Aurora Central Catholic’s Brett Czerak slowly stood up and calmly addressed a collection of frustrated teammates.
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The 6-foot-1 senior, one of the area’s better basketball players, can hold his own in soccer, too.
Moving from forward to midfielder this year, Czerak floats through the middle of the field, waiting for chances. The switch has hardly affected his production.
“He’s a big guy and he has great anticipation,” ACC coach Jose Barrientos said. “He controls the field.”
Czerak assisted on a go-ahead goal Thursday, but it was a game the host Chargers let get away.
IC Catholic scored two goals in the last 4:19, the equalizer coming with 2:24 left, forcing a 3-3 tie in the Metro Suburban Conference opener.
“We got a little overconfident, and a little shaky on defense,” Czerak said. “After that first goal we kind of panicked. We need to remain mentally strong.”
The Chargers (4-2-1, 0-0-1) were down two starters — forward Kyle Czerak and top defender Alex Wan.
Still, it was a game they felt they had won more than once.
ACC had two goals waved away on offsides calls, the second one a potential Oscar Rodriguez’s game-winner with 2:09 left. The Chargers earlier also had a shot hit the crossbar.
“That shouldn’t have been an offsides call,” Barrientos said. “We had a lot of scoring chances.”
Czerak led all area basketball players in scoring last year, and he has a nose for the goal in soccer, too.
Czerak scored nine goals last year, and already has six this year.
He almost had his seventh Thursday, inadvertently setting up a teammate.
When George Yanz played a ball into the box, it came to Czerak above his waist. Unable to use his legs, Czerak shouldered a ball that deflected off an IC defender.
It went right to Brennan Hare, who tapped in a shot to give ACC a 2-1 lead in the game’s 39th minute.
“Brett is a clutch player,” Barrientos said. “He does so many good things for us.”
Yanez earlier scored ACC’s first goal, splitting two defenders and squirting a shot underneath a sprawling goalkeeper.
Rodriguez made it 3-1 with 35:17 left, taking away possession from an IC defender and drilling a point-blank shot into the center of the goal.
“They wanted it more at the end is what it came down to,” Czerak said.
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.
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