JOLIET -- Nate Jakusz won't get credit for scoring the only goal in Plainfield South High School's 1-0 boys soccer victory over Joliet Catholic Academy.
He will get credit for setting up teammate Efrain Sanchez and for setting up the Cougars for one final push toward the postseason.
Jakusz, a senior midfielder, tracked down a loose ball in the far corner with just under 17 minutes left in the first half of Thursday afternoon's non-conference match, the two teams locked in a scoreless deadlock. He then made a run along the end line.
When his path to the goal finally was blocked, Jakusz fired a shot that JCA junior keeper Mike Williams initially blocked -- but was unable to cover up. The ball squirted through Williams' hands and his legs. Sanchez, in one of those right-place, right-time moments, latched a foot hold on the rebound and drove it into the back of an empty net.
Plainfield South (9-9-1) made the first-half goal stand up as it reached the .500 mark in October for the first time in three years. The Cougars finish the regular season with games against West Aurora and district rival Plainfield North next week, then start the IHSA playoffs vs. Plainfield North, too.
"Credit our coach," Jakusz said of South's Mike Freitag. "We did so many drills at practice, just taking it on the line and cutting in. He said they either have to follow you or they have to let you go. He didn't follow me. He let me go. I took the shot and we always follow up the shot, like Coach says. And we got it. Efrain (Sanchez) was there. He put it in."
Sanchez has scored six goals this season -- but none easier.
"He made a good cross," Sanchez said. "And then the goalie went at the ball, but he made a mistake, and I took advantage of the mistake. So, I scored from there."
Jakusz was rewarded with an assist -- and the feeling that comes from making a big play in a tight game. His end-line run tilted the scales the way of the Cougars.
"It's an assist," he said. "That's good. We got a win. That's all that matters. We're officially .500. We finally got back up there. We're really happy about that. It wasn't pretty, but we got it done."
Plainfield South's Kel Markert made four saves and notched his second consecutive shutout. He charged out of the goal to snuff JCA's Zak Roderick in the second half after Roderick worked a nifty give-and-go type play with teammate Vinnie Hughes. Markert later blocked Brent Smith's point-blank shot and broke up Roderick's cross into the crease as time wound down.
"The kids played hard, and they played well," Freitag said. "It was a little ugly at times. We missed plenty of opportunities. But, like I said earlier, we're not a prolific team in terms of goal-scoring. But we keep ourselves in every match. So, we've just got to make do on our opportunities when we can, and Efrain being in the right place at the right time -- like he's been trained by his great coach to be -- was nice. He usually is. He's a good player.
"So, it's good to see it pay off for them because there have been a lot of games this year where all that work has been for a one-goal loss and just the exact opposite thing happening to us."
JCA (7-7-3) finished with a 13-12 edge in shots at or on goal as the two teams battled back-and-forth, action almost evenly divided on both ends.
"We carried the play pretty well, especially in the first half and the latter part of the second half," JCA coach Chuck Bernard said. "I think we came out a little bit too charged up in the second half. We weren't relaxed. After a while, we relaxed a little bit and played a little bit better. We had our chances. Their keeper make a couple of nice stops.
"Our keeper made a couple of nice stops. We made one mistake in the game. That was the difference. And they capitalized."
Bernard said he could live with the one mistake because it was of the physical variety -- not mental.
"The defender made the right play," he said. "He came out, cut his angle down. The only place he could put it was across the goal. Unfortunately, we didn't clean it up there. We had the opportunity and didn't do it. So, everybody did exactly what they're supposed do, and then we had a physical error. Not a mental error.
"Nine out of 10 times -- maybe 99 out of 100 -- that doesn't happen to you. This time it did. I told the boys Mike Williams has carried them in a lot of games this year. It was our turn to pick him up, and we weren't able to get that done."
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