In his attempt to be a leader for Reavis, senior midfielder Emanuel Montero knows a key component is composure.
To that end, Rams coach Mark Gniadek is accustomed to seeing Montero keep his cool under pressure, even when Gniadek is particularly demanding of him.
“Not much fazes Emanuel,” Gniadek said. “Even me. I spend a lot of time on him in practice and in the games, but he’s always here working hard.
“We expect him to be ready in the big moments.”
Montero was certainly clutch Tuesday night, scoring on a penalty kick with just 23 seconds left to allow the host Rams to salvage a 1-1 tie with Oak Forest in a South Suburban Conference crossover game.
Ian Plancarte scored less than two minutes in for the Bengals (3-0-2, 0-0-1 SSC Blue), who then managed to shut out Reavis (3-2-1, 0-0-1 SSC Red) nearly the entire way.
In the final minute, though, Galileo Figueroa played a nice pass to Diego Ochoa in the box and Ochoa was tripped from behind, earning the penalty kick.
Montero knew what was on the line and had a lot of time to think about it as a debate about which Oak Forest player should receive a yellow card went on for several moments.
A stoic Montero paid no attention.
“I tried to just focus on myself,” Montero said. “I was just looking down and trying to keep myself together. There was a lot of pressure, but I just tried to block that all out.”
Montero ripped a line-drive shot into the net to finally beat Oak Forest goalkeeper Adam Jedrzejczyk, who made five saves and several other strong plays coming out of his goal.
As Reavis struggled to break through and score, Montero tried to keep his team together.
“As a leader, you have to talk to the team, scream at them a little bit,” Montero said. “We’ve got to keep going until the bell rings.”
Montero wants to be that one stepping up when the Rams need it.
“I want to be the captain of the team,” he said. “I want them to count on me when we’re two goals down, three goals down.”
Gniadek is leaning on Montero as a young Reavis tries to build its offense around him.
“We rely on Emanuel a lot,” Gniadek said. “He’s fast and he’s skillful.
“We have really good senior leadership. They’ve been around for a while and they set the expectations and make sure the younger guys know what it takes. Emanuel is certainly a big part of that.”
Plancarte, meanwhile, had Oak Forest feeling good early when he got to the right spot at the right time, poking in a rebound after Marcos Sandoval Lucas’ shot was saved.
That gave the Bengals the lead just 109 seconds into the game.
“I saw the way Marcos shot it and figured the keeper was going to grab it, but I wanted to make sure I was there just in case,” Plancarte said. “My coaches always tell me to crash in every time because you never know.”
Jedrzejczyk and the Bengals’ back line of Michael Speaker, Brayden Edge, Diego Damian and Miguel Zavala kept the Rams frustrated until the end, maintaining the lead for the next 77 minutes despite Reavis being on the attack nearly the entire second half.
Despite the heartbreaking end, Plancarte knows it was a valiant effort Oak Forest can build off.
“We played pretty good,” Plancarte said. “I hope we play like that all season.
“We showed if we play like this, we can beat anyone — or almost beat anyone — that we want to. We can play just as good as these other teams.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
