Batavia seniors get 1st playoff win
Cody Balogh and John Barnes scored twice and Lalo Cuautle and Cody Witkowski each had a pair of assists to help Batavia cruise past Bolingbrook, 7-1, in Tuesday’s Class 3A Waubonsie Valley boys soccer regional semifinal.
Batavia advances to play Waubonsie Valley at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the regional championship.
“We just wanted to come out attacking in the second half so we came out harder,” Balogh said. “Two-0 is not a great score so we wanted to keep scoring and we did.”
Batavia (14-5-3) put the pressure on Bolingbrook immediately by scoring just 2:41 into the contest when Cuautle drilled a long pass to Balogh who sent it into the back of the net.
The Bulldogs extended their led lead to 2-0 with 16:19 remaining in the opening half when Barnes found an opening in front of the net and scored his first of two goals.
Bolingbrook (11-11-1) had few opportunities to do anything offensively in the first half, and for the remainder of the contest for that matter, as the Bulldogs controlled the midfield.
“Coming out and jumping on them right away and scoring early was great,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “A lot of these guys that I had last year, 16 seniors, haven’t won a playoff game, so to just have them experience winning one and now knowing what that experience is like is big.”
The Bulldogs wasted little time in the second half to turn the 2-0 lead into a full-on rout. After failing to produce on a pair of early second half corner kicks, Cuautle changed direction and heeled a beautiful cross to Aaron McNamara who had no trouble in putting the Bulldogs ahead 3-0 with 34:52 remaining.
“Lalo was all over the field distributing the ball and making great looks and Anthony Torres owned the middle,” Gianfrancesco said. “In the second half we pushed (Torres) up top because we wanted to jump on them and make it 3-0 right away.”
Showing that they score goals in bunches, the Bulldogs scored four goals in a little more than 10-minute span in the second half to jump ahead 6-0.
Balogh, Torres and Justin Carey all scored to double the 3-0 advantage.
“There are definitely times where it’s ping, ping, ping and we’re through,” Balogh said. “With all of us up top able to attack we really like what we can do.”
Batavia’s big scoring outburst relieved any pressure on the Batavia defense and keeper Ben Steskal.
“Our forwards really put them away and made things easier on us,” Batavia senior defender Cam Callipari said. “Every goal they scored took a little more pressure off of us and let us play a little more relaxed.”
Now the Bulldogs will challenge Waubonsie Valley, a team that gets to host the regional championship and also the same team that beat the Bulldogs, 3-2, on Oct. 4.
“We’re just going to play every game like it’s our last game,” Callipari said. “We’re going to give it our all and leave everything on the field.”