West Aurora's scoring burst keys win over WW South

By Eddie Burns

Joe Sustersic was interested to see how his West Aurora squad would respond to its latest setback.

The Blackhawks entered Thursday’s final conference match at Wheaton Warrenville South knowing that a conference championship did not hang in the balance thanks to West Aurora’s last-second loss to Naperville North on Monday.

It turned out that the players had a surprise for their coach.

The Blackhawks landed three quick goals in a 17-mimute stretch in the opening half to help West Aurora to a 3-1 victory against the Tigers in Wheaton.

“We did a blitz,” said Sustersic referring to goals scored by Adrian Aceves, Mario Alvarez and Victor Alfaro. “I think it is the first time I think we’ve scored three goals in a (20)-minute period like that we did today and we shocked them. Truth is, they shocked me as well.”

West Aurora (17-3-2, 4-2-1 DVC) came out aggressive and took the play to a Tigers’ team that has suddenly lost three straight, fell to 16-4-2 overall and finished at 4-2-1 in the DVC.

Jesse Ortiz set up Aceves’ goal with some quick passing and Aceves did the rest by tucking a perfect strike under the crossbar and into the net in the 4th minute.

It wasn’t much longer after that when Alvarez launched an uncontested shot from 25 yards out
past WW South goalie Derek Babb. Alvarez also played a role in the third goal by placing a perfect corner kick to Alfaro.

“It felt good,” Alvarez said. “It was all about us playing as a team. We got to a good start and we knew that would be important.”

The last-second loss against Naperville North on Monday really had West Aurora reeling, but the Blackhawks responded.

“We wanted to actually show that we could do it,” Alvarez said. “We thought conference was ours, but we let ourselves down in Monday’s game. We were upset at how we lost and we wanted to prove (we could play with these guys) and we did.”

West Aurora’s effort showed Sustersic a lot about his squad.

The Blackhawks also won without the services of regular contributors Ben Ness, Rodolfo Jimenez and Cesar Garcia

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the job done on Monday (against Naperville North) because we wanted to play for a conference championship,” Sustersic said. “Hey, we got the consolation prize for second or third place – it is not what we wanted, but we know we can play with anyone in the DVC. Even though we finished 4-2-1 and where we did in the conference standings, we played well. I was real happy with some of our guys stepping up. At this time of year you try to keep everyone healthy and when it is your chance to perform and execute.”

While Sustersic enjoyed the first half, the second half left something to be desired.

“I was very pleased with how my kids played,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with the second half performance. My guys thought WW South was going to play dead after we built the lead and no WW South team is going to play dead. They deserve credit for coming out and playing a hard-nosed second half.”

The West Aurora backline featuring goalie Abel Diaz and defender Henrry Perez did a nice job of thwarting several WW South attempts.

Sustersic said it was a good match for his squad heading into the postseason.

“The kids realized that we set goals this year of winning certain tournaments and earning a certain place in the conference,” Sustersic said. “When we didn’t have a chance to win conference anymore we started to turn their attention toward the postseason and we keep telling them that we can’t afford to give up goals. From this moment on, if you lose, you go home. The rest of the year is straight-forward: win or season over.”

Sustersic wants his players, especially his seniors, to realize their next game could be their last.

“I still think, at times, we play a bit immature,” he said. “They have to realize they can’t play immature because they have to play like a bunch of seniors who have to start realizing this year could be their one opportunity.”

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West Aurora starters vs. WW South