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CREVE COEUR – CBC seniors Sam Villa and Dominic Bartoni savored the presence of an unfamiliar opponent.
Villa, a shut-down defender, went head-to-head with prolific goal-scorer Bartoni during three weeks of intense training prior to the Cadets’ opening game on Tuesday.
“We love to go at it in practice. It’s very competitive, and that shifts over to the games,” Bartoni said.
Bartoni scored two goals and added an assist, and Villa spearheaded a physical defensive performance as CBC defeated Ladue 3-0 at Becky Sauerbrunn Field on Ladue West Campus.
CBC (1-0), which had its first two games postponed due to weather, began the match Tuesday like a high-energy dog released from its crate.
The frenetic pace resulted in a flurry of early scoring chances, including a narrow miss by Ladue senior Dailyn Tate in the opening minutes.
“If Ladue scores there, it’s a totally different game and we’re pressing a little bit,” CBC associate head coach Randy Roy said.
But the game changed on a physical play near the sideline in the 7th minute when Tate and Villa met shoulder-to-shoulder in a full-speed pursuit of a 50-50 ball.
The impact knocked Tate, a preseason All-American who scored 18 goals last season, out of the game with a wrist injury. He briefly tried to return to action with a taped wrist but was not the same player. In the second half, Ladue sophomore Jordan Oiknine also suffered an injury after a heavy collision.
“The ref let them play a little bit, and if you let a big, physical team like that play, it’s hard,” Ladue coach David Aronberg said.
Without Tate, Ladue (2-2) struggled to generate offense in the first half.
Bartoni did not.
In the 13th minute, junior James Martin played a ball down the right sideline that was retrieved by senior Alex Etzel.
“I looked up and saw Dom,” Etzel said.
Etzel sent a perfectly-paced cross to Bartoni, who gathered, turned and drilled a shot into the lower left corner from 17 feet away to give CBC a 1-0 lead.
It was one of several Cadets’ chances that originated from playing a ball down the sideline.
“This field is especially wide, and that gave us room to make runs and play balls back in,” Bartoni said. “All of our goals came from the width, and that’s something we work on a lot.”
Less than four minutes later, Bartoni streaked down the left side and ripped a shot that Ladue sophomore goalkeeper Seaton Thompson somehow squeezed between his legs.
Bartoni soon got free again and tried to chip a shot over an advancing Thompson, but the tall Ladue netminder leapt and corralled it with two hands.
“I maybe made some wrong decisions, tried to chip the keeper, but at the end of the day, you have to put it past you and focus on the next one,” Bartoni said.
The next one came in the final minute of the half after Martin and Bartoni escaped on a 2-on-2 break. Martin drove the right side and delivered a pass that landed on the right foot of Bartoni, who made no mistake and sent a rocket past Thompson.
“The second goal was a killer. A turnover that didn’t need to happen in the last minute, they counter, they score. Going into halftime down 2-0 versus 1-0 changed the whole complexion,” Aronberg said.
Bartoni nearly added a third goal with 10 seconds remaining in the half when he clanged the near post. He showed no favoritism by dinging a crossbar in the second half.
“The boys were itching to play, and that was a solid first 40 minutes all the way around – scoring, possessing the ball – I was pleased with it,” Roy said.
But despite playing without their top two offensive threats for much of the second half, Ladue began to solve the high-octane, pressuring style of CBC and started to generate scoring chances.
A cross from sophomore Marc Proskey narrowly missed the extended right foot of junior Jeha Hwang. Moments later, Hwang drilled a shot from 19 yards away that required a sliding stop from CBC senior goalkeeper Sam Scott.
“We were not ready for the speed in the first half. They pressure quick, quick, quick and our guys kind of panicked under that, but I thought in the second half, we adjusted to their pressure and did a really nice job defensively,” Aronberg said.
The CBC defense was spearheaded by Villa, who used his exceptional speed to intercept passes, chase down long balls and clean up messes.
“Part of that is the wingbacks too, I’m just sweeping what they don’t get. It’s an all-around, team effort,” Villa said.
Bartoni added an assist to his ledger by finding Etzel with 24 seconds remaining. It provided the second goal scored in the final minute of a half for CBC and more evidence of the Cadets’ desire to play a full 80 minutes against a team other than themselves.
“We were hungry,” Bartoni said. “It’s a great feeling to get off to a good start.”