Scoreless draw for Maine West, Leyden
Leyden and Maine West played 80 minutes of scoreless soccer Wednesday night in Des Plaines in their annual nonconference meeting, and even though it ended as a draw, both sides worked hard throughout the match, with their respective backlines earning praise.
"In my opinion, this match was won and lost (for us) in the first 10-15 minutes, when we failed to finish on a handful of chances we created, including 3-4 corners which we just did not convert on," said Maine West coach Mike Divincenzo, whose remains just 1 win away from career triumph No. 100.
"It's a little frustrating knowing we dominated play at times, and all we could come away with was a tie, but we probably didn't play as well as we could (have) in that second half either," said Maine West senior midfielder Jayson LeSeth, who was pushed forward park with the addition of sophomore John DeLeon to the backline.
LeSeth was a driving force in the center for the Warriors (1-1-3) in the first 40 minutes, along with Ryan Ybarra, and freshmen Nelson Herrera, who was just called up.
"Their defense made it very difficult for us to find our two front-runners, David Wisniewski and Krystian Drozdz, for most of the match, and we also struggled to connect with each other, which is something I didn't expect us to do against a team that plays a lot like us, and on such a good surface like this one tonight," said Leyden coach Mark Valintis.
The Warriors' ability to keep Wisniewski, a 27-goal scorer last season, from having enough space, was a key element in the slowing of the Eagles' high-powered attack. Divicenzo credited senior defender Austin O'Toole with gettign the job done.
"I am not a big fan of man-marking," Divicenzo said, "but Austin took control of (that) situtation, and early on he decided to mark (Wisniewski) whenever he was out on the pitch, and his work was one of the big reasons for us shutting down Leyden tonight."
With the Warriors enjoying the run of play in the first half hour, the Eagles (3-0-2) had to count on its backline to protect keeper Marco Granda.
Fernando Camacho led that group, who did their best to force most of the play to stay in front of them, with Arthur Bernaciak and Oscar Martinez each pitching in.
Herrera, a freshman, awakened the home crowd with a terrific piece of individual work to get in close on Granda before spraying his shot wide at 29 minutes. Moments later, Warriors sophomore keeper Jecsan Torres elevated to pull Camacho's long free kick out of the air before Oscar Chavarria rattled the goal frame from in close.
While both teams seemed to bypass the midfield after the break, it was a handful of counters and 1-on-1 sequences that led to chances on both sides, leading up to a frantic finish which saw the visitors scare the Warriors in the last 90 seconds when the ball stayed in the area far too long for the hosts' liking.
"Except for the last minute or two, our defense did a great job tonight to help us get our third consecutive shutout," Divicenzo.
Herrera nearly broke free at 54 minutes but was denied by a strong challenge of his line from Granda. Some 10 minutes later, his counterpart, Torres, allowed an Oscar Ortiz free kick to slip through his gloves, only to have Emmett Turner-Jackson clear the loose ball off the line.
The Warriors will be in Fond du Lac, Wis., begining Friday for a two-day tournament, while the Eagles are idle until next Tuesday when they face Fenton.