You might not know this, but having established himself as one of the area’s most dominant defenders, Adan Rueda is still a Swiss Army knife of sorts for Bartlett coach Anthony Glorioso.
So, when the Hawks’ regular and only goalkeeper received a red card with 12:49 remaining in the first half Wednesday night, Glorioso needed someone to help the team out in net.
And Rueda, a senior leader. answered the call.
“I actually play goalkeeper whenever I need to step in, so this is the time that I had to step in,” he said. “I decided to step in and help out my team, hopefully get the W, and we did.”
Rueda allowed a pair of goals in the first half as host St. Charles East tied the game. In the second half, though, he made three saves as Bartlett rallied for a 3-2 nonconference victory.
Oliver Kosciolek scored two goals for Bartlett (9-4-4), including the winner with 3:07 left in the game. Nate Preissig scored the other goal for the Hawks.
St. Charles East (3-11-4) received goals from Justin Brooks and Garrett Melton in the first half but couldn’t find the back of the net again in the second half against Rueda.
Glorioso already knew he was going to put in Rueda at goalkeeper when the red card was handed out, but he said Rueda showed the eagerness to take the assignment anyway.
“You can put him anywhere on the field and he’ll do it,” Glorioso said. “He’s doing it for the team.
“He knew right away. He’s like, ‘I’m going in.’ There was no hesitation. Even though I knew I was going to put him in, he grabbed the gloves and said, ‘Put me in.’ He did a really good job.”
Despite changing positions, Rueda maintained his typical vocal leadership on the back end. He helped the Hawks navigate playing more than half of the game a player down.
“He’s definitely a true vocal leader, no matter what position he’s playing,” Glorioso said. “He definitely helped our back line position themselves.”
For his part, Rueda said he didn’t change his personality with the position change.
“I definitely still felt like I was being myself, just trying to communicate with the boys as always,” Rueda said. “As a goalkeeper, you see the whole pitch, so you have to communicate and hopefully help out the team.”
St .Charles East made things interesting, however.
The first play Rueda encountered was a penalty kick, which Melton converted. Four minutes later, Brooks scored to force a 2-2 tie. But the Saints didn’t score again.
“I still think we created a couple opportunities where we have to score,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “It’s the story of our lives.
“I thought we had a lot of momentum in the second half. We just couldn’t score, and we had way too many chances in the first half to not have that third goal.”
Rueda, meanwhile, enjoyed adding another skill to his growing list.
“It was really very exciting for me to keep those goals out,” Rueda said. “It was hard for me because I hadn’t played it in a couple of years, but it was definitely fun. I enjoyed it.
“If I have to step in again, I won’t hesitate. I’ll step in.”
At the same time, Rueda is happy that the Hawks are heading toward the playoffs on a positive note after coming off of a four-win season.
“We do have more chemistry together because most of us have been together on the varsity level for a couple of years and we know what to expect,” Rueda said. “Hopefully, we can keep this up and we can keep going far in the playoffs.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
