Metea Valley may be in only its second year of fielding varsity teams, but its boys soccer team doesn’t play like a newcomer.
The Mustangs made their presence known Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 win over No. 10 Deerfield in a Pepsi Showdown quarterfinal at Lyons Soccer Complex in LaGrange.
Metea Valley advances to next Saturday’s semifinal against Lyons, which beat Larkin 2-0.
“We all think we have some talent here, and we’re definitely trying to make a name for ourselves,” said Metea Valley senior forward Ryan Solomon, who scored the Mustangs’ first goal. “We almost all came back from last year’s team, so we have really strong chemistry and we’re really confident as a team.”
After a scoreless first half, Solomon’s goal came with 23 minutes, 9 seconds remaining. That score stood until Jake Goehring added an insurance goal with 10:26 to go.
That left the rest of the work to the Mustangs’ defense. Chief among the defensive objectives for Metea Valley (4-0-2) was keeping high-scoring Deerfield forward Joey Calistri in check. The Northwestern recruit entered the match for the Warriors (7-2) with 16 goals in his first eight games.
“We always made sure we knew where he was on the field, and if we stepped to him, we made sure we won the ball,” said senior goalie Derek Carothers, who played the second half in net. “We just had things really organized in back. We did a good job talking to each other.”
The Lions advanced to the semifinals behind senior goalie Max Hadley’s fourth shutout of the year. Lyons (4-1-2) scored once in each half, on goals from juniors Brett Heimerdinger and Jon Jakob Lauser.
“Overall, I think we played pretty well as a team,” Heimerdinger said. “Our forwards did a good job holding the ball and we were bigger than them in some areas, so we took advantage of that.”
Player of the match:
Ryan Solomon, Metea Valley, game-winning goal.
Key performers:
Jake Goehring, Metea Valley, goal; Derek Carothers and Gabe Gongora, split shutout in goal.
