Boys soccer: Havran's hat trick helps Leyden past Downers Grove South
Krystian Havran's 3 goals were enough to help Leyden's boys soccer team edge visiting Downers Grove South 3-2 in a West Suburban Gold thriller in Northlake on Tuesday night.
The two powerhouses matched each other for long stretches of this key division contest. A superb finish by Havran just 60 seconds after his second of the match proved to be the game-winner as the Eagles secured their sixth consecutive victory.
"Coming into this game with a five-game winning streak really helped give us the momentum we needed against South and help set things up for Thursday when we play top-ranked Morton," said Havran, a senior who now has 10 goals this season.
"It was an even, well-played game up until that first goal," said Downers Grove South coach Jon Stapleton. "Then, in my opinion, Leyden had the better of it until we came alive later with 15 minutes to go to make it real interesting,"
All the participants agreed the opening 20 minutes gave the fans plenty of entertaining soccer on both sides of the ball thanks to speed of play and quality from back to front.
Leyden (10-3-0, 3-0-0) regularly found midfielder Angel Lopez, who connected with several of his teammates, including Esteban and Eduardo Hernandez. Meanwhile, the Mustangs (8-3-3, 1-2-0) did much the same as Peter Becht and Dylan Mobley targeted senior Nick Rohl up top.
"We were well aware of their No. 10 (Becht), and regardless of what little time and space we allowed, he would take full advantage of it all night long," said Leyden coach Mark Valintis. "You saw just how valuable and dangerous he could be when he helped lead their comeback in the final 15-20 minutes or so."
Havran was brought down in the 27th minute, and his calm ensuing spot kick went the opposite way of a diving Parker Smith for Leyden's first goal.
Smith was called into action moments later to turn around another Havran strike on frame, the result of some nice work from Marco Villabos to help put his teammate in close against the Mustangs' keeper. Later, in the closing moments of the first half, Eduardo Hernandez and Andy Moreno orchestrated a well-played counter but were unable to test Smith and his back line.
After a whistle-filled opening 10 minutes after the break, some brilliant individual work by Esteban Hernandez, who tricked his way free, helped set Havran free in the 49th minute.
The Eagles' big forward was sent through by a lovely ball from Eduardo Hernandez. Havran managed to split a pair of defenders, and suddenly it was 3-0 with a half-hour remaining.
"I thought that third goal may have taken the wind out of Downers, but they showed a lot of heart and fight and really put the pressure on us with numbers to get themselves back into the game," said Valintis.
Mobley pulled the first one back at 65 minutes. A well-driven crossfield serve to the back post by Becht ended with Mobley steering his shot in through a crowd.
Becht brought the Mustangs faithful out of their seats when his 30-yard cracker stung the gloves of Leyden keeper David Duwal before finding the back of the net.
Leyden then weathered a frantic final four minutes as the Mustangs searched for a tying goal.
"This was a disappointing loss, but we've got to get back at it tomorrow with our crosstown rival (Downers Grove) North up next on Thursday, followed by Naperville North on Saturday," said Becht.
Wheeling 5, Prospect 1: Jose Mariscal scored once and had 2 assists to help the host Wildcats roll on in id-Suburban East play.
Jonathan Sanchez had 1 goal and 1 assist for Wheeling, while Jose Aguilar provided 2 assists and Konrad Malinowski and Dennis Gavrila both scored once.
Conant 1, Fremd 0: Kevin Sindewald's first-half goal, assisted by Sota Ono, held up as the host Cougars improved to 9-4 overall and got a shutout for keeper Piotr Pyz.