Mustangs' pride on display in loss to Huskies

By Gary Larsen

The boys from Downers Grove South did themselves, their coach, and their program proud throughout Tuesday’s 1-0 regional semifinal loss to Naperville North.

South’s season may be over, but the Mustangs overcame a season of struggles and showed they could battle with some of the state’s best teams down the stretch.

In the season’s final two weeks, Downers Grove North, Benet, Morton, Leyden, and Naperville North all got to see just how far South had come this season.

“The only word I can think of is just ‘pride’, and how proud I am of a group of young men,” Mustangs coach Jon Stapleton said after Tuesday’s loss. “They grew as a team and grew as players. Every detail from tonight, I could never have asked for more from our kids.”

Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said DG South played better soccer than his side on Tuesday. North beat South 5-0 on October 3, but Tuesday’s was a different South team.

“Downers South has such a great history, and tradition, that you’re not going to roll over them,” Konrad said. “They’re going to fight. I hope when we have a bad year that we respond like they have.”

DG South finished the year 8-10-5, but entered Tuesday’s game on a four-game win streak, during which the Mustangs secured a piece of the West Suburban Gold title with big wins over Morton and Leyden.

Still, as the No. 15 seed they knew where they stood in everyone’s eyes, heading to play on the home turf of the No. 2 Huskies.

“We knew coming in that we were the underdog and we had nothing to lose, so we came out and gave it everything,” Mustangs senior Cal Roselieb said. “We just came up short at the end.”

A trio of South corner kicks resulted in a low shot by Nick Suker that North keeper Mike Wiest hit the ground and smothered, mid-way through Tuesday’s first half. The Mustangs also earned a handful of free kicks from just outside the 18 before halftime.

North’s Chris Boswell leaned into a crowd near the goalmouth and banged a head shot towards the far post, but Mustangs’ keeper Andrew Reed went parallel to the ground and snatched it out of the air, one minute before halftime.

“In the first half they were just playing harder than us,” Boswell said of South. “And they played feet better than us.”

The first time the teams played, North was able to get in behind the South defense and capitalize. Not so during the rematch.

Conor Kelch, David Masolak, Cal Tondelli, and Mike Leahy stood tall all night for South, and Reed continued his fine play in net for the Mustangs.

“We were more compact in the back, we kept our feet much better, and defended much better,” Stapleton said. “They have some talented players up top, and we kept our feet defensively very well this evening.”

Roselieb, Matt LaLonde, Charlie Stanke, Joe McLean, Marcus Salinas, and Nick Suker were prominent in the attack for South, but they couldn't solve Wiest and North's solid back line.

“This game had to be 1-0 and that was our mindset coming in. We were right where we wanted to be, and it’s just unfortunate that it had to end the way that it did.”

After a scoreless 80 minutes North earned a penalty kick early in the first overtime. Reed did fine work diving to his left to stop Boswell’s offering, but the North senior followed it up and ended the game.

The Mustangs naturally walked off dejected, but with no reason to hang their heads. South worked through its struggles this year to get on a late-season roll and make a statement.

“Getting a couple wins against good teams like Morton and Leyden, our confidence was high,” Roselieb said. “We showed here that we’re just as good as any of the top teams in the state.”

South will lose 15 seniors on its roster to graduation. Roselieb, Reed, Tondelli, Charlie Stanke, Marcus Salinas, and Matt LaLonde all started in Tuesday’s regional game, and Stapleton will also bid farewell to Ryan Mihalko, Robby Gunderson, Mike Stapleton, Mark Mamula, Kwesi Mintah, Neil Kshirsagar, Julian Damian, Anthony Allegretti, and Ramzi Riadi.

“You lean on (seniors) early to help get the team prepared, and then when we went through those early struggles we leaned on them even more,” Stapleton said. “It’s a tough group to see leave. They’re great kids and they’ll be some very successful young men, beyond soccer.”

DG South starters vs. Naperville North