Second half surge leads Plainfield South to win

After getting off to a torrid start this season, the Plainfield South boys soccer team had cooled off a little of late.

So when the Cougars trailed by a goal at halftime of Monday's matchup against Lockport, would first-year coach Dave Brown be upset?

"I told the guys at half that I was glad we were down," Brown said. "We were down last week too at half to Oswego and didn't respond. So I challenged the guys not to be complacent."

The Cougars weren't, as they came out with 4 second-half goals and went on to a 4-1 victory over Lockport in a nonconference game.

"We ended up losing the Oswego game 2-0," added Brown, who played in three consecutive state tournaments Final Fours at Lincoln-Way Central from 1999-2001. "But we responded well and came strong (Monday). This was our most complete game of the year."

After going scoreless for the first 50-plus minutes, South (13-3-1) knotted the game at 1-1. Senior midfielder and co-captain Ivan Valencia restarted the game on a free kick from the 30. That went to junior midfielder Colton Galit, who headed it in with 28:22 to play.

Just over a minute later, the Cougars took the lead for good as senior forward Antonio Rodriguez blasted a goal past Porter junior goalie Sebastian Matoniak with 27:09 left.

"I was just following the play," said Rodriguez, who is a Cougars captain. "It bounced off of Ivan Valencia and I was there to put it in."

With South dominating the play in the first half-plus and not having anything to show for it, was Rodriquez worried about a repeat of the Oswego game?

"No, if you keep playing the way you should play than something good will happen - like goals," he said.

More goals did happen for the Cougars. The third one came from Valencia off a throw-in from senior defender Mark Janociak with 15:29 to play. The final goal was scored by sophomore forward Rodrigo Garcia, who smacked it in from close range with 2:27 remaining.

Lockport (4-11-2) had taken a 1-0 lead when junior midfielder/forward Robert Zieba zipped a corner kick from the left side directly into the net with 14:11 to play in the first half.

It was one of the few offensive chances by the Porters in the entire game. The South used senior Wojciech Gacek in goal in the first half and junior Eric Hoar in goal in the second.

"We didn't have many chances," first-year Lockport coach Chris Beal said. "But we have a big (SouthWest Suburban Blue) conference game against Homewood-Flossmoor on Tuesday, and we've had some injuries."

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