Metea Valley Advances To Pepsi Showdown Semifinals

Metea Valley midfielder Zach Bavol said his team’s No. 1 asset is speed.

He’ll get no argument from Deerfield.

Despite being dominated for most of the match, the Mustangs used their speed to score two goals on counterattacks to knock off Deerfield 2-0 in the Pepsi Showdown quarterfinals Saturday in Western Springs.

Eighth-seeded Metea Valley (4-0-2), in just its second year of existence and first with seniors, will face host Lyons, the No. 3 seed, in the tournament semifinals on Sept. 17. Top-seeded Libertyville (7-1) plays defending tournament champion Morton (7-1), the seventh seed, in the other semifinal.

The prestigious Pepsi Showdown, now in its eighth year, is the largest regular season high school tournament in the country, but Bavol isn’t surprised to be in the semifinals.

“It was expected, but we knew we had to work to get there,” Bavol said. “I think I can speak for our whole team – we’re pumped.”

Bavol played a big role in getting the Mustangs through. Deerfield (7-2), which had upset second-seeded East Aurora 1-0 in double-overtime in the second round, outshot Metea 22-6 and had seven corner kicks to one for the Mustangs. But those stats didn’t matter when Nate Donovan cleared a ball out of the Metea zone to Bavol, who won a challenge at midfield and was off to the races.

Bavol sped upfield on a 2-on-1 counterattack with star striker Ryan Solomon, who shook off a defender and scored on a 12-yard shot to break a scoreless tie with 23:02 remaining in the second half.

“They had the ball for most of the time and we’re a very good transition team, so once they played it out I knew I was gone,” Bavol said. “I beat the one player and I had Solomon wide open, played it to him and, bam, goal.”

It was a stunning turn of events for Deerfield, which had the Mustangs back on their heels.

“When [Bavol] was off it’s just a breakdown that you don’t count on,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said. “It was a tough play back there. [Solomon] had a nice finish, made a nice move and suddenly in a game that we feel like we’re in complete control, we’re down 1-0.”

Though the Warriors continued to attack, they never recovered from the shock.

“They are a very skilled team, obviously, and they had us under it most of the game,” Solomon said. “Bavol just ran up and poked it through and when you see a whole lot of open field in front of you, it gets the adrenaline going, so we just started sprinting down field and got one in. Then once we got that one we were really stoked to get another one.”

The Mustangs scored again in similar fashion with 10:26 to go as junior Jake Goehring received a throw-in and sprinted past the defense on the right wing before finishing with a 17-yard shot and a 2-0 lead.

“We outshot them 22-6, we had seven corners and they had one corner, but soccer is a strange game,” Hurtig said. “One team can control the tempo and the other team scores on a couple plays.

“We thought we’d be in the finals of this tournament. That was kind of our goal, but it happens. You move on and get better. These guys are a class act. They’ll rebound.”

Metea is moving on because the defense played well under pressure. Deerfield’s Joey Calistri, a Northwestern recruit who has scored 16 goals, was held scoreless thanks to the efforts of defenders Franco Cattani and Blake Erwin and goalies Gabe Gongora and Derek Carothers, who combined to make 11 saves.

“[Calistri] is just a super-talented young man, but I think we did a good job of putting pressure on him and then supporting that pressure,” Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. “It’s kind of the way we play all the time, but I think we did a very good job against a very talented young man.”