Boys soccer: Leyden blanks Plainfield East
Plainfield East boys soccer coach Cosimo Patano, along with his older brother Frank, would score nearly 200 goals between them at Leyden High School before going on to do the same at Western Illinois and Butler University respectively.
Monday night in his old soccer stadium in Northlake, Cosimo Patano would have liked to have saved a goal or two from his prep career to give to his Plainfield East club.
A Chris Hernandez goal at 3 minutes and another goal just two minutes into the second half from Carlos Duarte would send the visiting Bengals to their ninth loss on the season in Leyden's 4-0 nonconference victory.
"It's always great to come back to play where both Frank and I enjoyed playing soccer. Of course, it would be nice if the result was a better one," said Cosimo Patano, who bagged 66 in his career while adding 51 assists.
"When we were here, the culture was always about playing quality and winning soccer and (Leyden coach) Mark (Valintis) has carried on that tradition, which is something I am very pleased to see.
"We gifted them with those two quick goals on either side of the half, but played them really well in the first half but they were clearly the better team out there tonight," said Patano, who was without four starters including his keeper.
A communication breakdown along the back for the Bengals (4-9-1) allowed Hernandez to net the opener but it wasn't until the 39th minute that Leyden (6-6-1) would double its advantage.
"It was a nice start for us, but Cos' guys really put us under pressure for most of the first half," said Valintis. "They had us chasing the ball with some terrific possession and quick play and about all we could do was defend then wait until the half to make a few adjustments."
When the visitors allowed a deep long throw from Jose Diaz to sail untouched in the box an opportunistic Jesse Nunez made them pay for their defensive lapse with an angled shot from the right side that ended in the far inside netting.
"We dropped a forward into the middle and went with five midfielders and that seemed to disrupt their possession. Then we were able to control the second half and the game," said Valintis. "Cos has a good team - they're record is deceiving so I felt real good about the way we played after the break."
Duarte would run onto an Alan Jacinto corner and redirect his effort in from close range at 42 minutes to make it 3-0.
Matt Espinoza finished off the visitors with his second goal in as many games when he fired past a diving Edwin Chavira in the 59th minute.
"We had a bit of a slow start this season. We started playing with three in the back, then made a couple of other formation changes, but I feel we're comfortable with what we're playing and it's showing in our results of late," said the three-sport star Espinoza, who excels at both basketball and soccer.