Glenbard West Gives Oak Park-River Forest a Battle

The Glenbard West boys soccer team hung with highly regarded Oak Park-River Forest late into their West Suburban Conference Silver Division match Tuesday evening.

All the Hilltoppers needed was a break to pull the upset. Instead, OP-RF caught one.

The Huskies received a penalty kick with 11:49 remaining and Elias El Metennani buried the shot into the back of the net, and that was enough to beat Glenbard West 1-0 in Oak Park. It was a tough way for the Hilltoppers (3-11-5, 0-5) to go down in defeat.

"I will not question the referee's call," Glenbard West coach Maciek Kusmierz said. "I just felt in such a high-caliber game where it's a close game that such a call makes a difference and it really deflates the whole effort.

'Honestly, if it was a foul and a [penalty kick] was given I feel like we had one also in the first half when my forward was brought down inside the box and somehow the referee saw it otherwise. Nothing against Oak Park. I think they're a great team. It's unfortunate that the game had to be decided that way, but that's soccer. There's no justice in the game. Sometimes you have to take it and go on to the next game."

There was a delay before Metennai took his penalty kick while the official explained the foul to Kusmierz, but the OP-RF sophomore did not let the delay rattle him.

"I was ready to take it and then the coach called the ref over and so we were waiting," Metennani said.  "I think he was deliberately trying to do it to get in my head. There's a lot of pressure when there's a few minutes left and you have to score a penalty. I was just trying to focus and make sure that I would convert it to make sure we win."

The Huskies (13-4-2, 4-2) controlled a lot of the action, but had difficulty solving Glenbard West's last line of defense. They put six shots on goal in the first half while not allowing the Hilltoppers any shots on goal.

Glenbard West's increased its attack in the second half, but never converted on its handful of scoring opportunities. Meanwhile, OP-RF kept the pressure on before finally breaking through on Metennani's goal, which sailed into the left side of the net as Glenbard West goalkeeper Zach Watson guessed right.

Glenbard West's best chance to tie the game came when Daniel Ortega ripped off a shot from 25 yards on the right side, but the bullet sailed above the crossbar with 7:45 remaining.

The save of the game came in the middle of the second half when Brendan Loftus kicked a would-be OP-RF goal away from the net after it got by Watson.

"We played really well," Loftus said. "I thought we possessed the ball really well in the first half and the same with the second half. It's just that we got an unlucky call on that penalty kick. It's unfortunate."

"Throughout the whole game my players did their best," Kusmierz said. "I have absolutely no complaints as far as the game goes. Yet the technical ability was on the Oak Park side. You have to give them credit for that, but I really appreciate the amount of effort and discipline my players put into this game.

'We've been having a tough season. We keep all of the games close. I think this is our sixth or seventh game that we've lost by one goal to a top team. All I can ask of my players is to do their best and they did. Unfortunately today we came up short."

 Glenbard West concludes its conference schedule against Hinsdale Central Wednesday at home. It's a continuation of their Oct. 7 meeting which darkness ended with the score tied at 1 after the first overtime. The action resumes at 4:45 p.m.