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Second half surge lifts La Salle-Peru to 4-3 win over Ottawa · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Second half surge lifts LaSalle Peru to 4-3 win over Ottawa. Written
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  by Brian Hoxy This article is being read by an automated voice,
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  brought to you by Everlet. The Las El Peru Boys soccer team
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  trailed visiting Ottawa by a goal at halftime Monday night at the
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  LP Sports Complex and weren’t happy with the way they were playing.
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  I think at halftime we all knew we hadn't played very well.
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  LP Junior striker Adan Pantoja said, We just weren't playing like we
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  can. We weren't communicating and weren't playing together, we had to wake
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  up. I felt like in the second half, we were doing all
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  the things we weren't doing in the first. We picked up the
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  pace, we started passing better, and that all led to us creating
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  good scoring chances. The Cavaliers 71120 tied the game early in then
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  second half and then after the Pirates, 27112 regained the lead, the
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  hosts found the back of the net three times to eventually post
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  a 4-3 Interstate 8 conference win. The first half we were trying
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  to do way too much, then the second half we just started
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  doing what we needed to do, LP coach David Spudik said. We
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  had way too much individual dribbling, weren't looking to put the ball
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  in open space, and weren't a hundred percent committed on our tackles.
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  We had a really long week last week with matches against Sycamore,
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  Somonok, Leland, Newark, and Mendota. Those were three really tough battles against
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  really solid teams. We're a little beat up right now, but it's
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  Ottawa, so they're gonna come out and give it everything they have.
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  Ottawa took the 1-0 lead into halftime with Alexio Fernandez one-timing and
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  a corner kick from Joey Tipple in the 18th minute. LaSalle Peru
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  tied the match nine minutes into the second half when senior Ismael
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  Mejia captured his own deflected corner kick, dribbled around a defender, and
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  scored on a 15-yard blast. The Pirates responded thirty seconds later when
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  Robert Pollier scored off a lead pass assist by Fernandez. That was
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  very frustrating, Mihia said, but I think we all just looked at
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  each other and nodded, kind of like we need to pick it
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  up even more. The Cavaliers tied the match again in the 59th
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  minute on Pantoja's goal off of a perfect lead pass by Mejia,
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  then took the lead for good after finding the back of the
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  net twice. The first score came in the 67th minute by Pantoja
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  off a crossing pass from Noah Escobedo, and the second 49 seconds
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  later from Escobedo off a crossing pass from Mejia. Ottawa's closed to
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  within 4-3 with nine minutes remaining on Fernandez's second goal of the
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  match on a short shots from the right wing. It was a
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  very fun match, but those last few minutes were pretty stressful, Mejia
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  said. We played very sloppy in the first half. The halftime talk
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  with Coach Spudik was a little rough, but we came back in
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  the second half and played pretty well. Both teams finished with 7
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  shots on goal, with LP holding a 16-11 edge in total shots
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  and 6-4 in corner kicks. Logan Griziwa made four saves for LP
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  while Landry Brenbarger stopped three shots for Ottawa. There have been a
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  couple of matches this season where we lost the fight, but tonight
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  the guys didn't stop fighting. Ottawa coach Greg Hughes said. I'm very
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  happy with how we played overall, but we had a couple of
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  mistakes in the final 20 minutes that killed us. Hopefully we can
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  learn from the mistakes we made there, fix them, and the next
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  time we are in that kind of situation, no allow those chances.
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  I felt like we took a lot of opportunities away from LP
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  in this match, but man, they have a lot of talented players
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  that made things happen in the second half. They are just a
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  very solid team. LP is at Rochelle on Wednesday.