Trojans, Mustangs to Meet for Soccer Bragging Rights

Neither Downers Grove North or Downers Grove South has been lighting the soccer world on fire this fall, but both sides will be stoked when they meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in their annual battle for crosstown bragging rights.

The host Mustangs are 5-7-2 while the Trojans are just 3-11-1, but that doesn’t mean the intensity will be any less than last year, when both teams came into the game ranked.

“No matter what the records are, it’s going to be a high-energy game,” Downers South coach Jon Stapleton said. “It’s two hungry teams. It’s the end of September and you don’t think about the end of the year but you’re talking about only two weeks until the playoffs, so you’re trying to get a little momentum heading into the state tournament.”

Both teams lost the bulk of their 2010 starting lineups to graduation and have struggled during the first half of the season. Downers South has been decimated by illness and injuries, with four starters having suffered broken bones. The Mustangs have lost senior defender Andrew Donnelly to a fractured elbow, junior midfielder Nick Gruic to a fractured hip and junior defender Patrick Conniff to a broken foot. Sophomore Jordan Pawlicki, called up to varsity because of the injuries, suffered a broken nose in a loss to Addison Trail but has since returned to action.

The Trojans won last year’s contest 5-0, an anomaly considering most of the crosstown games have been close. Rest assured the Mustangs have not forgotten that spanking.

“Downers Grove North is one of our biggest rivals,” South senior midfielder Cory Mosiman said. “Last year they handed it to us pretty well. It doesn’t really matter when [we play them], so hopefully we’ll be back healthy and ready and can play our best.”

The Mustangs have shown signs of breaking through. After a 0-3-1 start, they upset nationally ranked Chaminade from Missouri 1-0 to reach the title game of the prestigious Great Midwest Classic in Indianapolis. But that was followed by two consecutive 3-0 losses.

The biggest problem for South has been lack of offense. The Mustangs scored only five goals in their first nine matches and David Drews, a central defender, leads the club in scoring with three goals.

On the other hand, South has generally been solid defensively as Drews, Joe Sombeck and Patrick Gurdiel, Nate Coules have played well in the back in front of junior goalie Nick Tannenbaum. Mosiman and Gabe Diaz have shined in the midfield. That defensive mentality will not change.

“We don’t really do much scouting,” Mosiman said. “We just try to play our game no matter where we go, so our biggest concern is always defense first. We’re a defensive-oriented team and we understand that the goals will come as long as we play defense.”

The Mustangs will have their hands full trying to stop Downers North’s talented junior striker, Cullen Cummings, who after scoring just one goal last fall has emerged as his team’s leading scorer with seven goals in nine matches.

“I haven’t actually played against Cullen Cummings,” Mosiman said. “I’ve heard about him from people on my team, but I think we’ve faced very talented strikers already so I don’t think we’re going to change our game strategy too much.”

Cummings expects the Mustangs will key on him and said moving the ball around will be vital.

“We’ve just got to keep possession of it and just find the holes,” he said.

If Cummings is bottled up, expect him to look to teammates Byron Perez, Reid Melton and Jose Flores for help.

“I’m going to try and find their feet,” Cummings said. “They’ll make things happen.”

They will have to because the Trojans have struggled when advancing the ball into the penalty area.

“We need to finish a higher percentage of our really good opportunities,” Downers North coach Brian Gervase said. “We’ve had some really good opportunities and we feel like we’ve got a good system now. We feel like we’ve got a good system now. We feel like we’re generating good offense and now in practice we have to really work on our finish.”

A victory over South would give the Trojans, who recently lost senior defensive stalwart and throw-in specialist Zack Parik to a season-ending torn ACL, a big boost with only two weeks left in the regular season.

“That match is always going to be really emotional and it will be fun,” Gervase said. “I know our guys like playing it.”