Arms race: Kyle Nadler’s throw-ins weapon for Yorkville in win at Plainfield South

PLAINFIELD – Yorkville’s Kyle Nadler tosses in throw-ins like Greg Maddux paints corners.

In fact, teammate Wyatt Panczuk believes Nadler’s throw-ins are even more dangerous than corner kicks.

Such a restart was one of the different ways the Foxes used to go on the road and beat Plainfield South, 4-1, during Thursday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game.

“His throw-ins are just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, as corner kicks or a free kick, really,” Panczuk said. “We can count on him to put it in literally the same spot - the perfect spot. It maybe will be one foot off or something, but it’s the same spot. It’s nice because you know where to go.”

The duo didn’t waste much time in connecting, putting the Foxes ahead less than three minutes into the action.

Nadler’s deep throw-in toward the far post side was headed in by Panczuk with 37:06 still remaining in the first half.

“If we are inside the 20-yard line near the box I throw it into the 6-yard box and we capitalize on it,” Nadler said. “I think he (Panczuk) has five or six goals this year just off of my throw-ins so it’s like our big throw-ins can drop in. And sometimes we don’t win the first ball, but we can win the second.”

Like when Nadler scored on a rebound whose carom he played magnificently with 9:24 left in the half to retake the lead, 2-1.

“I ran through the goalie,” he said. “It was a scrappy goal, but it is what it is. I got the ball first and I’m always going to run through the next guy. I don’t really care.”

Yorkville (7-3-3, 2-2-3) needed the goal after surrendering a game-tying penalty kick to Xavier Martinez with 23:31 to play in the opening half.

“And that’s where again we tell our guys all the time you control what you can control,” Foxes coach Chris Palmisano said. “It’s next play. We had 60-something minutes of soccer left to play. Way too much game time left to be stuck on something in the past. You got to move forward and they responded well, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Plainfield South (1-12-1, 0-7-1) certainly didn’t come out in the second half looking to fall further behind. The Cougars surrendered a corner-kick goal from Panczuk to Lukas Kleronomos with 33:18 left to play.

“We knew we could do better in the second half so we just played our game,” Panczuk said/ “We played more fluid. More creative. We weren’t so robotic. Like I said, we weren’t so one-dimensional. We weren’t predictable, which if you see on film you can definitely see it. They weren’t as organized because we kept interchanging positions and stuff and I think that’s where they lost us.”

Mizael Terrazas forwarded a pass that fellow senior Joey Kallan blasted home from about 20 yards away with just under seven minutes remaining to complete the scoring.

“In the first half I wouldn’t say we completely played down to their level, but we didn’t play to the best of our ability,” Nadler said. “We had a talk with the coaches, the captains, and I think after that we really elevated. I wouldn’t say we played to the best of our ability but more to our style of play. Less quick and run and more play in through the middle and take our opportunities. I think we capitalized on our chances pretty well.”