Munoz strikes twice in win at West Aurora
By Darryl Mellema

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Just one look at West Chicago's boys’ soccer team reveals that they're not exactly the tallest team in IHSA history.

But a quick check of soccer history shows that there is a long history of diminutive players who have been among the world's best – Pele, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi to name three – none of whom stood above 5-8.

And so it is with West Chicago this year, undersized perhaps but certainly not overmatched. The Wildcats improved to 13-4-3 with Tuesday's 3-0 DuPage Valley Conference win over West Aurora.

West Chicago also took its DVC record to 3-1-1, though the top teams in the conference remain – starting with Naperville North on Wednesday and Naperville Central on Oct. 9.

“It was great to have everybody play today because (Wednesday), we have Naperville North, who's going to be tough. We all know that. But this is a great result against a great West Aurora team that's gotten some great results this year.”

Against West Aurora, the man running the show was 5-5 midfielder Diego Munoz. He wears No. 10 – just like Pele, Maradona and Messi – and played the creative role while at the same time proving he has a strong attacking mindset. Munoz scored the first and third of this team's goals.

“He's a very creative player and a very crafty player,” Villa said. “Again, he's not the biggest player. But he's not afraid to put his body in there. He's very skilled and he's able to do things that a lot of players can't defend.”

Munoz put the Wildcats ahead after 14 minutes when he took a Steven Porcayo pass on the left wing, powered into the penalty area and hit a shot sharply into the net.

Porcayo – who is one of two 6-footers in the starting lineup – had an effective match though he did not score. His presence in midfield was a problem for West Aurora and Porcayo had a pair of solid efforts at goal, especially one that forced a save in the second half and another that dipped but traveled over the crossbar.

“(Steven) is a very creative player and is one of our taller players,” Villa said. “He's dangerous in the air and also strong on the ball. I told him at halftime that sometimes he wants to get caught up in trying to score a goal. But the game is about 'we' and not 'I' and we need people to get involved doing the dirty work and to work to get someone else the ball so they can walk the ball in. (Porcayo) did a great job of defending. Our first line of defense is our forwards up top.”

Munoz very nearly doubled West Chicago's lead moments after his first goal, but shot just wide. Ramon Eurioles also came close to adding to the Wildcats' lead when he hit the post 2 minutes before halftime.

Villa mentioned how speed is not something that can be coached. But one thing that is coachable is the speed with which a team moves from offense to defense, and here the Wildcats were devastating against the Blackhawks. Time and again, a change of possession turned into an opportunity for West Chicago.

This was the case on Eurioles' chance, which came moments after West Aurora had a corner kick and a strong effort at goal itself. The Wildcats broke quickly again 14 minutes into the second half, and this time the pressure resulted in the second goal of the match.

First Porcayo took a shot that Danny Talancon cleared off the line. Then Porcayo had a shot saved for a corner kick, and from that corner kick, the Wildcats earned a free kick. Terrazas put an effort over the crossbar following that free kick.

One minute later, the Wildcats came breaking forward again, and this time Jose Cortes took the ball on the right wing, outpaced his defender and shot low into the net.

“We have to use that quickness to our advantage,” Villa said. “We do have some quick, speedy guys and with the skill level of these guys, we are able to move the ball around. And that's what we like to do. We'll challenge 50-50 balls in the air and win as many as we can. We'll try to make it difficult for teams that have more strength and height. Speed is a great, great weapon to have, especially when you add that with our technical ability.”

Munoz scored the third goal with 12:51 to play on another quick-breaking goal.
“We talk about that transition from defense to offense and from offense to defense,” Villa said. “We have a great group of guys who, when we win the ball, we want to get it forward as fast as we can and try to catch the other team off-guard. If we're able to do that, we're going to be dangerous.”

Throughout the match, but especially in the opening half-hour, West Chicago sweeper Daniel Hernandez kept things organized for the Wildcats defensively.

“Danny is a great, great player,” Villa said. “Again, he's not the tallest player, like a lot of our guys. But I have a lot of confidence in him back there to make sure that he's communicating to his defense and that he's going to challenge the 50-50 balls in the air and still get down in the tackle. It's great to have him back there as a senior leader.”

In that opening half-hour, West Aurora (7-7-4, 2-3) struggled to get its offense going. The corner kick flurry that immediately preceded Eurioles shot that hit the post on a West Chicago breakaway was the Blackhawks' first serious attempt at goal.

“We've struggled sometimes to score goals,” West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic said. “We've been shut out seven times this year, so it's nothing new to us. But I feel that we had opportunities. We like to get it to the top of the 18 and then start passing it around instead of shooting. I think that's the difference today. We had five or six opportunities to shoot and we didn't shoot.”

West Aurora came close to tying the score in the opening minute of the second half. Juan Cerda moved into the penalty area and had a shot blocked. Steve Rivera had a shot in the melee and stabbed it wide.

West Aurora opened the match with four players out through injuries, including keeper Alex Guillen, defender Luis Gallegos, defensive midfielder Ibo Kibarov and defender Chris Koulos. A team with a limited bench and a lack of experienced players even when all are healthy – these losses are a concern. The fact that all these players play in the defensive portion of the team compounds the issue.

“It hurts that it's all in one area,” Sustersic said. “If it was one defender and one midfielder and one forward, we'd be able to try to replenish.”

Still, the Blackhawks battled through the match. That opening flurry at the start of the second half was part of a 10-minute surge that nearly brought a tying goal. Even down 2-0, the Blackhawks still worked to get back into the match, though Munoz's second goal gave West Chicago too large a lead to be overcome.

West Aurora drafted sophomore Hugo Nunez to play in goal, and he made a series of saves to keep his team close throughout the match.

The Blackhawks have two DVC matches and three games overall left in the regular season. The DVC matches – Thursday against Glenbard North and Tuesday at Glenbard East – sandwich a Saturday match against Plainfield South.