Letdown nearly costly to Warriors

Near the end of a lackluster second-half performance, Waubonsie Valley mustered just enough offense to rescue a boys soccer victory.

Sophomore forward Ryan Dodson faked past the goalkeeper and scored in the 88th minute to give host Waubonsie a 3-2 win over Batavia in the first round of the Warriors Invite on Tuesday.

"We played well in the first half," Dodson said. "But we let down most of the second half and they tied it 2-2. We had a sense of urgency at the end to get that third goal."

Dodson took a through pass from Ryan Solomon before making the move on the Batavia goalkeeper that would open the door for the deciding goal, his second score of the game.

The Warriors (6-10-1) dominated the first half, taking a 2-0 lead to the intermission.

The goals, both of which came as a result of free kicks, were scored by Oliver Mayer in the 14th minute and Dodson just two minutes later.

Dodson's first-half goal was created by a crossing pass from Nik Patel. Dodson hit the crossbar with his first shot and then headed in the rebound.

"We didn't have much energy in the fist half," said Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco. "We didn't play many penetrating balls, we had no throw-ins and no corners. I've never seen us mark so lackadaisical on set pieces. We played like zombies."

However, the Bulldogs (11-6-2) came out fired up after the intermission and dominated play for most of the period.

Matt Russo scored twice for Batavia.

Eduardo Cuatle brought the ball down the right wing and crossed it to Russo, who volleyed it in from 15 yards away in the 59th minute.

Less than three minutes later Patel brought down Batavia's Robert Forslund in the box for a penalty that resulted in Russo converting a PK to tie the score.

"In the second half we played a lot of penetrating balls in," Gianfrancesco said. "We got behind the defense, which gave us a lot of opportunities to score."

Coming out strong in the first half and then letting up later in the game was a familiar pattern for the Warriors.

"The inconsistency we showed throughout the year, we showed today," said Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo DiBernardo. "We get a lead and we don't know how to keep that lead. We don't know how to work as hard as we did to get that lead. In the second half (Batavia) got to just about every ball and we did not. We didn't play with the hunger we did in the first half."

The two teams will meet again next Tuesday in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs.

"Tonight's game gave both teams the opportunity to see what the other is all about," DiBernardo said. "They've had a better season than we have, but we're going to work as hard as we can to make improvements to get into the new season, which is the playoffs."