Argo blows by Shepard

Updated: September 15, 2011 8:32PM

Argo is a soccer team no one wants to see on its schedule these days.

The Argonauts came into Thursday’s South Suburban Red match against Shepard at 4-0 in the conference and winners of nine of 10 games on the season. Argo continued its winning ways, knocking off the Astros 5-2 in Palos Heights.

“We’re hungry,” Argo coach John Gaytan said. “We haven’t won anything since 2007. Eisenhower has been dominating the conference, and we feel we should be there.”

Shepard started the scoring when Tommy Eyer found the back of the net on a free kick from 22 yards out with 29:40 left in the first half. Eyer’s goal would be the Astros’ only shot of the first half.

Although Argo (10-1, 5-0) put 10 shots on goal in the first half, only one found the back of the net. Krystian Nowak scored on a rebound 15 minutes after Eyer’s goal to tie it at 1.

“We want conference,” Nowak said. “We have a good team and we want to bring conference back to Argo, where it belongs. Our one goal is to win conference, and from there we just keep going.”

Eyer broke the tie halfway through the second half. On a throw-in, Nick Rice found Erik Ziolkowski, who was posting in the box. Ziolkowski headed the ball to a wide-open Eyer, who scored to make it 2-1.

Less than six minutes after Eyer gave Shepard a 2-1 lead, Marek Kowal found Nowak on a free kick 25 yards out. Nowak turned and fired to tie the match at 2. Just 51/2 minutes later, Nowak sent a floater to the net that Jonathan Marquez was able to handle and send far post to make it 3-2 Argo.

“I was calling Krystian to send it to me in the air, I ran toward it and beat the goalie to the ball,” Marquez said. “We just have to keep on thinking about the future and winning being our motivation.”

Marquez added another goal with 9:05 remaining, then assisted on Przemyslaw Koziar’s score with 2:30 remaining.

Shepard (4-4-3, 2-2) had three shots on goal in the game.

“This was the first time we gave up two goals the entire season,” Gaytan said. “Our defense was able to tighten up at the end.”

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