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Red Devils play a learning game in opening loss to Naperville North By Gary Larsen
What’s the old saying? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? After visiting Hinsdale Central’s 2-0 loss on Tuesday to Naperville North, the Red Devils left the field seemingly more ticked off than dejected. “It’s a good information-gathering game for us,” said Red Devils coach Mike Wiggins. “We learned a lot about our guys today in different parts of the field. It was a tough, physical game and we’ll be better because of it.” The Red Devils came out attacking well through 20 minutes, forcing North keeper Mike Wiest to make plays on several dangerous crosses. Play evened out as North intensified its physical play from there, and the game was pure hard, physical soccer to the final buzzer. “I’d love to see what the fouls were in that game,” Wiggins said. “It was one after another and it’s nothing more than just guys that are putting it all on the line, and playing with a lot of passion. But it’s too physical, too much for Game One.” “I’d say the same thing if we had won. Obviously we want to keep playing this game. I’d just like to see us play it later in the season.” The Red Devils fell behind on a first-half goal by North’s Evan Trychta, and Central’s Mike Oleszkiewicz and Cameron Legan sent a pair of shots wide of the post before halftime. “You know going in that they’re going to be sharp on restarts, and they were,” North coach Jim Konrad said of the Red Devils. “You know they’ll be organized, and they were. And you know (Wiggins) is going to get his outside mids and outside backs forward, and they did that at times.” “I was happy with the way our back line played today.” Despite the loss, the Red Devils got positive contributions around the pitch. “I thought Lenny Zavala, as a sophomore in his very first varsity game, did a nice job and held his own,” Wiggins said. “Mike Oleszkiewicz worked hard, Robbie LaRocque held down the midfield, and Cam Legan got dangerous as he got out wide in the back.” “I also thought Eric Loebig put in a lot of effort on the flanks, and he did a nice job tonight.” “But we can play better. We’re definitely capable of playing better and it’s one of those games that can make us better because of it.” Trychta scored again in the second half for North and the 2-0 lead held to the final buzzer. “Certainly we could have been better in the air,” Wiggins said. “At times we did some nice things in the attack but we weren’t nearly as dangerous as we could have been in the middle third and the final third. “Overall, I was pleased with how we defended as a team. We’ve just got some things to sort out, individually.”
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Hinsdale Central enters this season with high expectations both inside and outside its program, and a season-opening loss to a fellow perennial power isn’t about to derail the Red Devils in 2009.
