Boys soccer: Plainfield South, Lincoln-Way West battle to 1-1 tie in Plainfield Classic tourney

JOLIET – It didn’t take long for Plainfield South to jump ahead of Lincoln-Way West on Monday in a pool play game of the Plainfield Classic.

Plainfield South’s Abe Mensah scored just over two minutes into the match on a breakaway, giving the Cougars a 1-0 lead with 37:50 to play.

But, because of a strong defensive effort the rest of the way by Lincoln-Way West, that was all the offense Plainfield South could muster, and the match ended in a 1-all tie. In tournament pool play, there are no overtime periods, and each team is awarded a point. A team that wins a match is awarded three points, with an extra point for a shutout.

South (3-3-1) appeared to be headed for the shutout and the extra point before West scored an unusual goal with 8:04 left in the first half.

The ball was rolling toward the Plainfield South goal, and keeper Leonidas Gamino stepped forward to kick it back toward the field of play. Lincoln-Way West’s Dane Hagen jumped to block Gamino’s kick, and did his job perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that the ball went off Hagen’s chest and rolled into the goal to tie the match at 1.

“Dane Hagen really played well for us tonight,” West coach Matthew Laude said. “He is always very active. He goes 135% 100% of the time. He really leads our team with his grit out on the field.”

Both teams had chances to break the tie, but the defenses rose to the occasion each time. It was an especially impressive defensive effort for Plainfield South, which was playing with some defenders out of their normal position and some who were new to the starting lineup.

“Connor Pabon is normally an outside back for us, and he had to play center back,” South coach Nick Skrip said. “Justin Iturralde and Chris Verdin aren’t normally starters, but they both started at center back, and they did a great job for us tonight.”

The midfielders for both teams – David Sanchez and Rene Saldivar of Plainfield South and Jack Towner and Hagen for West – controlled much of the action in the middle of the field. While both coaches were extremely pleased with their defensive efforts, both also said that their offensive game wasn’t what they had hoped.

“We know it’s going to be a good battle whenever we play any Plainfield school,” Laude said. “They play hard and they play physical. We played well, but we could have done a little more when the ball was in the offensive third of the field. But give credit to Plainfield South, their defense played well.

“Playing in a tournament like this helps us get ready for our conference games. The pace is quick and the play is physical.”

Laude also praised the play of forward Garry McDermott, who had several shots on goal and set up teammates for more.

Skrip had similar feelings about his team.

“It could have been better, and it could have been worse,” he said. “I think when we scored so early that we kind of eased up and expected an easy win. We needed to keep up that momentum, but it seemed like we took our foot off the gas.

“Our defense was outstanding. Except for the one error that led to their goal, the defense did everything we asked of them. We had a lot of chances offensively, but we just didn’t put them away.”