Joliet West boys soccer team beats rival Joliet Central

JOLIET – When two boys soccer teams will meet again in just over a week in the playoffs, it’s tough to predict just how well they’ll perform in the regularly scheduled contest.

But when one considers the nature of the rivalry between Joliet West and Joliet Central, it came as no surprise that Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference match between the two was a battle throughout.

The Steelmen won, 1-0, when the squads met Aug. 27 at Reavis’ Windy City Classic, so the Tigers were looking for a little revenge to set up the rubber match between the two in next Friday’s 5 p.m. Class 3A Normal Community Regional quarterfinal at Central.

In part two of the series, West received two goals from Gerardo Nicolas in the opening half to take a 2-0 lead at the break. Central applied pressure late and got a score from Leonardo Gonzalez, but was unable to find the equalizer as the Tigers claimed a 2-1 victory to spoil the Steelmen’s senior night on the east side.

“When you play a team that you know you’re going to play again in a week, it’s very common to kind of take it easy and not show your cards too much,” Tigers coach Patrick Korthauer said. “But I think that any time the two of us play each other, you might go into it with that thought process, but when the first whistle blows, it becomes more than just a game.

“This means a lot to these kids and now with both of us getting a win against each other, it sets up very nicely for Friday night. Something that we’ve talked about a lot this season is that the results kind of are what they are so we want to focus more on the quality of our play. So even if we would have lost and played well, we would have considered that a positive.”

The Tigers (9-10-1) have gone 5-1-1 in their last seven matches so they’re feeling pretty good heading into the third meeting. While Central has struggled to find the net, its never give up attitude against West was an encouraging sign.

“This is a good friendly rivalry and the kids know each other so they always want to try hard,” Steelmen coach Eduardo Contreras said. “It was senior night for our kids so we put some kids out there who don’t see a lot of time because it was their moment after four years.

“West played well in the first half and had two real good shots. At halftime we talked and I told my boys that win or lose we were going to go down fighting and we proved that in the second half. We’ll see them again Friday and that one will be the tiebreaker and will be fun.”

The Steelmen has the night’s first good chance but keeper Jose Lara halted a liner from Jesus Pantoja. Then in the 11th minute, a loose ball came to Nicolas and he fired a shot that found its way inside the far post.

As the opening half wound down, West’s Aaron Sanchez had a try deflected and Tim Spesia sent in a long free kick to Ethan Pranckus, who was thwarted on his header.

West took a 2-0 lead in the 37th minute on another effort by Nicolas that was similar to his initial score. Erik Vega sent a nice pass to Nicolas, who again was able to connect.

“Thanks to my teammates, I had space to take the shots,” Nicolas said. “Once on my left and once on my right and I’m lucky that they both came out on target and I got both goals. Getting that first goal is always crucial for your team since it builds up the momentum. And on the second goal, we started getting more comfortable with the ball.

“It was their senior night and they were at home and had a lot of fans so they were going to go all out. We’re 1-1 going into the regional playoffs and getting this one for the team is very important. We’re playing much better and getting results. I like how we all get along with each other and fix any problems we have. We move the ball around and play as a team.”

After the Tigers had two more good chances in the initial half from Rodrigo Torres and Nicolas, the momentum began to swing Central’s way during the final 40 minutes.

Oswaldo Guzman was disrupted as he drove to the net and Erick Ceballos had a long free kick hauled in. Around the half’s midpoint, Spesia was denied on two long free kicks.

Central caught a break in the 64th minute when a foul was called in the box. But Lara punched away the penalty by Ivan Estrada and the subsequent rebound try went wide.

The Steelmen finally connected in the 73rd minute when a loose ball came to Gonzalez and he scored to pull his team to within a goal but West’s defense kept them at bay after that.

“We wanted to give 100 percent and do our best and hopefully next week we can do the same,” said defender Matthew Greenback, who is also one of West’s captains. We’ve really improved from the first time that we played when we had a lot of players out of position.

“Once we got the lead, we wanted to keep possession and also get some more goals, but we couldn’t and that’s how soccer goes. We weren’t as good as we wanted to be early in the season but we’ve worked toward it and we have gotten better.”