Boys soccer: Leyden should compete in WSC Gold again

It's a mark of how good head coach Mark Valintis and his staff has done at Leyden that his boys soccer team always plays attractive, entertaining soccer in addition to one successful season after another.

The Eagles have been right there with perennial state power Morton in the West suburban Gold, as well as Lyons Township.

"Obviously, Morton is stacked as always, and Addison Trail will be legit as well, but we had a great summer, and believe we have coming back and coming up the type of players who will allow us to compete with all of the top teams around," says Valintis.

The Eagles' 15-7-2 record a year ago moves Valintis' totals to an impressive: 166-78-31 in advance of his 13th season in charge.

Year after year, the Eagles will have one of the top players in the state and the 2018 was no different with Eduardo Hernandez, whose career work on the pitch - 41 goals, 54 assists - were equally matched in the classroom and his 4.10 GPA.

The all-state striker has since graduated, as has the Eagles' terrific keeper David Duwal, but Valintis will depend on the form and experience of five juniors and a sophomore who are back.

•One year removed from losing 12 players to graduation, coach Alan Matan used a brilliant senior season from Jason Ybarra to build a competitive Maine West team that finished second in the CSL North, while finishing 10-8-1 overall.

"The team played hard but it was the quiet leadership of Ybarra, whose passion for the game, both in training and in games that made the difference. He was quality from the very beginning," said the classy Warriors coach of Ybarra, who is now playing at Loyola.

"We return seven varsity players. We're still young, but eager to perform well each time out."

Matan's modest group of returning players is led by seniors Angel Contreras, Jose Maya and Julio Pereznegron.

•Jeff Bishop begins his fifth season in charge at Maine East and Bishop, who also doubles as coach of the girls' team at Maine West, has one wish from his club.

"Our expectations are simple: to be more competitive than we were last year," said the affable Bishop. "We have a long way to go, but we're moving the ball really well here in the early going, and I know we'll go through some growing pains as we're relatively young, but we can bounce back if we continue to work hard."

•With Glenbrook North switching places with Niles North in the CSL South, coach Dan States' club from Maine South now finds itself in quite the high profile soccer division.

The Hawks' coach was already facing top flight clubs Evanston, Glenbrook South and New Trier on a yearly basis, so the addition of another terrific team will make things more difficult than ever before.

The Hawks, who last won the division in 2016, saw their 2018 team, which finished 13-6-4, ripped apart to graduation, beginning with their three captains - Michael Byron, Alex Olson and John Rozynek.

Olson, who bagged 10 goals last season while adding 8 assists, is playing at Bradley University this fall.

•The never-ending stranglehold by Benet Academy, Carmel Catholic and St. Viator of the big trophy in the East Suburban Catholic came to an end last fall when St. Patrick became kings of the conference by going 9-0-0.

"Pat's, Benet and Carmel are the teams we'll go after, with the goal to finish top three in conference then to put ourselves in a position to go far in the 2A state tournament," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor.

Gone are four-year veterans Will Hartman, Zaul Perez and Mike Tangredi, but Taylor does have eight players back, including keeper Matt Marchiori.

•After last season's shoots of growth, it was mission accomplished for coach Jed Bennett's Christian Liberty team that overcame so much inexperience to finish at 9-9-0, and 3-3-0 in the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

"We're very excited here at Christian Liberty this year with so many players coming back, including juniors and seniors who will be in their third year playing together," says Bennett. "Our roster is small, so we'll need to stay healthy, but we have a good mix of solid players all throughout, and it's been showing during our training sessions.