Perez shuts down opposing offenses, leading Blackhawks

There's a popular sports motivational poster that claims, "You'll always miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."

West Aurora defender Henrry Perez believes, "You cannot lose if you don't allow the other team to shoot."

Because of his leadership, his ability to lead an overhauled defensive unit and his calm, cool and collected demeanor, Perez stood above a solid field of elite players this fall and has been named captain of the Daily Herald Tri-Cities All-Area Soccer Team.

"He's the best example of a team captain that I've ever had," West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic said. "It's a cliché that's overused, but he's like a coach on the field. He really knows what to do. Even when everyone is a little rattled he's the one soothing, peaceful person that makes sure everyone does what they need to do."

While it's impossible for a high school boys soccer team to not allow opponents any shots, Perez and the Blackhawks went on an amazing run this fall, posting shutouts in 11 of 24 matches and holding opponents to only 93 shots on net. Remarkably, opponents averaged less than 4 shots on net per match.

Taking the approach that "if they don't score on us then they can't win," Perez and the Blackhawks established a school record for wins in a season (18). Opponents only scored 10 goals while Perez was on the field with 3 coming in the season-ending loss to Naperville Central.

While the Blackhawks play an aggressive style up and down the field, Perez has headed up an agile and quick defensive group, which has learned quickly.

A lot of the development has come through Perez's leadership on the field. The Blackhawks lost four good defensive role players to graduation at the end of last season, as well as all-state goalkeeper Stephen Walan to an injury.

"People don't realize that he's actually playing with four to five new people back there," Sustersic said. "It's really a new group back there, other than Loren Galloway and Josue Martinez, and Martinez is more of a midfielder but is in front of other defenders."

When Perez senses danger heading in his or one of his teammates direction, that's one of the many times he's consistently shined.

"If you miss your guy or someone needs to stop them you know he's going to be there," Galloway said. "I'd put him up against anyone in any position. He takes the pressure off of us because you can do your stuff because you know he's always going to do the right thing."

Like many players, Perez has gotten to know the game better and improved by playing all over the field. That's helped with his mindset while running around the field as sweeper back.

"I've gotten to know all the positions and what to expect and continue to try to pick up things like when they're going to switch the ball and where to be," Perez said. "I've become more defensive minded and it helps to try to get in the other team's head and mess with them a little bit and get them to think differently about what they're trying to do."

On the rare instances when an opponent does beat Perez and the rest of the Blackhawks' defense, Perez is always the first to point the finger, and the finger is always pointing at him.

"He's definitely not one of the guys who points the blame," Galloway said.

"He puts things upon himself and says that the defense starts with him and that it's his responsibility," Sustersic said.

The soft-spoken Perez isn't one to take all the credit for the Blackhawks success either. As an example, after the Blackhawks concluded their regular season with a convincing 3-1 victory over a tough Wheaton Warrenville South team, Perez didn't want to speak with a reporter. Although Sustersic told Perez that the reporter wanted to interview him, Perez didn't think he was worthy because the team had yielded a single goal, even to a team Tigers team with 19 wins.

"He was so mad of giving up one goal that he didn't want to speak with (the reporter)," Sustersic said. "He said it wouldn't be right. He said there were four or five other guys that had better games that he could go to talk to and that's just the type of person he is."

It's this kind of perspective that has allowed Perez to be respected by all of his teammates. It's also helped him grow as a person and to handle the responsibilities of being a student-athlete and a father, as his daughter was born last September.

"I've had help with coaches and others and without them I don't think I'd be where I'm at today," he said. "As long as you put your mind toward what you want to do, you can achieve your goals."

While he wasn't single-handedly responsible for the Blackhawks' record-breaking season, he was one of the biggest keys to their success. The team began the season with 5 straight shutout victories and held opponents scoreless for 457 consecutive minutes before Batavia broke the streak on Sept. 2.

West Aurora was a serious contender for a DuPage Valley Conference title up until the final week of the season and finished 4-2-1 in conference. If there were one thing Perez and the Blackhawks would like one more crack at, it would be to face the Naperville schools gain. All 4 of the team's losses came at the hands of Naperville Central and Naperville North. A loss to North on Oct. 12th ended their chances of winning a DVC title. Even more painful was the 3-2 decision to Central in the Plainfield North regional championship on Saturday.

Perez has not made a decision regarding where he'll go to school next year or if he'll be able to play soccer, but it's obvious that he'd like to do both.

"I would love to play in college and go to school," he said. "I have a love for the game and would like to continue playing no matter what age."

Looks like opponents will have a tough time scoring, let alone getting off shots, for many years to come.