The annual “Village Cup” match between the OPRF and Fenwick boys soccer teams, Oct. 4, was eagerly anticipated as both came in relatively hot. The Huskies had four victories and a draw in their last five matches, while the Friars had won three of their last four.
OPRF stayed hot like the weather as three first-half goals were all the Huskies needed in a 3-0 shutout at Oak Park Stadium.
“I tip my cap to [Fenwick]. They’re a tough opponent and it’s really fun playing them,” said OPRF interim coach Dave Bernthal. “Credit to them, they didn’t let us score in the flow of play. We had some special moments in the first half with those free kicks and throw-ins.”
Fenwick coach Shannon Seymour was impressed by OPRF’s performance.
“They brought it today,” he said. “We talked before the game about how it was going to come down to whoever brings the most energy, and right out the gate, they brought good energy. Kudos to them; it was a well-deserved victory and they’re a well-coached team.”
From the start, OPRF (13-2-2) kept Fenwick (8-5-1) largely pinned in its own end of the pitch. The constant pressure finally paid off for the Huskies in the 16th minute as Tomas Ibanez, off a free kick from 40 yards out, found Adrian Bondartsov inside the left side of the box. Bondartsov headed a shot past Fenwick goalkeeper Dom Ballerin on the right side of the net for the first goal.
“I was deciding to either cross it further on the right side,” Ibanez said, “or the close top left. Adrian started looking at me in the top left, so I decided to chip it over to him so he could head it back to the goal.”
Almost four minutes later, OPRF doubled its lead as Bondartsov fed Gibson Lundgren inside the box. Lundgren turned and beat Ballerin to the left for the score.
In the 30th minute, Ibanez raised the score to 3-0 when he fired a free kick that just found the top left corner of the net.
“I was more comfortable shooting with my left,” Ibanez said. “I was deciding if I should go right or left and when I saw [Ballerin] seemed more comfortable diving to his right side, I think it was a better decision for me to go top left.”
The three goals were more than enough for OPRF goalkeeper Christian Kellogg, who made three saves. His best came in the 25th minute when Fenwick forward Nathaniel Sabatino got loose from a Huskie defender on the right flank. Sabatino fired a shot toward the bottom right corner, but Kellogg dove to his left and made the save.
Early in the second half, the Friars’ Gabe Watson-Farran was awarded a penalty kick when he got fouled inside the box. But his shot sailed over the net as Fenwick couldn’t cash in on its best scoring chance.
“That’s the importance in practice, making sure we’re clinical putting the ball in the back of the net,” Seymour said. “That way, when we’re in big games like this, we can do it. It takes one of those goals to give us a little bit of confidence and get momentum, which was much needed in this game.”
While Kellogg was pleased with the clean sheet, he credited his defense for helping him attain it.
“I think we’re one of the best composed defenses in the state,” he said. “We’re very good at winning balls, passing, and challenging.”
With the regular season ending in the next few weeks, both teams like where they are. But both also know there’s work to do.
“We’re very confident,” Kellogg said. “We saw we got the fourth seed in our (Class 3A) sectional (site TBA), which rubbed us the wrong way, but we’re looking forward to proving people wrong and getting the job done.”
“You need games like this where you get your butts kicked,” Seymour said. “This is a group that will fight till the end. As we move forward, we know how important it is to put together 80 minutes of soccer, and hopefully we take it on into state.”
