Leyden shuts out York
Mario Vazquez's sensational strike at 17 minutes energized Leyden's boys soccer team and helped the Eagles register an impressive 3-0 victory over York on Thursday night in a West Suburban divisional crossover match in Elmhurst.
The result sends Mark Valintis' club and team captain Cesar Franco into Saturday's opener at the Pepsi Showdown with four consecutive wins. The Eagles will begin their effort against Wheaton Warrenville South in LaGrange.
"It's slowly beginning to come together for us, so we're all excited about the Pepsi this weekend, because we feel if we continue to play well, we have a long run in us," said Franco, a sturdy back-line standout who earned all-area honors last fall at Leyden (5-0-1).
And Valintis was pleased with the outcome against York but hopes his team can also keep an eye on the big picture.
"I thought we played a very strong 40 minutes, followed by another 20 in the second half to help us put together our best hour of soccer thus far," Valinitis said. "But we still have a ways to go before we're playing at our highest level."
Valintis' coaching counterpart at York, Lukasz Majewski, was a standout on Leyden's 1994 championship club.
"We had our chances in the first five minutes, and who knows, maybe if we put one or two into the net we can then defend more and be tactically different," Majewski said. "But we didn't, and Leyden got that great volley for their first goal. After that, we were just chasing them the rest of the night."
The Dukes (0-3-2) exposed their guests with a couple of long balls over the top to force keeper Alfredo Recendez to come off his line to head off potential danger. But after that, Dukes keeper Nicholas Sasanelli stole the show with several point-blank saves and a handful of fearless challenges off his line to change the course of potential scoring chances.
After stopping a sure goal from Esteban Hernandez, the senior could do nothing with Vazquez's superb close-range one-timer.
The Eagles' attack, inspired from the Vazquez strike, played with so much more speed, quickness and pace - dominating the proceedings up until Krystian Havran doubled the advantage in the 24th minute.
That's when a brilliant early ball from Angel Lopez split the Dukes' last two defenders, allowing Havran to run onto the Lopez helper before using a composed touch to go past Sasanelli, who'd ventured far out of the area.
Leyden continued to spot vulnerability and exploited it with quality passing movement from Lopez and Jesus Hernandez, and it wasn't long before the Eagles added their third goal. Lopez and Albert Arabik combined to make something from nothing, with the Arabik bagging his fourth goal of the season after Lopez caught the Dukes' high line out of shape in the 31st minute.
"It was good to see us rewarded with our hard work with those last 2 goals," said Valintis, who used the last 10 minutes of regulation to get his bench some valuable time on the pitch.
Joseph Reinhofer got close for the Dukes in the 56th minute, the best chance of the second half for the hosts. But Recendez and his teammate Jason Andrade shared the Eagles' third shutout of the year.
"Tonight is kind of the way our season has gone thus far, but I am not discouraged because we've got a great group, with a nice mix of youth and experience," said Majewski. "Although everyone wants good results, out goal is to get better each time out, and keep getting ready for the last few weeks of the season."