Lutheran North starts district soccer tournament with shootout win over Richmond

By Chuck Klonke

It was only the first round of the state boys soccer playoffs but Wednesday’s game between Lutheran North and host Richmond looked every bit like the Division 3 district championship.

The teams battled through 90 minutes of regulation, two 10-minute overtimes and were tied 1-1 to force a shootout. The Mustangs won the shootout 3-0 to stay alive in the state tournament with the 2-1 victory.

North goalie Joe Woloszyk came up big in the shootout making saves on the first and third Richmond shooters. In the meantime, the Mustangs were getting goals from their first three shooters — Josh Mathews, Noah Tunnecliffe and Logan Gunter.

“At the end of the regular season, most coaches typically spend a couple days at the end of practice doing PK (penalty kick) work, just to get people comfortable with it, goalies and players,” said North coach Brian Horvath. “We were comfortable. We would have rather won it in regulation, but tip your hat to Richmond for a job well done.”

Woloszyk was happy that his coach gave him a feel for the shootout.

“He made me work on them during the practice before we came here,” Woloszyk said. “He was smart to do that. We don’t work on them a lot.”

Richmond’s Drew Matyunas tied the game on a penalty kick with just over three minutes left in the first half. It turned out that Matyunas was the Blue Devils’ first shooter in the shootout.

“I just trusted my instincts,” Woloszyk said. “His hips were open and coach (Davin) Dumar told me that if the hips are open with the right foot, they’re going to the left side.”

Woloszyk said that making the save on Matyunas gave his confidence a boost.

“Of course,” he said. “Saving the one you got scored on always helps.”

Lutheran North kept the ball in Richmond’s defensive zone for much of the game, so Woloszyk didn’t have a lot of work during regulation. It’s something he’s used to.

“When you have center backs and defenders like mine, I usually don’t get a lot of work,” he said. “I had to show up for them because they showed up for me all game. We all brought our A game tonight.”

Lutheran North coach Brian Horvath gestures during the first half against Richmond.

Horvath said that Richmond’s game plan frustrated the Mustangs.

“They had a great defensive setup going with some talented people in the back and a dangerous guy up top in Drew, so you had to keep an eye on him,” Horvath said. “Their strong game plan obviously frustrated us. I felt we missed some opportunities early, but our goalie came up big. It was a team win for the Mustangs.”

North scored its only goal in regulation during the 15th minutes when John Link kicked the ball in during a scramble in front of the net.

Blue Devils coach Lance Whitney was disappointed that his team’s season ended so quickly.

“It’s too bad that the district final was played in the first round,” he said. “I feel that (North) will have an easy time through the district. I don’t think they’ll be challenged again.”

Richmond was the No. 1 seed in the district. Lutheran North, which likely would have been seeded second in a normal year, didn’t play the required eight games to be seeded for the district. Teams that played fewer than eight games were placed in alphabetical order.

Whitney said that it’s difficult to simulate shootout conditions during practice.

“We were pretty head-up to take this team to overtime and a shootout,” he said. “You can’t simulate that situation. You can take shots in practice all day but you can’t simulate the pressure. The guys we sent out there were 5-for-5, 6-for-6, 7-for-7 in PKs and today it just didn’t happen.”

If there was one encouraging thought for Whitney is that he is losing only four seniors from a team that finished 10-2 — Nathan Vivian, Austin Warn, Matt Teltow and Luis Mendez.

“The four seniors we have are tough to lose,” he said. “You develop a relationship with them and try to make them better men going forward, but we are real young. We have a great freshman, sophomore and junior class and this loss will make them hungry for next year. They’ll probably start working out next week for next year. That’s the type of kids we’ve got.”

Lutheran North (4-4) will play on Oct. 20 against the winner of the Armada-Yale first-round game.