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West Aurora stays unbeaten in home win over Batavia By Gary Larsen
But coaches hate complacency, and Sustersic isn’t about to let his squad become satisfied in early September. “I think they were starting to think we’d go 29-0 and not give up a goal all year,” Sustersic said. “I’m glad we won, but a tie or a loss might have been a better eye-opener for them. I hope this was a scare that put some fear into them because they dodged a bullet today.” West Aurora connected passes well through 40 minutes and built a 2-goal lead on the Bulldogs (2-2), but it was the second 40 minutes that concerned West’s coaching staff. “In the second half we slacked off,” said West Aurora sophomore Adrian Aceves. “We just kept kicking the ball all over the field. And we had five shutouts coming into this game.” Aceves scored twice to give his squad a 2-0 lead before Batavia began pressing the attack with more urgency. The Bulldogs’ Ty McCoy cut the lead in half in the second half as Batavia took West out of its game. “We definitely lost our momentum in the second half,” said Blackhawks assistant coach Kirk Nadherny. “And (Batavia) was pushing up one of its wing backs and overlapping him, and we had trouble defending that.” Now for the good news. The Blackhawks showed strong flashes of what they’re capable of in Wednesday’s win, and they did so while still nursing themselves back to health. With injured starting center mid Mario Alvarez playing at about seventy percent, and fellow attacking mid Victor Alfaro playing in his second game back after an injury suffered in late June. Add a dangerous player in Jesse Ortiz to the mix, and the Blackhawks’ attack can be awfully fun to watch. “Victor looked good in his first game back and today was that second-day situation where physically, he was feeling some of the aches and pains,” Sustersic said. “And he’s still a little rusty.” “We just have to talk on the field and get ourselves organized,” Aceves said. “If we just play like we did in the first half, we’ll possess the ball a lot.” “He has that wrestler’s mentality,” Sustersic said of Galloway. “He busts his (posterior). He works hard. And I thought (defender) Rodolfo Jimenez played very well tonight. He was poised back there.” Abel Diaz was also steady in net for the Blackhawks, but the king of the back line thus far in West Aurora has been Henrry Perez. “I don’t think there’s any question that he’s our MVP right now,” Sustersic said of his senior center back. “We lost an all-state goalkeeper (to injury) and we’ve still got a streak of one goal given up in six games. “They just need to understand that they can’t get caught up in a kick-and-chase game. We’re at our best when we’re possessing, and we didn’t do that well in the second half.”
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Man of the match: Adrian Aceves By Gary Larsen
Sooner or later West Aurora sophomore Adrian Aceves is going to find out that varsity soccer isn’t as easy as he has made it seem so far this year. Aceves scored twice in the Blackhawks’ 2-1 goal over visiting Batavia, giving him 8 goals in six games to start the year. “It has to be Adrian," West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic said, when asked who his player of the game might be. "This is the second time he has scored two goals.The truth is if he doesn’t score for us today, we’ve still got a goose egg up there.” Aceves ran onto a through ball sent along the left side by Victor Alfaro and placed it into net for his first goal on Wednesday. His second goal came when Mario Alvarez broke behind the Batavia defense on the dribble, cut and passed a ball back that Aceves buried to give West its 2-0 lead. “Eight goals in six games – it feels good. I just have to keep it up,” Aceves said. “He’s six-two and he has a presence,” Sustersic said. “He’ll benefit from the attention defenses give to Jesse Ortiz and Victor Alfaro, but I don’t see how teams will keep letting him roam.” “He’s only a sophomore. Ten days ago he played his first varsity game." Starters vs. Batavia
2009 Schedule
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West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic was naturally happy to see his squad improve to 6-0 on the season, after winning 2-1 over visiting Batavia. 
