Garcia’s goal gets Andrew past Lincoln-Way Central
Defender scores first career goal as Thunderbolts pull off shutout in SWSC Red showdown
Senior defender Danny Garcia will remember what it felt like to score his first career goal for Andrew. He just will not know exactly what it looked like.
Garcia scored on a header to put the Thunderbolts in front on their way Tuesday night to a 2-0 SouthWest Suburban Red win over Lincoln-Way Central in New Lenox.
“I saw the ball coming, and then to be honest, at the last second, I saw the light and I completely lost the ball,” Garcia said. “Luckily, it just hit off the right part of my head, and it was a beautiful goal.
“I’m very happy about it. It took me a little while to get that. It took me a few years.”
Garcia’s goal with 24 minutes, 28 seconds left in the second half came at the end of a flurry of pressure by Andrew (3-1-1, 1-0).
Sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Marszalek made a couple huge saves for Lincoln-Way Central (3-2, 0-1) at the start of the sequence, knocking Sam Moser’s shot over the crossbar and getting his body on a point-blank attempt from Mason Donovan.
The Thunderbolts kept attacking, though, and Tommy Rendon played a ball back into the box where Garcia headed it in.
“We were feeling really good,” Garcia said. “It was just bound to happen. I’m happy to have scored the first goal and put us on top. From there, we were fully dominant.”
Andrew coach Loren Zolk knew Garcia — one of the Thunderbolts’ captains — had the potential to contribute offensively.
“Danny has been an outside back on varsity since sophomore year,” Zolk said. “I had hopes of putting him in the midfield this year because he’s very talented and I see he can be dangerous. Then we lost Marco Contreras to an ACL injury, and I knew I didn’t have any other options. I need Danny in the back.
“Now, though, you see him starting to creep up. He’s getting up to the top of the box. He’s got the wheels to be able to cover 100 yards in a clip. What a great goal that was.”
Pete Kakaletris gave Andrew some cushion, scoring off a turnover with 18:09 to go.
The Thunderbolts’ defense did the rest, with Garcia, Rendon, Ben Tobin and Nathan Firestone leading the way.
“We were just really good back there,” Garcia said. “We were pretty compact. Our goal was just to keep them wide, and we did a really good job of that.”
Senior goalkeeper Isaac Zumpano also stepped up, making eight saves for the shutout.
He leaped to knock John Roussakis’ shot just wide and punched Eddie Rafacz’s shot over the crossbar with under two minutes to play.
“It was stressful,” Zumpano said. “The defense held their own. I made some mistakes and some of it is luck, but it was just a great team effort.
“Every win gets us going. After each win, we’re always super
hyped. We feel like we can keep building off these and keep doing this throughout conference.”
Marszalek made six saves for the Knights, who controlled play throughout the first half but could not score.
“It was the game we knew it was going to be, with two even teams who are stylistically similar,” Lincoln-Way Central coach Dave Brown said. “We talked about it coming down to one or two moments. They took care of their one or two moments and we didn’t.
“Credit to them. They put their chances away and we were just a bit off.”