Perez's double lifts Red Devils

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:28PM

Taylor Cole and Mitch Reavis create a lot of confusion for opposing

defenses. It's Leondro Perez's job to see through the chaos.

Perez poached rebound goals in the first and second half as his

markers attempted to deal with dangerous balls into the box Tuesday in a

2-0 victory for host No. 9 Hinsdale Central over varsity-newcomer

Metea Valley in the Red Devils' season opener.

"That's me just being a forward," said Perez, who scored in the 34th

and 59th minutes. "I saw their goalies were having some trouble

holding on to our hard shots and made sure I was ready to go for the

rebounds."

Midfielders Cole and Reavis also did well to find outside defenders

Phillip Gutman and Mike Oleferchik making attacking runs along the

sidelines throughout the game and helped to create the chances on

which Perez capitalized.

"We've been working on the outside backs going up all week in

practice," Cole said. "With them getting forward we were able to

create a lot of movement in the offensive end that [Perez] benefited

from."

Goalie Will Meyer (five saves) was impressive, corralling several high

crosses for Hinsdale Central (1-0). Gabriel Gongora (save) and Derek

Carothers (three saves) split time in net for Metea Valley (1-1),

which suffered its first loss at the varsity level.

"We learned a little bit about the intensity and physicality of the

varsity game today," Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. "We did

good job getting close to matching them in the second half. But

[Hinsdale Central] definitely came out with a lot of pressure early

that was tough for us to deal with."

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