Rams aiming to stay positive after 2-0 loss to DG South

By Gary Larsen

Glenbard East keeps taking forward steps, and coach Josh Adler only hopes his players keep the faith.

The Rams fell to 2-7-1 with Thursday’s 2-0 loss at Downers Grove South (7-1-2), in a quality high school soccer game from start to finish.

“As much as we want to win now, I’m hoping this all gets us ready for later in the season,” Adler said. “These are the games you want. They’re good for us. It all pays off at some point, but that’s the hard part for our guys to understand. They want the wins now.

For a high school kid to understand that the reward is going to come at some point in time – that’s a hard thing for them to accept.”

Downers South coach Jon Stapleton liked what his side got from the Rams throughout.

“Josh (Adler) always has them organized and I always enjoy playing his teams because his kids play hard, they play fair, and you know you’re going to get a good game,” Stapleton said. “I thought it was well-played on both sides and we were fortunate to get the result tonight.”

The Mustangs came out hard and pressured well through the game’s first 10 minutes, before the Rams evened things out to halftime and a 0-0 tie.

“We’ve had a real problem giving up goals in the first half, and then coming out in the second half and playing,” Adler said. “Tonight that was reversed but the pro to that was we finally learned not to give up goals early in the game.

That’s a big plus, and if you can go on the road and find a way to go into halftime at zero-zero, that’s a huge thing to accomplish.”

Adler liked 60 of the 80 minutes he got from his side, which saw the Rams play better attacking soccer.

“We had some better things through the middle and going forward with some runs,” Adler said. “Sam (Dennis) has just been steady all year. It’s amazing how good he’s been. Brent Disterheft keeps playing hard, and Oscar (Barraza) has been playing that holding mid and he’s been good there. He’s a distributor, he’s patient on the ball, and he sees guys and lets things develop.”

The game turned in the 48th minute, when South’s Mike Leahy followed up a deflected save by Rams’ keeper Andres Guerrero. South’s Joe McLean made it 2-0 with a goal in the 78th minute.

Guerrero made an outstanding save in the 67th minute, and Rams’ defender Stephen Plotke saved a shot at the goal line in the 76th minute.
“I think Stephen Plotke is playing better and better in back for us, and I thought Andres (Guerrero) played well. He made some good saves for us tonight.

I thought for about 60 minutes we were pretty decent. Then we gave up that goal, and that kind of deflated us a little bit. It took away some of the momentum we had early in the second half. But it was a great game. (The Mustangs) play some real crafty soccer.”

The Rams have the weekend off, and host Willowbrook next Thursday before traveling to Hinsdale South for a game next Saturday.