EASTLAKE—Abram Gutierrez’s second-half goal was the difference in North’s 2-1 nonconference win over visiting Madison on Thursday.
With the Senior Night win, the Rangers improved to 2-1 on the year.
“Every win is special,” said North head coach Steve Misick. “Some of them are easy to come by, but most of them are pretty tough.”
North opened the scoring early on when Marko Novkovic drilled one into the back of the net in the 11th minute, assisted by John-Michael Hopkins.
Novkovic is one of seven seniors for North, and he delivered a big opening goal on Senior Night.
“Honestly, it’s an incredible feeling,” Novkovic said of his senior night goal. “It’s definitely one of the most memorable things I’m going to have moving forward.”
Madison answered the bell quickly when Travis Heintz connected on an equalizer in the 16th minute.
“We are pretty confident in our corner kicks,” said Madison head coach Steve Swinarski. “We are prepared to score at least one or two goals a game on corners if we can get them. When we got that, it lifted the whole team up and made things easy for us.”
Gutierrez closed out the scoring with his second-half goal in the 48th minute.
The Rangers relied on their defense, particularly goalkeeper Mason Yelensky, to hold the lead.
“Mason’s always been the question mark for us, but all of a sudden he’s not a question mark anymore,” Misick said. “He played pretty well; he did his job tonight. The team should be more confident in him. He is also gaining self-confidence, which is beginning to show in him.”
Yelensky racked up eight saves in the net despite a host of new faces on the back line.
“Our best defense is our offense,” Misick said. “The defense for us is a work in progress. We know we have holes (defensively). We can only hope it’s just going to get better. It’s a reworked defense. None of those guys played back there last year. Our left back, Yahir (Rangel), has anchored the defense. Our center-back is a freshman, and he’s usually a striker by trade but, he’s learning and has been composed. Jaiden Kramer (right-back) was also a striker, but he’s learning too. We’re also rotating guys in our other center-back spot who are not defenders. It’s hard to defend when you don’t have defenders, but they’re soccer players and will adjust.”
North’s defense will be tested on Saturday when it takes to the pitch against a formidable opponent in Twinsburg.
“The communication is going to be key,” Misick said of what it’ll take to beat Twinsburg. “We have to get behind the ball when we lose it. It’s going to be a tall order for us.”
Madison takes the loss and falls to 2-3 on the year but the Blue Streaks walked away believing they played the better game.
“There are seven games we had on our schedule which would be challenging; this was one of them,” Swinarski said. “If we could come out and play well, it would bode well for the rest of the season. I think that if we keep working during our training sessions, this team will continue to be better, and we’ll be conference champs again.”
The Blue Streaks had numerous shots on goal down the stretch to potentially tie the game, but a pair of shots glanced just off the goal post for a miss. Nonetheless, getting the quality shots on goal is something Swinarski was pleased to see.
“We try to work on getting opportunities for everybody on the field,” Swinarski said. “The way we play is that everybody gets to get touches. We’re all working to get that ball down the field. Everybody had an opportunity to put the ball in the net for us; we just didn’t finish, but we’ll keep working at it.”
Owen Hull also played well in the net, with nine saves to keep North at bay.
North hosts Twinsburg on Saturday while Madison hosts NDCL on Sept. 4.
