Villa, Glenbard West stop Glenbard South
Glenbard West avoided Glenbard South’s bid for an upset during Saturday’s boys soccer match, dominating the flow of play from beginning to end in a 3-0 victory.
“I’m pretty happy with the performance today,” Glenbard West coach Maciej Kusmierz said. “There are still some little things we need to tweak, but overall we did well today.”
Senior Gonzalo Villa led the way for the Hilltoppers, scoring twice in the first half.
He victimized the Raiders off of a corner kick from junior Mario Sotelo on his first goal, then caught up with a through ball from Nate Hall on his second goal, fourth of the season.
“Mario had a nice corner kick and I just took the shot,” Villa said. “On the second one Nate sent it through and I took the right shot and I got it in. It was a great shot and I was pretty happy about it.”
The Raiders (7-7-1) never really challenged the Hilltoppers, struggling more to try to slow their opposition’s attack then to counter on their own.
“Man marking was our problem today,” Raiders sophomore Dominic Fazzari said. “They were more physical to the ball and we were especially flat in the first half. We just needed to work harder and play more physical.”
Glenbard West (13-2) increased its lead to 3-0 with 21:11 left in the second half when Hall pounced on a long pass that took a big bounce off the turf. Hall played the ball off his chest to his feet and then buried it past Glenbard South goalkeeper Kyle Kocinski.
“It’s exciting watching us play now because we were sloppy early in the season but have now worked our way up,” Villa said. “We’ve gotten used to each other and are now playing better as a team, playing two-touch rather than just playing kickball.”
Nelson Curtis, Joe Gjata and Will Anderson all had shot attempts in the second half for the Raiders, but none of the shots really challenged the Hilltoppers, who never let their guard down.
“One of our strengths this season is the guys approach each game the same way regardless of who we play,” Kusmierz said. “We’re trying to maintain the concentration and focus and work hard, and that’s been the story the past 15 games and we just hope to go into the playoffs with the same frame of mind.”