Strong second half keys West Chicago past Metea Valley
It was a tale of two very different halves Monday in West Chicago.
The Wildcats chased Metea Valley around for 40 minutes in the first half Monday before waking up in enough time to pull out a 2-1 victory.
Metea Valley (2-2) owned the ball in the first half when its crisp passing and hustle led to the first goal of the game.
Midfielder Zach Bavol won a battle along the sideline and found forward Chris Freeman, who then sent a pass to a streaking Ryan Soloman. He buried his fifth goal of the season to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
"It was a 50-50 ball on the sideline and Zach worked hard and poked it free, then Chris got the ball and played it over to me for an easy finish," Soloman said.
Metea Valley almost made it 2-0 when a shot with just minutes to go in the first half rang off the crossbar. West Chicago (1-1-1) had little time of possession in the first half.
"They won every ball in the first half and were more aggressive," West Chicago coach Steve Brugmann said. "That's what I said at halftime. I didn't talk about formations, it was more of a heart and soul talk and they responded with some great chances up front."
Those great chances finally culminated when midfielder Jenaro Terrazas buried a shot. The Wildcats didn't relent after their first strike as midfielder Denis Mahmic scored just more than four minutes later on a good effort by midfielder Richie Paret, as the two hounded the Mustangs defense into a turnover that led to the eventual game-winning goal.
"I got a great pass from Richie then got in behind the defense and put it past the goalie," Mahmic said. "We weren't going real hard (in the first half) then our mindset changed and we wanted it more. Then the second half came and we got those two goals."
Needless to say, the costly second half did not sit well with Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson.
"We lacked composure and discipline today and we needed to be better at possesing the ball," Robinson said. "They did exactly what we wanted to do. We had the lead and we wanted to slow the game down. Then they got the lead and slowed it down and held us off."