advertisement

Boys soccer: Castro, Hersey keep the pressure on Grayslake Central

Christian Castro has already proven he can be one of the main men for Hersey's boys soccer team.

The senior has made an immediate impact for coach Darren Llewellyn's team, and his midfield work Tuesday showed the Huskies may be a force in the Mid-Suburban East this season.

Visiting Grayslake Central couldn't stop the Huskies' array of attacking options, with Castro, Mick Santry, Arturo Moscoso and Thomas Skiba providing the scoring in a 4-0 Hersey victory at Roland Goins Stadium in Arlington Heights.

"We've got almost everyone back from last year, and the chemistry on this team is maybe what is so great about this team," said Castro, who bagged 2 goals last Friday in the Huskies' 4-0 win over Prospect at the MSL College Showcase in Palatine. "I really like the way were playing right now, and I especially enjoy the style of our play, which all of us like to play.

Hersey has outscored its last three opponents 11-0.

"I thought we came out and pressured them in the first 10 minutes or so, and played with a lot of energy," said Grayslake Central coach Tom Hamilton. "But we fell off when he panicked, making poor decisions which (Hersey) took full advantage of to make for a long night here."

After that bright start, things began to turn cloudy for the Rams (3-2-0), who watched Castro find the back of the net in the 29th minute.

Leading up to the Castro strike, the Huskies (3-0-1) had been building some momentum going forward, with the trio of Danny Gritt, Matt Dickey and Mike Seneczko making sure the Rams stayed on the defensive.

"Hersey made us do things in our own end that we didn't want to, including some poor decision-making when they turned up the pressure," Hamilton said. "We were better in the second half, but not anywhere near where we have to be. But that's the beauty of playing a quality opponent early on - as long as we learn from it."

Rams senior keeper David Young pulled what seemed to be 3 sure goals out of the back of the net during the first half, including a sequence just before intermission during which he stopped two point-blank blasts while still airborne.

"David once again was unbelievable tonight," Hamilton said. "He made a couple of amazing saves in this game, could do nothing about all 4 goals and single-handedly helped us beat Vernon Hills last week. As far as I'm concerned, he's having an all-state year."

The visitors came to life after the break, with Leo Orozco and Austin Rockel creating a shot over the bar, and moments later on a corner when Orozo and Nicholas Walker manufactured a chance.

But that small bit of momentum was quickly squashed when Santry thumped his header past Young after running onto a Castro corner, setting up Moscoso's 54th minute strike to make it 3-0.

"We just didn't find Nicholas (Walker) often enough in this game," Hamilton said. "He's our bread-and-butter guy, and when we don't connect with him, our offense comes to a standstill. Today you saw a very good team take advantage of that."

"I didn't really feel like we had a particularly good first half of soccer," Llewellyn said. "We played too direct, had several poor turnovers in our own end and were not very sharp on either side of the ball. We were much better in the second half, as you saw with the way we created, and attacked, but there's still work to be done."

The Huskies will be at MSL East Division rival Rolling Meadows this Thursday.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.