Mustangs blanked by Waubonsie Valley
By Chris Walker

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Just a few years ago, Waubonsie Valley’s Mark Brindle, Jack Cicchini, Jason Dressel, Timmy Miller, Michael Mueller, Vish Patel, Frankie Saiz, Sonny Saiz, Gytis Savukynas and Derek Schafer were freshmen, getting acclimated to a much, bigger school and learning what it would take to balance academics along with a busy and travel-heavy athletics schedule.

Now, they are nearing the end of their high school careers. Of course, with the way they are playing as of late, the end might not come too soon.

The Warriors continued to gain momentum heading into the IHSA Class 3A state series , defeating sister-school Metea Valley 2-0 in an Upstate Eight Valley Conference match. It was also Senior Night for the Warriors, who collected their fifth straight victory.

“We’ve been thinking about this chance since we were freshmen,” Warriors’ senior captain Cicchini said. “We’ve been playing well now and it’s the right time.”

Waubonsie Valley (10-6-1, 3-3-0) controlled the pace of the first half and was definitely the aggressor in attacking the net. Sonny Saiz and Gytis Savukynas attempted shots in the opening minute and they continued to press Metea Valley throughout the contest.

Shortly thereafter, Frankie Saiz took a couple long-range shots and Brindle also was able to fire a shot toward the net, but neither was able to finish. Ultimately it would come down to a nifty play by Savukynas with 22:03 left in the opening half to give the Warriors all the scoring they would need.

Entering the game with only one goal scored on the season, Savukynas certainly played like he was a big-time offensive threat on Thursday. He secured possession of the ball, dribbled aggressively on the offensive side of the field, nearly turned the ball over with his quick dribbling and then smacked a shot just inside the left post.

 “I just poked it from the guy to get it and then was worried (teammate Derek) Schafer would touch it,” he said. “He didn’t and I’m just glad I was able to score it.”

Even his teammates were a bit surprised by the huge play.

“I don’t know what got into him tonight, but I like it,” Cicchini said. “That was great.”

The Warriors continued to create decent looks on goal for the rest of the first half but couldn’t produce an insurance goal over the final 22:03. Junior Noah Griffith came off the bench and caught up to a through ball but a Metea Valley defender nullified his shot with 19:27 left.

Savykunas sent a shot from 40-yards away with under 18 minutes left that resulted in a corner kick and afforded Miller with a solid chance, but his attempt was scooped up in front of the net.

Continuing his strong effort, Savykunas fed Griffith a pass with 9:12 left before halftime. Griffith turned abruptly and guided a perfect header toward the goal where it was batted away by a leaping Gabe Gongora-Falla.

Other near-misses in the first half included Patel feeding Brindle a pass just left of the goal where Brindle’s shot caromed off a defender, and a nifty move by Frankie Saiz on a freekick with 5:30 left. Rather than send in a long, towering shot, Saiz sent a soft pass to Miller who dribbled and delivered a good boot right at Gongora-Falla.

Metea Valley (7-6-3, 2-4-0) was unable to challenge the Warriors much in the first half,  losing the battles for possession in the midfield and rarely penetrating the Waubonsie Valley defense.

Patrick Regal tried to connect from about 45 yards away on two occasions, but Warriors sophomore keeper Eddy Sanchez was able to easily scoop up both attempts. With 2:28 left in the half, David Rodriguez also tried from long-range, but again Sanchez was able to make the easy snag.

In the second half, the Warriors continued to control the pace of play although the Mustangs seemingly began to come alive a bit.

“I think we are as good as them, but for whatever reason it took us 50 minutes to get going,” Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. “We had some opportunities finally, but we’ve got to play for all 80 minutes.”

Although still a very young program at Metea Valley, the trend has shown that the Mustangs are struggling against their local compadres. The teams tied 1-1 last year while the Warriors won 3-0 in 2010.

“For whatever reason we mentally psych ourselves out when we play people in the district,” Mustangs coach Josh Robinson said. “That’s why we’re sitting at 7-6-3 rather than at 11-3 or 12-2 because we’ve played so inconsistently.”

While the second half didn’t feature either team firing shot after shot, it did feature a handful of exciting opportunities. In fact, if you got a quarter for every time the teams hit the cross bar or a post in the second half, you might’ve collected enough money to buy a hot chocolate from the concession stand on a rainy night in Aurora.

Waubonsie Valley junior Casey Bucz was the first player to come “oh, so close,” when he blasted a rising shot off the crossbar. Bucz’s shot had a lot of mustard on his shot and it hit the crossbar dead-on before ricocheting back about 10 yards where no rebound shot came about.

Miller, on the other hand, had a rebound attempt later in the half that squirted off of back-up keeper Ian Jindrich’s hands. Jindrich had replaced Gongora-Falla who moved into the field of play looking to help jumpstart a stagnant offensive display by the Mustangs.

Savukynas had his bid for his second goal of the night denied by the right post with 24:10 remaining, but he’d ultimately deliver his first multi-goal performance later in the evening.

Metea Valley nearly scored the equalizer on two occasions in the final 20 minutes of the second half. First, Jack Staton sent a pass to forward Enrique Rodriguez who was able to head it toward the right side of the goal, but it ended up being too far right. Then, the Mustangs came as close as they would get all match as Jake Goehring found an opening but his shot was just inches off target, spanking off the post and then sent out of harm’s way by the Waubonsie Valley defense.

“I think we worked hard in the second half, but I’m not sure we played better,” Robinson said. “I think our soccer wasn’t much better, but our effort was. But you have to give credit to Waubonsie. Their seniors played with a lot of heart and got us down early.”

The Mustangs’ inability to play consistently well for a full 80 minutes definitely slowed them down. It’s certainly disappointing for the team, especially when they can be brilliant at times, like when they recently upended Benet.

“Benet we played the full 80 minutes and I think Benet played great against us, but we played the full 80,” Robinson said. “If you don’t play the full 80 minutes against these teams they’re going to take advantage and you’re going to struggle. Tonight, I felt Waubonsie wanted it more than us.”

Savykunas ensured there wouldn’t be any final minute heroics by the Mustangs to squeak out a tie as he completed his most statistically productive effort of his high school career when he lined a shot from 35 yards away to put the Warriors ahead, 2-0, with 8:50 left.

“I’m really not a scorer,” he said. “I’m just excited that we’re playing to our potential and finally putting it together and playing well.”

Despite dominating the flow of play and winning for the fifth time in as many games, Warriors coach Angelo DiBernardo still saw room for improvement.

“I think we still need to possess the ball more and be more cautious because we still tend to give up the ball easily with no pressure on,” Warriors coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “Overall though, I thought we did some nice things.”

One area he was extremely pleased with was the effort. Of course, a big effort should be expected when 10 of you 11 starters are seniors and it’s Senior Night.

“I think today was one of our better games from the energy standpoint,” Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “All in all I think it was a good game.”

The seniors did a great job of protecting Sanchez in goal. Although he’s still got a couple years before he takes the field for Senior Night, Sanchez is playing like a seasoned veteran and has been key to the Warriors’ recent success.

“He’s having a good year for a sophomore and has been the difference for us defensively,” Warriors coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “When we lost five games in a row, he was out for four of them so if you look at our record, he has a lot to do with it. He gives us a sense of confidence and the guys in front of him have a good, high level of confidence so he’s done a good job for us.”

On the other bench, Robinson did see some bright spots in the loss.

“Grant Bolle played out of his mind tonight,” Robinson said. “And Jakub Celinski and Brandon Espino.  The guys who haven’t had time stepped up and played well and I was very proud of them.”