Boys soccer notes: Little Eduardo Vargas stands tall for Glenbard West

Glenbard West senior midfielder Eduardo Vargas is not an imposing player on the pitch.

Nor does Vargas announce his presence via a booming voice – that’s the job of Glenbard West goalie Jack Harrod.

Vargas just plays the game with a simple approach – hard. A tough and strong player with solid foot skills, Vargas is one of the unsung players on the Hilltoppers’ team this season.

The Hilltoppers (10-6-1, 2-2 West Suburban Silver) moved a step closer to winning the coveted annual traveling Glenbard Cup thanks to Vargas’ strong game against Glenbard East last Saturday. On a humid and sunshine-filled morning, Vargas scored a goal on a free kick to spark the Hilltoppers to a 3-1 victory over the Rams.

With the win, the Hilltoppers reached the 10-win mark, and set up a date with Glenbard North on Oct. 12. The winner of the game will receive the Glenbard Cup. The Hilltoppers beat Glenbard South and Glenbard East, so all they need is an outright win over the Panthers to claim the Glenbard Cup for the third season in a row.

Glenbard West coach Phil Wicyk said Vargas has been instrumental to the success of his team this season.

”Even though he’s four foot five inches, the kid plays like 180 pounds and a six-foot player and bodies everybody up,” Wicyk said, smiling and joking about his standout player. “He’s really tough. He may not do a lot of vocal leadership through talking but he does it by the style of play and how hard he plays and goes at the ball. We’re so happy to have him and blessed.”

Vargas said he’s debating to play soccer in college, but he’s cherishing being a leader by example this fall. He called scoring a goal against Oak Park-River Forest in his sophomore season one of the highlights of his career, which was the first goal of his varsity career.

”Usually, if a few of our guys are lacking, it’s contagious, so if they see me going hard, the guy next to me will go harder and then the whole team is going harder,” Vargas said. “Being a captain is important to me. I love the competition and being out here with some of my best friends. Growing up, soccer was always surrounded me, so it was natural to play. It’s great that the team is playing (great) in my senior season.”

A three-year varsity player, Vargas said he’s experiencing a wide range of emotions “knowing the season could end in a few games or go into November.”

”It’s kind of nerving every game knowing it might be one of our last games,” Vargas said.

Wicyk said Vargas is following in the footsteps of his older brother, Jonah Vargas – a sophomore on the Oakton College soccer team.

”This is my third year as the head coach, but the first year I was in the program, he was with the freshmen crew when I was the JV coach,” Wicyk said. “But you could see he was going to be a special player. His brother played varsity at Glenbard West. Obviously, he has a good lineage of soccer players in his family. My first year as the varsity coach, he wasn’t even in consideration for the junior varsity. We knew we were going to take him on the varsity.”

Glenbard West received the No. 8 seed in the Class 3A West Chicago Sectional. The Hilltoppers face off against No. 12 Elk Grove in a Geneva Regional semifinal on Oct. 17. York was awarded the top seed.

”We are in a sectional where’s there a clear number one with York, but two through 14 or 15, you could see a lot of upsets in our sectional,” Wicyk said. “There’s a lot of quality teams in there. It’s a crapshoot, when we are voting for where anywhere is at.”

Glenbard East update

Glenbard East had been on a roll until running into a hotter team – Glenbard West – last Saturday. The Rams (4-5-3, 2-3-2 Upstate Eight Conference) had won three games in a row and not lost since a 1-0 setback to Larkin on Aug. 30, but had suffered through three draws during their streak.

”We haven’t had a loss in seven matches (until Saturday),” Glenbard East coach Josh Adler said. “We have played some good soccer. We need these type of matches to bring us back to home and to sort out some things. We have had some good moments in the last seven (games). That’s a good thing. We have been steadily making progress but had a setback today.”

The Rams picked up a No. 9 seed in the sectional, opening the playoffs against No. 7 Schaumburg in a Schaumburg Regional semifinal on Oct. 18.

”We are right where I thought we would be, somewhere between a seven and a 10,” Adler said. “Number nine is exactly where I thought we would fall. It’s a very appropriate seed for our group. Last year were a 10 seed, so we will see what we can do in the postseason.”

Tidbits

Timothy Christian, Wheaton Academy and Hope all tied for the conference title in the inaugural boys soccer season of the new Chicagoland Christian Conference. All three teams finished with a 5-1 league record…Morton’s 11-year West Suburban Conference Gold Division unbeaten streak finally came to an end, when Leyden posted a shocking 2-1 victory. The Mustangs reeled off 66 straight conference victories until Leyden scored the winning goal with 10 seconds left in regulation on Tuesday.