Chill demolish Des Moines

The Des Moines Menace are the defending Heartland Division champions, but one wouldn’t know it judging by their performance Friday night.

The Menace (4-2-4) were thumped into submission by Brandon Swartzendruber and the Thunder Bay Chill (5-1-0) at Chapples Park, falling 7-2 in the first of two weekend clashes between the two bitter rivals.

Swartzendruber scored three times – and could have easily had a couple more in the easy win, the manner of which was not what was advertised as a battle of the best the Premier Development League has to offer.

“Des Moines always been a good team. But we don’t like them. We respect them and we’ve got a lot of respect for their players and coaches, but we just have a desire all season to play these guys. We’ve always been the top two teams over the past three years,” Swartzendruber said.

“It’s our chance to make a statement to the league and to ourselves.”

Des Moines received that message loud and clear from a Chill team now poised to possibly take over top spot in the division on Saturday, despite having played three and four games fewer than the two teams in front of them.

Swartzendruber, a top 10 PDL scorer on two occasions, has been off to a slower-than-expected start this year, with just one goal in five appearances.

Those memories have long since faded from his mind, he said, glad he’s finally starting to show the skill that had coach Tony Colistro drooling when he agreed to return to the fold.

Still, the third-year veteran wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance.

“It was nice to put some in the net,” he said. “But there were a few that I missed that I should have finished. But I was lucky enough to get a few more chances.”

Colistro said he’s been waiting to see his strikers regain the 2008 form that took them all the way to a PDL title, though even he, the eternal optimist, couldn’t have predicted just how easy the goals were going to come against the Menace.

Not that he’s complaining.

“I didn’t expect this kind of result. I know we were capable of it. We talked about our attack. We said that this year we were going to use our strikers as our big guns, and these are the big-game players,” Colistro said.

“That’s what they’re about. They come and play in the big games.”

Colistro said he knows the rest of the Heartland Division was keeping a close eye on the contest, the first of two at Chapples Field this weekend, to see whether or not the high-flying Chill were for real.

“I know our GM got some messages (this week) saying we’ll see what the Chill’s really about this weekend, playing some tough competition. I don’t know, it might startle some of the opposition. This was a pretty big result. But you’ve still got to respect Des Moines, they’re tired,” Colistro said.

So tired it looked like some were asleep in the opening half, particularly Menace goalie Jason Williams. Rookie Rafa Heck victimized him with a bullet shot from 40 yards out in the 15th minute to give the Chill a lead they’d never relinquish.

The rout was on from there.

Swartzendruber netted his second of the season in the 18th minute. Eight minutes later defender Zetroy Robertson finished off a gutsy charge by Chill striker and league-leading assist-getter Gustavo Oliveira, who pushed home a rebound past a stunned Williams.

The Chill continued splitting the middle with success, and in the 34th minute they struck again, thanks to some razzle-dazzle from midfielder Nolan Intermoia, who broke through a wall of defenders and scored his team-leading sixth of the campaign, putting him in a tie for fifth in the league.

The Menace got one back after the break when Kalan Ryden beat Stephen Paterson in the 47th minute. But seven minutes later Swartzendruber replied with his second of the night. He completed the hat trick two minutes later, giving the Chill a 6-1 lead.

Des Moines’ Yuki Kariya and Thunder Bay’s Jimmie Mayaleh traded goals the rest of the way.

The two teams hook up again on Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.