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Hinsdale South dusts off Kenwood; rematch with Lyons on deck
Updated: October 16, 2012 8:33PM
DARIEN — Hinsdale South’s boys soccer team got over the hill and now the Hornets have a mountain to climb.
South won 6-1 over Kenwood in opening-round play of the Class 3A Hinsdale South regional on Saturday. Up next for the 14th-seeded Hornets is a rematch Tuesday against 2nd-seeded Lyons.
Saturday’s dominant performance over Kenwood was a nice tune-up for South, which came out aggressively in attack mode and wasted no time putting the visiting Broncos back on their heels.
Senior captain Jeremy Leganski scored the first of his two goals on the day when he elevated at the far post and headed home a corner kick sent in by Nathaniel Michaelis, just three minutes into the game.
“That’s what we’ve excelled all year in, is set pieces,” Leganski said after netting his seventh goal of the year. “Nate played a great ball and I was there in the right spot. We wanted to come out in the first five minutes and show them who’s boss.
“We’ve been improving on getting our defense involved, and today we were swinging it a lot more, building from the back, and that’s the foundation we need. We distributed it well today and our forwards were making good runs.”
Hornets sophomore Marko Ristic buried a head shot seven minutes in, on a cross from Dean Serritella, When sophomore Lucas Carlson followed up a wicked free kick from senior John Kotsiantos and blistered a rebound shot to the back netting from 10 yards out, South had grabbed firm control of the contest by the 20-minute mark.
“We’ve just tried to stay focused on getting better every game,” Hornets coach James VanDenburgh said. “We were able to connect and do some of the things we’ve been working on, and even after we built a lead we stayed focused on staying in playoff mode.”
South struck again seven minutes into the second half when senior George Carioscia broke behind the Broncos’ backline and ripped a shot inside the near post. It was 5-0 when Leganski was tripped in the penalty area and converted a penalty kick at 55 minutes, and Austin Mantey finished the day’s scoring with a free kick bomb at 79 minutes.
The Hornets lost 3-1 to Lyons on Sept. 27 and know what to expect from the perennial state power.
“I remember they were down our throats a lot, so the guys in the middle will have to come back and mark,” senior defender Jordan Wood said. “They’re big and fast but if we play the game as well as we can, we can rise to that challenge.”
VanDenburgh agreed.
“We played them very well the first time,” VanDenburgh said. “We kept it at 1-0 until they found a few holes. But they’re big, they’re strong, they’re very good, and we’re ready for the challenge.
“I’m ready to put today behind us and get LT going, but we’ll give them a day to enjoy this win and then we’ll be back at it again on Monday.”
Pick up your local Pioneer Press newspaper on Thursday to read more about the Hinsdale South soccer team.
