Boys soccer: Glenbard East perseveres, tops Glenbard West
Playing for the third time of the week, on a Saturday morning and in muggy conditions may not be the greatest recipe for a soccer team to be successful, but both Glenbard West and Glenbard East shrugged off such adversity and battled hard for 80 minutes in nonconference action.
What made the difference between the two squads occurred midway through the first half. Pawel Wilisowski scored with 20:13 on the clock from about 35 yards away to lift the host Rams to a 1-0 victory.
“We've been practicing shots every week practically, and from distances,” Wilisowski said. “If you put in the work, the result will come. I'm just happy we have a good program and coaches that trust putting me in the field so I can go out and perform. But I wouldn't be where I'm at without my team.”
The Hilltoppers (1-1-1) started strong and rebounded after surrendering the lone goal to create some chances of their own but couldn't finish any of them.
“Coming off a tough opponent (Plainfield North) on Thursday I thought we played really well for the first 20 minutes but then lost some discipline,” Hilltoppers coach Maciej Kusmierz said. “The second half we came out strong and spent most of the time in their half creating opportunities, but unfortunately we couldn't finish them. But I was happy with the effort, especially being the third game of the week.”
The Rams (1-1-1) lost starting goalkeeper Jose Carillo to an injury with 18:30 remaining, but Josh Lambert stepped in admirably until Carillo returned 10 minutes later.
Brandon Pineda and the rest of the back line did their part to protect them and even received a fortunate break with 4:20 remaining when Brady Heller's rebound shot off an Alexis Rogel free kick sailed high.
The Hilltoppers had another decent scoring chance with 22 seconds left, but Carillo snagged it to seal the victory.
“We're still having people switch positions and trying to figure things out,” Pineda said. “We played better than our last game and that's what matters most, so we're happy with the result we got.”
Getting contributions from up and down the roster proved key in helping the Rams win for the first time this fall.
“Our guys have to always be ready to play,” Rams coach Josh Adler said. “It might be five minutes or two minutes, but you have to come in and help. We've got a good group of guys that can be put in and help us sustain. We've been stressing the ‘we' and that's what I really like about our group right now.”