Krohn nets the game-winner for Hinsdale Central

It came later than expected, but the Hinsdale Central boys soccer team finally got its first victory of the season on Thursday.

The host Red Devils upset Lincoln-Way East 2-1 on the final day of group play at the Red Devil Cup. They had struggled through a pair of one-goal losses and two scoreless ties in their first four games.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Hinsdale Central junior midfielder Mike Krohn, who scored the game-winning goal early in the second half. “We’re all really happy about it. It took long enough.”

Lincoln-Way East (2-1-1) had already clinched a place in Saturday’s tournament championship game against Morton by virtue of victories over Oswego East and Downers Grove South, while Hinsdale Central (1-2-2) had no chance of advancing. That didn’t lessen the Red Devils’ motivation.

“I think we went into it with a lot more intensity and we really wanted it this time,” Krohn said. We wanted to take it to the team that’s going to the championship [match] and we just wanted to say we’re the team that also beat the champions.”

Things didn’t get off to a good start as the Griffins grabbed a 1-0 lead with 33:34 left in the first half when Anthony Cetera scored. But the hosts struck  back less than five minutes later on a goal by senior Mark Tyler, who scored after Lincoln-Way East goalie Rich Torres couldn’t punch out a 45-yard free kick by Central’s Gareth Parsons.

“I think the goalie came out for a punch and then Mark was there to tap it in,” Parsons said. “We work a lot on those kind of set plays from distance, so we’ve got set runners and I know where they’re going to be. I know where I have to put it every time so as long as I put it in the air, I know we’re going to get a good chance.

“Mark’s always making those runs at the goalie. He’s had two of those this season.”

Parsons also assisted on Krohn’s goal, as it was his pass in the midfield that sent Krohn on a 35-yard run up the right wing. Krohn was one-on-one with a defender and cut back to his left to free himself before sliding a pass under a charging Torres to give the Red Devils a 2-1 lead 2:19 after halftime.

The Red Devils barely missed on several other scoring chances, but they controlled much of the action, outshooting the Griffins 16-6, including 11-4 in the second half.

“We were talking a lot more today,” Parsons said. “Our communication up to this game has been not as good as we’d like it to be and we really yelled out there and a lot of times that’s intimidating to other teams. I think that helped us today.”

Hinsdale Central is next in action on Wednesday when it opens West Suburban Conference Silver Division play by traveling to Downers Grove North. The victory over Lincoln-Way could prove to be the spark the team needed.

“I think we’ve been dominating most of the games we’ve played this season,” Parsons said. “The other day against Oswego we broke through with three but they scored four so we didn’t do well defensively.

“We didn’t want to lose [today]. We had lost so many games, we just came out and we knew we were scoring goals. We had to put them away when we had chances. We’ll make a run.”