Downers Grove North upsets Morton

By Matt Le Cren

What is the best way to deal with a three-game losing streak?

For Downers Grove North it meant pulling a 1-0 upset of visiting Morton Saturday at Carstens Field.

The Trojans improved to 9-6-3 with an impressive effort against Morton, which is the No. 1 seed at the Hinsdale Central Sectional and reached the semifinals of the prestigious Pepsi Showdown last month.

Junior Paul Hogan scored the game’s only goal with 9:27 left in the first half. The play started on the right wing near midfield when Luis Salas drew the attention of two defenders and slotted a pass up to the streaking Hogan, who got a step on his man before rushing into the penalty area and booting a 12-yard shot past onrushing Mustangs goalie Sebastian Hoyos.

“They’re very good defensively and we started off playing over the top too much and just got lost, but then things finally started clicking and one through ball is all we needed,” Hogan said. “[Salas] went right after the defender like he was supposed to and one guy stepped [over to him] and I just went right through and he played me a beautiful ball.”

It was the seventh goal of the season for Hogan, who started the year as a defender but was moved up front by Trojans coach Brian Gervase about a quarter of the way into the season.

“He’s really been a great finisher,” Gervase said. “And Luis is our set up guy and he does a lot of nice things. Our offense is clicking. We’re scoring a lot of goals lately.”

The Trojans had only one other decent scoring chance. That came with 32:30 remaining in the second half when Matt Weiss volleyed a Salas corner kick on frame at the near post. But Hoyos alertly dived to make the save.

As it turned out, Downers North didn’t need any more offense thanks to an outstanding performance by its defense, which held the Mustangs (15-5-2), who lost their third straight game, to only seven shots, none of which were particularly dangerous. Morton also lost to West Suburban Conference foes Lyons Tonwhsip and Downers Grove South in the past week.

Morton’s Jesus Morales had a goal disallowed by an offsides call with 24:27 left in the first half and Joel Salmeron sent two open shots wide of the left post in the second half. Downers North goalie Matt Paprocki had to make only two saves in recording his fifth shutout as the back line of senior Neil Corcoran and juniors Eric Garcia, Tom Budnik and Marcin Modzelewski completely shut down Morton’s dangerous attack.

“We’ve got a pretty good back line this year,” said Hogan, who shares captain’s duties with Corcoran. “We won a lot in the air which helps and we’re just trying to close the gaps and stay tight.”

Corcoran, who sat out the Trojans’ 4-2 loss to Oak Park on Thursday because of too many yellow card violations, called it his team’s best defensive effort as well as biggest win of the year.

“It’s a huge testament to our defense,” Corcoran said. “[The Mustangs] play to their forwards and then play back to their mids and play through. They’re really good at taking people on one-on-one and they play balls to space really good. Our forwards got a hold of the ball and that was really good for us and then we had our defenders marking really tight on their forwards.”

With just one week left in the regular season, the win could not have come at a better time for the Trojans, who won just six games over the past two seasons.

“This is a huge momentum shift,” Hogan said. “We were pretty down after the [3-2 loss to Downers South on Oct. 1] and we just tried to get it back in practice and realize that we had to put it behind us and learn from it. We’re coming back now and having some fun.”

Men of the match:
Neil Corcoran, Tom Budnik, Eric Garcia and Marcin Modzelewski

By Matt Le Cren

Morton has long been one of the strongest soccer teams in the Chicago area, having won 187 games in this decade. The Mustangs are the kind of team that would have had no problem beating Downers Grove North in recent years.

But that wasn’t the case Saturday as Morton didn’t come close to finding the back of the net during the Trojans’ 1-0 victory at Carstens Field in Downers Grove.

It was the biggest win of the year for North, which can thank defenders Neil Corcoran, Tom Budnik, Eric Garcia and Marcin Modzelewski. And a former defender, forward Paul Hogan, scored the only goal.

“Paul used to be a defender, so we’re trying to compensate for him, but Eric Garcia has been doing a real nice job in the middle,” Downers North coach Brian Gervase said.

“Marcin Modzelewski is a really good defender. He plays on the left side and most teams like to attack on [their] right, so it’s very difficult for teams to do that against us. Budnik, Corcoran and Marcin have played every game and Matt [Paprocki] has really taken that goalie job.”

The field is not the only place the North defenders are tight.

“This [win] is really good for our team morale,” Corcoran said. “Our team morale is a lot better. We hang out with each other on the weekend and we have much more fun than last year.”

DG North starters vs. Morton