Change can be scary to some people.
The Oak Park and River Forest High School boys soccer team has been through some major changes since the end of last season.
The Huskies have a new coach and a new playing style, yet they are doing their best to make sure the only people scared by those changes are their opponents.
Jason Fried, who coached on the lower levels the past two seasons, is OPRF’s new head coach. He succeeded Paul Wright, who stepped down after guiding the Huskies to six regional championships during his 10-year tenure.
“It’s been an exciting year,” Fried said. “I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
“It’s a great group of guys to be with and it’s fun. Everyone has been really supportive. We’re trying to play a certain way and we’re really pushing that.”
Fried has the Huskies playing a 4-3-3 formation. It is a popular formation for teams looking to score more goals but is an adjustment for a traditionally defensive-minded club.
“He brought a whole new formation to the team this summer,” OPRF senior defender Matt Schiffner said. “We started working on it and as a team we’ve been working much better.
“Once we really started making the shift, we really got the hang of it. We’ve created more opportunities playing this way.”
The Huskies (5-4-1) have been competitive in every game save for a 6-0 loss Sept. 10 to host North Central at the prestigious Great Midwest Classic in Indianapolis.
OPRF went 1-2 at that tournament, opening with a 2-1 loss to Avon and beating Northwest 4-1 before the loss to North Central, which tied Downers Grove South 2-2.
The Huskies’ next game was against host Downers South on Thursday. The game, played before a robust Pack the Place crowd, had a playoff atmosphere and intensity to it and featured a fantastic finish.
Junior Cameron Duncan had given the Huskies a 1-0 lead when he scored off a corner kick 91 seconds into the first half. That stood until Garrett Burns tied it for Downers South (5-1-3) with 9:27 left.
Even so, the Huskies appeared set to secure a hard-fought tie until Dylan Mobley scored on a breakaway with 12 seconds left to give the Mustangs a 2-1 win.
“It was a bang-bang play,” OPRF junior midfielder Andrew Barkidjija said. “I didn’t play it out far enough.
“They found the forwards and it was a good one-time pass to the middle and they beat us. Credit to them for not giving up and we have to do better to close the game next time.”
