, defended.
“Today the game was a little more open, and we were able to kind of expose them from time to time with some through-balls. Caleb’s goal was an example of that.”
That goal came in the 10th minute of play. Off a nice send by junior defender Alex Espino, junior midfielder Caleb Young raced in on net and scored what turned out to be the deciding goal.
From there, the story of the match became the Young defense and the Dolphins’ stellar midfield play led by Gerenraich and fellow senior co-captain Gabriel Regalado.
“Gabriel Regalado has also been playing really well,” McCarthy said. “He keeps the defense off balance because he’s so crafty on the ball. He really opens up the game for a lot of people.”
A wide-open game certainly served Gerenraich well in the 27th minute, when he dribbled around two defenders to put Young up 2-0.
“The ball was in the middle, I was on the left side,” Gerenraich said. “I turned, and I took it down the line. I bodied the first guy off after one touch, and then I took it to the second guy. He beat me to the ball, but I took a touch around him. Then it’s me 1-on-1 with the keeper, and I just curled it front post.”
The talented, motivated Gerenraich was not what Timothy needed to see. On Monday, the Trojans battled to a two-overtime 2-1 win over Elmwood Park (on Jonathan Stremler’s winning goal off an Andrew Petrulakis throw-in).
“We had a tough conference game last night that went into overtime, and we scored in the 99th minute,” Timothy coach Joel Zielke said. “Certainly our legs were tired today. You could kind of see that from the get-go. We did some things well, but we have to possess more and finish in the final third. We’re struggling with that right now.”
Young’s defense had a lot to do with limiting Trojans finishes.
“We were very composed in the back,” Young senior defender Jonathan Perez said. “We were making some mistakes early in the back, making some bad negative balls, but we started communicating a lot more and moving the ball around a lot more smoothly.
“I’m very pleased with how we were moving the ball around in this game, possessing a lot. That’s really what we’re good at.”
And when Gerenraich was in possession, another very good thing happened early in the second half.
Finding some daylight from about 30 yards, Gerenraich rocketed a straight-on shot into the net to up the Young lead to 3-0.
“That was a rip,” Gerenraich said. “I saw it and prepared my body well for it. It’s a good distance for me. The form was good, and I just followed through. That was just repetition.”
That goal added to his senior season of maximum determination.
“Individually I think taking leadership and just trying to seize whatever I can do in a game,” said Gerenraich of his contributions. “I’m trying to do that, trying to succeed. I feel I have less of a tolerance of defeat or failure than I did previously. Not to say that I would ever be fine losing, but this year I’m doing everything in my power to avoid it.”
Opposing teams are noticing.
“He’s a very strong player,” Zielke said of Gerenraich. “Good on the ball, and he can turn well. He’s certainly somebody we needed to keep track of. He had a nice game tonight.”
But with his team facing a 3-0 deficit, Zielke’s side wouldn’t go quietly.
After enduring another Young offensive burst with 22:55 left (an Elias Guzman rush to the end line and cross denied by goalkeeper Kyle Teune), the Trojans put Young’s defense to the test in the late going.
Moments after a Timothy header wide on a corner kick with 20:10 left, Young starting goalkeeper Dan Moderhack departed in favor of senior substitute Andres Recindez. The Trojans kept Recindez on his toes.
His first save came on an 8-yard header by Stremler with 15:30 to play. Then after a nice clear of the box by Perez repelled another Trojans bid with 11:55 to go, Recindez made a short-hop block at the post of a Isaiah Whitaker 12-yard header.
“We have a goalkeeper trainer who works with our six guys and kind of keeps them on their toes and always battling,” McCarthy said of his team’s strength at goalkeeper. “We know if a guy goes out we have a good backup, and good guys on every level.”
A nice header out of danger by Young’s Alan Gaytan of a Trojans corner kick with 7:35 left was followed by a Dolphins offensive push two minutes later. Phillip Denne nicely drove around the Timothy defense off a strong Aidan Chapman throw-in, but Denne chipped his shot just over the net.
Then came a final Young defensive stand to seal the shutout.
With 3:30 to play, a Carson Hooker cross to the open back post was nicely deflected away from two Trojans by Young’s Quinn Greven. Then with 50 seconds left, Recindez made a low save on Hooker’s 8-yard left side 1-v.-1 shot to wrap up the 3-0 win.
The victory showed off another Young strength early in 2018 – adjusting to conditions.
The grass field at Timothy Christian would throw some visitors for a loop, but not the Dolphins.
“As I told the boys, we’re used to playing on surfaces like this,” McCarthy said. “We practice on basically a pitch that looks exactly like this, so we don’t always have to be a turf team. That obviously plays to our advantage sometimes. We don’t mind playing the ball on the ground and dealing with rough surfaces.”
For Timothy, a rough schedule against larger schools is good preparation to try to repeat its 2016 run to the Class A state finals.
“We know we have a tough schedule,” Zielke said. “The Metro Suburban Conference realigned, and we’re in the top division now with that.
“We’ll be tested every night, but we’re very confident these boys will respond. And come playoffs we’ll be set to go.”
With Gerenraich’s two-goal birthday present to himself and the Young soccer program Tuesday, the Dolphins also look ready for bigger and better things.
Whether it is field surfaces or style, ability to adjust on the fly has been key.
“We started the season off well with possession,” Gerenraich said, “and then towards the middle based on the fields we were playing on and the game situations, we had to adapt.
“I felt like especially with our first PepsiCo Showdown game, an unfortunate loss, that was an example of us not being able to adapt and get back to the form of play we’re best with: nice possession, ball switching through the backs, transition up the field easily, like strong, safe play where we’re good at holding the ball.”
Starting lineups
Young
GK: Dan Moderhack
D: Jake Davidson
D: Jonathan Perez
D: Alex Espino
D: Joshua Meyer
M: Owen Anderson
M: Jake Gerenraich
M: Gabriel Regalado
M: Rodney Bejabeng
F: Aidan Chapman
F: Elias Guzman
Timothy
GK Kyle Teune
D Michael Vogt
D Matt Van Zeelt
D Andrew Petrulakis
D Andrew Vogt
M Zach Orange
M Jonathan Stremler
M Isaiah Whitaker
M Connor Teune
M Ben Rowell
F Josh Wise
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jake Gerenraich, sr. M, Young
Scoring summary
First half
Young – Caleb Young (Alex Espino assist), 10th minute
Young – Jake Gerenraich, 27th minute
Second half
Young – Jake Gerenraich, 46th minute