Metea making a name for itself

Updated: September 10, 2011 10:55PM

As a first-year program in 2010, Metea Valley played with no seniors and took its lumps at times, finishing with a 9-12-1 record.

Even so, the Mustangs felt all along they could quickly become a team to be reckoned with.

“That’s what we’re going for,” senior striker Ryan Solomon said. “We’re trying to make a name for ourselves. We talked about that last year but it was tough with all juniors, so this year we’re really working hard to get the Metea name out there.”

Consider it done. Just 28 matches into their existence, the Mustangs have qualified for the semifinals of the Pepsi Showdown, the largest regular-season high school tournament in the country.

Despite being outshot 22-6, Metea Valley knocked off Deerfield 2-0 in Saturday’s quarterfinal action in Western Springs. The Mustangs (4-0-2) will face host Lyons (4-1-2), which beat Larkin 2-0, in the Sept. 17 semifinals. Top-seeded Libertyville (7-1) plays Morton (7-1) in the other semifinal.

Solomon scored the decisive goal with 23:02 left in the second half on a swift counterattack. Nate Donovan started the play by clearing a ball out of his own penalty area to Zach Bavol, who won a challenge near midfield and was off to the races on a 2-on-1 with Solomon.

“They had the ball for most of the time and we’re a very good transition team, so once [Donovan] played it out I knew I was gone,” Bavol said. “I beat the one player and I had Solomon wide open, played it him and, bam, goal.”

Solomon took the cross from Bavol at the top of the box and had to fight off a defender and onrushing Deerfield goalie Josh Norris before calmly shooting from 12 yards out.

“Solomon is a strong kid,” Bavol noted. “Nobody can knock Solomon off the ball, so it was a great goal. Great job on his part.”

“Bavol just ran up and poked it through and when you see a whole lot of open field in front of you, it gets the adrenaline going, so we just started sprinting down field and got one in,” Solomon said. “Then once we got that one we were really stoked to get another one.”

The Mustangs did get another one 13 minutes later, again scoring in transition. Junior Jake Goehring ran onto a throw-in from the right side, raced behind the defense and finished from 17 yards away.

Metea goalies Gabe Gongora and Derek Carothers combined to make 11 saves in posting the shutout, as defenders Franco Cattani, Blake Erwin, Brett Erwin and Evan Cudone somehow managed to hold Northwestern-bound Joey Calistri scoreless. Calistri leads Deerfield (7-2) with 16 goals.

“We outshot them 22-6, we had seven corners and they had one, but soccer is a strange game,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said. “One team can control the tempo and the other team scores on a couple plays.

“We thought we’d be in the finals of this tournament. That was kind of our goal, but it happens. You move on and get better. These guys are a class act. They’ll rebound.”

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