Boys soccer: York takes advantage, gets past Leyden
A valiant effort while playing a man down for the final 51 minutes wasn't enough for the Leyden's boys soccer team, which dropped a 2-0 contest Saturday afternoon at York.
The Dukes (6-1-0) used late goals from Joe Meade and Paolo Favuzzi to finally defeat a stubborn Eagles team which competed without all-state standout Eduardo Hernandez. He was sent off in the 39th minute following a scrap with senior John Milani in the Dukes' end of the park.
"Any time you lose a player of Eduardo's talent for any amount of time, you're going to be in trouble," said Leyden coach Mark Valintis. "But I have to say that I'm very proud of the way we responded to him being gone, and with the effort we gave despite playing down a man for so long."
Things looked bleak for Leyden during the first quarter hour, with York taking control quickly.
"Yes, we had a very good start, but I don't know what happened to us midway through the first period, because suddenly there wasn't any energy and purpose in our game, and we struggled because of it," said York coach Lukasz Majewski, whose club hosts rival Hinsdale Central on Tuesday in a West Suburban Silver opener.
Most of York's early play went through Parker Gawne, Josh Borzello, Antonio Lepore and Meade, and if not for some wonderful work from Leyden keeper David Duwal, the Eagles might have trailed by more at the half.
"David is the man back there," Valintis. "He directs traffic, is so strong with balls in the air and is quite capable of making big goal-saving stops for us."
Before being sent off, Hernandez, who leads the Eagles with 7 goals and 10 assists, nearly added another to his scoring line with a rocket of a left-footer. But it was turned away by Dukes keeper Kyle Johnson.
Duwal was called into action on a trio of quality chances by the hosts. His best denial came against Gawne. Later, Duwal stopped Meade, who'd zig-zagged his way into the box before unleashing a close-range strike.
"This is such young team, so we're still learning as we go, but today we played perhaps our best full 80 minutes of the season," said Duwal.
The Eagles captain couldn't stop Meade in the 67th minute as the Dukes junior slotted past the charging keeper.
Leyden (3-6-1) had its chance to equalize twice in the final five minutes when Carlos Duarte collected a marvelous ball from German Hernandez - only to see his left-footed smash saved by Johnson.
"We made it hard on ourselves today, but I'm hoping a day off, then a good training session on Monday will help clear our heads in advance of Hinsdale Central next week," said Majewski.