Hornets hold off Blazers to claim first WSC Gold win

By Curt Herron

Hinsdale South and Addison Trail have had some real competitive battles during the past few seasons.

So Hornets coach James VanDenburgh expected another close match when the two squads met on Thursday.

And that's precisely what unfolded in the West Suburban Conference Gold Division matchup in Darien.

The Hornets got a goal in the first two minutes from T.J. Kubiesa to give them off to a great start.

But the Blazers turned the tables by getting the majority of good chances, especially in the second half.

Keeper Paras Patel and defenders Stephen Beavis, Adam Garcia, Tyler Langosch and Dan Pocica tried to hold off AT.

Those efforts paid off in a 1-0 victory that gave the Hornets their second shutout in the last three three matches.

In between those two shutouts was a 2-1 loss to Morton on Tuesday, but it was an encouraging result for the Hornets.

That's because it was a significant improvement over an earlier 6-0 loss to the Mustangs in the Red Devil Cup finals.

The 4-6-1 Hornets hope that the positives they've drawn from their last few matches benefits them as the move forward.

Click to hear coach James VanDenburgh interview

Patel was tested often by the Blazers, who collected all of the scoring opportunities during the final 20 minutes.

He had to dive to stop one attempt and later made a deflection during a series of three consecutive corner kicks.

Although he would have preferred to see much less drama, the Hornet keeper was proud of how his defense performed.

Click to hear Paras Patel interview

There was plenty of suspense during the final 10 minutes as AT threatened to get a late score to tie things up.

With about seven minutes remaining, the Blazers had three good opportunities on corner kicks but came up empty.

Then a few minutes later, AT finally connected on a nice header but the goal was disallowed by an offsides call.

South's defense made sure that the Blazers would get no more good chances after that to wrap up the shutout win.

Click to hear Stephen Beavis interview

The Hornets had a few opportunities earlier in the second half but they were unable to get the insurance score.

Nick Henry had an attempt cleared by a defender and later he and Matt Warta couldn't get off close-range tries.

South's best hope came with about 24 minutes left when Matt Schuster found Kubiesa, whose short shot was denied.

Click to hear Adam Garcia interview

South scored the match's just 1:30 in when Kubiesa sent a shot off the crossbar but then put in his own rebound.

One of AT's best first half sequences came with about 13 minutes left when it got off three straight good tries.

Langosch cleared the first shot, Patel deflected the next for a corner kick and then he hauled in a line drive.

The Hornets host Leyden in a WSC Gold match Tuesday before facing talented Downers Grove North two days later.