DG South keeping its shoulder to the wheel

By Gary Larsen

Moral victories don’t mean much on the south side of Downers Grove right now, not after the season of struggles the Mustangs have endured.

Struggling to score and too often playing behind a deficit, the Mustangs have fought hard in a 4-9-5 season through Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to visiting Benet.

“We have talent. We just have yet to put it together,” Mustangs senior Cal Roseleib said. “But I think if we keep working at it…”

There’s a lesson going on at Downers Grove South this year from which all soccer players can learn a thing or two. Despite the sub-par number of wins in 2009 for one of the state’s traditional powers, its players have continued to play hard and play with pride.

With every reason to simply play out the string and get the 2009 season over with, the Mustangs are doing no such thing. After falling behind 2-0 to Benet, the Mustangs’ second-half effort showed that the fight in the dog will remain through the final game of the season.

“I don’t think our kids have ever given up on the season, and it’s a testament to the kids’ character,” Mustangs coach Jon Stapleton said. “Down 2-0, I told our kids (at halftime) that we have been here before, so let’s see what we can put together and come out with more intensity.”

The Mustangs cut the Benet lead in half on a Marcus Salinas goal and sent a good handful of scoring chances just wide of net in the second half before succumbing to the loss.

"They're a good team," Benet's Ryan Reilly said afterwards. "They've got a lot of good players."

The Mustangs came from behind to win 3-2 over DG North last Thursday, but playing hard after consistently falling behind is always a bad habit that needs breaking.

“Down 2-0, everyone is getting after it,” Roseleib said. “But we can’t keep doing that and expect to win.”

“It seems like we wait to play until we’re down, and I don’t know why,” Stapleton said. “It has to matter to us at the start, and we’ve tried a little bit of everything to try to motivate them.”

Slow starts, a critical mistake here and there, and an inability to finish consistently have all put a strain on the Mustangs’ season. But as the No. 15 seed of the DG South sectional, the Mustangs will continue to do what they’ve done throughout a difficult season.

They’ll keep trying.

“If we get past (No. 17) Romeoville we have Naperville North, and even though they’re the second seed I think we can hang with them,” Roseleib said.

“We lost 5-0 to them at their place, but it was really five stupid mistakes. I don’t think they’re five goals better than us. We played with them and then we got down, and got frustrated.”

Stapleton has been around the game long enough to know that anything is possible once the postseason kicks off.

“Even as tough as our sectional is, you can get hot at the right time so I’m trying to keep our kids in that frame of mind where they still believe we can play our best at that time of year,” he said.

“Maybe there will come a game when all those little things will work for us. We’ll just keep at it.”