Wheaton Academy savors state title journey
Slow start culminates in 12-game win streak and Class A title
By Chris Walker
As a volunteer for the 2014 Wheaton Academy boys team, eight-year-old Declan Finnegan raced after balls on the sidelines while his older brother Hunter and his teammates chased after the program’s first state title. They achieved their goal, the Class AA crown, with a 5-1 win over St. Joseph on Nov. 8 in Hoffman Estates.
Now coming off of his second-consecutive season in 2021 as the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division’s Goalkeeper of the Year, Declan was in the net in East Peoria on Oct. 31 as the Warriors held on to edge Althoff 2-1 for the Warriors second state title.
“I was the ball boy for that whole season, and my brother (senior captain Hunter) was on the team,” he said. “I knew all the guys, and they were super fun and nice.
“I felt like I was a part of it and knew that I always wanted to do that with a team. So, to do that and to get a ring, it’s just like a dream.”
Wheaton Academy’s recent fall state title run wasn’t some wild, crazy and far-fetched dream come true. The Warriors returned 17 players from a squad that went 12-3-1 in the truncated spring season, so they expected to be a high-quality side. They also had won eight of their last nine games before their momentum dissipated in the compressed COVID-19 substitute season with no state series.
The confident Class A Warriors opened the season with a slate of Class 3A competition. They recorded a scoreless draw against Geneva at home in their nonconference season-opener.
Next up was an ambitious placing in the St. Charles Invitational as the only Class A school among seven potential foes from Class 3A.
It stated with a 3-2 loss to Maine South (7-10-2) followed by an 8-0 drubbing from highly ranked St. Charles East (18-5-1) that left the Warriors scratching their heads.
“Wheaton Academy doesn’t really get smacked 8-0,” Finnegan said. “That was a big wake-up call, and it just put a fire in everyone’s bellies that we’re not as good as we think and haven’t reached our full potential. There was some shame and morale was down, but it made us train harder and become better. It turned out pretty well.”
The night of the loss to the Saints, senior Robert Platt texted coach Cody Snouffer.
“I asked him what am I doing wrong, and he came back with the question of ‘How can the front five do better?’” Platt said. “That was the turning point. We needed to work together as the front five and not individuals. You can create so many more chances to score that way.”
Snouffer acknowledged that when he and assistant coach and alumnus Drew Sezonov put the season schedule together they knew it would be especially difficult early, and that it would help them gauge what their team was made of.
“We said if we are .500 at the end of two weeks we’ll know we’re onto something,” Snouffer said. “And (then) we were 0-2-1 with two games to play to be .500 and maybe save our jobs.
“I told them in the spring that I don’t want to face anything for the first time in the playoffs. I don’t want us to go down a goal for the first time in the playoffs, to have our first shootout in the playoffs. I wanted to arrive at the playoffs with a lot of experience that you can draw on.
“We put together the best schedule hoping that would happen. The only thing we didn’t experience prior to state was a red card.”
The Warriors turned things around and did improve to .500 after their first five games with tournament-ending shootout wins over Plainfield Central and Downers Grove North. The victories started a five-game win streak.
They never really slowed down after that and overcame most of the obstacles that were thrown their way. Wheaton Academy went on to win 17 of its last 19 games including 12 straight to end the season with the state title.
“We were pleased with those two results,” Platt said. “They prepared us for the playoffs where you’ve got to get that one goal to get the game.
“Coach Snouffer said winning two games on PKs is going to be big in the tournament.”
Fortunately for the Warriors, they never had to turn to PKs to advance in the playoffs, but memories of a loss to Timothy on PKs during the conference season on Sept. 16 remained fresh on their minds when they battled the Trojans in a state semifinal Oct. 29.
“I felt like we played down and didn’t get the job done (in the loss),” Platt said. “I missed a PK that I should’ve scored. (We should have) beat them 3-2 and won conference (instead of a loss after a seven-round shootout).
Platt, a senior who helped the team earn a state title in his first postseason, led the Warriors with 20 goals and added 10 assists while earning all-sectional accolades from the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association.
Acknowledging that he had watched the 2014 state-title run as a youngster and wanted to play for former coach Jeff Brooke and become the next Ty Seager (the Warriors star who went on to play at Northwestern), Platt could not have written a better ending for his high school soccer career.
“The program is unbelievable, and I’m going to miss it,” he said. “These four years have been great and then having a fairytale ending. These last two years have been my best years of soccer. In my only true varsity season to never lose in the playoffs and to score 20 goals and have 10 assists. It’s the perfect ending.”
The Warriors opened up play in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division with an 8-1 win in Elgin against host St. Edward. Jakob Karlson and Gio Nicoski-Rios both scored twice, Platt and Joshua Mariotti each scored and had assists. Haetham Nasr and Luke Poland added goals; Poland and Karlson notched their first varsity markers. Xander Anaya, Evan Eckert, Jude Barton, Viwe Baleni, Lucas Landstrom and Scotty Murray had assists as 12 Warriors entered the box score.
It was a sign of things to come this fall for the Warriors whose only league hiccup, the loss to Timothy, prevented them from earning a sixth-straight Metro Suburban Conference divisional title. They were otherwise dominant and outscored their league foes 31-6.
While Platt led the Warriors goal scorers, Nasr led the squad with 13 assists while adding 12 goals. Nicoski-Rios was second on the team with 14 goals. Eckert (7 goals, 4 assists), Joshua Mariotti (9 goals, 4 assists), Caleb Mariotti (4 goals, 6 assists) and Scotty Murray (5 goals, 5 assists) were all part of a potent and deep attack that deposited 87 goals in the back of the net for a 3.6 goals per game average for the 24-game season. They allowed 30 goals, but just nine against Class A competition. They shut out nine opponents including three Class 3A and two Class AA teams.
The Warriors offense pressured opponents with a selfless multi-headed attack that saw them score two or more goals in 16 of their last 19 games. The only time the offense was shutout in that span was against defending Class 3A state champion West Chicago in a 3-0 loss on Sept. 25.
“The guys did a good job of buying in and believing, and they had to do it collectively,” Snouffer said. “You get to the end of the season and if your front line has scored in the 40s and your midfield has scored in the high 20s and your backline is in double digits, that’s a well-rounded team attack. That takes a team scoring-mentality so credit to the guys for doing it.”
The Warriors rebounded from the West Chicago loss with a 5-1 win over St. Francis on Sept. 28 before they headed to the Great River Classic in Burlington, Ia., where they again found themselves in tough competition. Wheaton Academy posted wins over Althoff and Evanston in PKs and then beat Middleton (Wis.) 5-2 for the Heartland Lodge bracket title.
The victory over Evanston, a school with more than 3,500 students, was impressive. The Wildkits were ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 entering the game against unranked Wheaton Academy. Evanston (16-3-4) went on to a 4-0-1 streak after the game and won a Class 3A regional title before falling in the New Trier Sectional championship to a strong Oak Park and River Forest.
“The Iowa tournament was a great catalyst moment for us, and I think that’s when the guys started to believe in themselves,” Snouffer said. “We had some really tough opponents and had underperformed against tougher opponents so far. Losing to West Chicago and beating St. Francis at home, then we didn’t lose again. That included a PK win (against Althoff on Oct. 1) which was good. I didn’t want to see a shootout in the state tournament so to get a couple in Iowa where there were stakes to be played for was big. And anytime you beat a big 3A school that’s a lot of fun and a big boost.”
In the opening Iowa victory, Platt gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead. But after Althoff scored twice to take the lead, the Warriors needed to dig deep late. They got a rebound goal from Nasr with five minutes left in regulation to force overtime. In the shootout, Finnegan stopped a pair of PKs, and Josiah Pitts buried the game-winner on his attempt to give the Warriors the victory.
Against Evanston, Jude Barton scored on a header to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead but Evanston rallied with the equalizer in the second half. Once again Finnegan came up huge during the PK session, making a save and putting his team in position for Nicoski-Rios to convert the game-winner.
The postseason was foreign to most of Wheaton Academy’s roster. A collective unfamiliarity was felt throughout the state, especially after the lack of a state series in the prior school year.
In addition, the Warriors persevered through a couple of major injuries to its defense during the season. Anaya was sidelined with a broken hip, and Kaiden Massie worked through the concussion protocol for three-to-four weeks.
“You never want to lose any players, let alone seniors and defenders, so those were two huge setbacks,” Snouffer said. “We had two players lose grandparents, and that’s a hard thing to go through. (Our) young men (had) to support each other through that. We had some eligibility issues to iron out, some sickness, sniffles, those kind of things.”
When Anaya went down on Senior Night and an ambulance arrived to tend to him, it hit home that his injury was serious. Rather than sulk, the Warriors rallied behind him, and someone else was called into duty.
“We have that confidence of next man up,” Finnegan said. “It did sting for a while when we lost that in our backline. Don’t get me wrong, we have the best backline in the state, but when a crucial part goes missing it’s going to be a big hit.”
That’s why it’s so important for personnel to be ready to go when their number is called. Even if Finnegan, who was dynamite and dependable, went down the Warriors felt they were in good hands with junior Brandon Hoekstra. Snouffer kept Hoekstra busy with opportunities to play. Sezonov oversaw the development of both players.
“(Declan) has always had a strong desire to get better, and he’s got all the stuff you can’t teach,” Sezonov said. “He’s big; he’s tall: he’s athletic; he’s the man. And we have a great backup. Brandon is great, so we like to say we have the best goalies in the conference.
“Declan was sick or hurt a couple games, and Brandon stepped in. He had a couple great games: against Batavia (a 4-1 win Sept. 11); and he shut out Elmwood Park (7-0 Sept. 14). It’s always good to see guys getting rewarded for sticking with it.”
The Warriors started the playoffs hitting on all cylinders. They blitzed past Aurora Central 8-0 and St. Edward 6-1, to win their first regional since 2017. Nasr and Platt each scored four goals in the regional.
“I think just coming into both of those games we knew the type of team we were, and we knew we had the skill, the talent and the right guys around us,” Nasr said. “Talking to everyone on the team, we knew what we wanted to do. We knew that everyone else was going to want it.
“Seniors on other schools – it’s their last year as well. We wanted to make a statement in the first two games, and it was the mentality aspect of it. Anyone can come in and do big things, but not a lot of teams can do the little things together. We did that and let each other have the big moments. We made a statement, executed and set the tone.”
Wheaton Academy continued its dominant run with a four-goal explosion from Platt in a 7-0 victory over Marengo in a Hinckley-Big Rock Sectional semifinal.
The Warriors moved on to face Genoa-Kingston (21-2-0) in the final. The Cogs came into the game averaging 6.8 goals per game and featured the two-headed scoring machine of junior Jorge Leon and senior Eagan Reams (93 goals, 42 assists combined).
Wheaton Academy kept rolling behind Nasr’s hat-trick and the team’s third postseason shutout in a 6-0 victory.
That set the stage for the supersectional. The Warriors enjoyed the home-field advantage and beat a stubborn and dangerous Cristo Rey St. Martin team 1-0 on Oct. 26.
“They were fantastic,” Snouffer said. “It was back and forth, and there were lots of good chances for both teams. That was a very fun game, and we were fortunate to play at home and fortunate to come out and play really well. They were not a team we could’ve beaten if we didn’t play very well.”
Nasr provided the difference in the epic battle. He scored in the 50th minute when he redirected a pass from Eckert.
With Cristo Rey St. Martin possessing, Nasr was able to sneakily poke the ball free to Joshua Mariotti. The two worked a give-and-go before Mariotti took a couple touches and fed the ball into the penalty area to Nicoski-Rios. The ensuing blast caromed off the cross bar. After several defenders were unable to clear the ball, one headed it into Eckert’s path. He seized the opportunity and fired a shot that Nasr slightly redirected despite being flanked by Cristo Rey St. Martin freshman defender Jairo Bonilla.
“The way that goal came together was just a great feeling,” Nasr said. “That goal described how that game was because of those little things: a weird play; a ball hitting the crossbar; a failed clear; and just reacting. I just stuck a leg on it to redirect it, make the goalie confused. I was so happy to do that for the team.”
For the first time in the postseason the Warriors were seriously threatened, and they responded favorably. Their outlook remained as positive as ever.
“When I got the goal it was an incredible feeling, but the thing is that it was incredible throughout the season,” Nasr said. “I felt closer to the guys off the field than on it, and I don’t think a lot of schools, A, AA or 3A, public or private, have that.
“I can call those guys my brothers. I think the no. 1 reason we won was our culture. If you can’t have culture, you can’t have a good team.”
With Nasr’s goal and the work of Finnegan and his backline, Wheaton Academy punched its ticket to the state finals in East Peoria.
The Warriors used their Iowa tournament success as a blueprint for the state tournament.
“We talked a lot about motivation during the last three weeks of the season and how we’ve got to be motivated for every game,” Snouffer said. “The guys latched up for the love of the game, for the love the team, for the guy next to you. Heading into the state series it was just one game at a time until we won seven. Once we got to Timothy, sure this was game six, but no matter who it is you want to win that and win number seven.”
The Warriors had not forgotten about their previous loss to the Trojans, and the semifinal was nothing like it. After holding a 1-0 lead at the half, Wheaton Academy roared to a decisive 6-1 victory. Platt delivered a hat-trick and Karlson, Caleb Mariotti and Nicoski-Rios added to the scoring line on a rainy night in East Peoria.
Twins Caleb and Joshua Mariotti didn’t attribute all of the team’s success to the hard work it put in prior to stepping on the field this fall or even in the spring but recognized that their preparedness could ultimately lead to great heights.
“We were always working hard in the offseason doing our training, and we would keep training and get together and train outside of practice so that way the chemistry went way up,” Joshua Mariotti said. “Some of us also play some club together in the offseason, so I would say our team was super encouraged that we were all going to keep getting better.”
Like their foes, the Warriors were in uncharted waters after the first interruption in the history of the state tournament. With many playing their first postseason and the single-elimination format, tension was high. If you lose, you’re done.
“We had to prepare ourselves mentally to be ready to play teams just as good if not better than us. I think preparing ourselves in that way helped set the stage for winning the state title,” Caleb Mariotti said. “The teams coming into the supersectionals and finals are really good, so we had to be ready.”
The Warriors exemplified the team’s theme.
“The cool thing about the program is our one motto, ‘ST – Stronger Together,’” Platt said. “We are better as a unit. We will not be selfish, the people up-top, whoever scores scores, as long we win no one really cares.”
Platt bought into hard work and commitment to turn into the standout player he became. He didn’t earn a spot on the varsity roster as a freshman and sophomore.
“I started training at 5 a.m. during the week and gained 25 pounds,” he said. “I embraced the mentality that a lot of my teammates who train every day have. And we had a great foundation here from the past guys. The 2014 team left such a foundation to build the program.”
History shows Wheaton Academy has had a strong base for a long time. The Warriors’ last losing season was 1993. Seven of the school’s nine state-qualifiers have come since the 2004 season, and six have returned with hardware.
After consecutive fourth place finishes in AA in 2012 and 2013, the program won its first state title. The Warriors added a third place finish in AA in 2017 as part of a seven-year run that saw the Warriors earn 20 or more victories in five seasons. The program finished third in Class A in 2005.
“I’ve lived in West Chicago for almost 10 years now,” Snouffer said. “I had heard a lot about Wheaton Academy and was coaching all 10 of those years. I (was) at a lot of those Wheaton Academy games, because I was close, and I would see the lights on. I’d come to see some good soccer.
“I watched them win a state championship in 2014, and I built a relationship with (former longtime coach) Jeff Brooke who I looked up to as a mentor. It’s a great school, a great campus to be on, and they love the game. It’s been a great place to make a soccer home.”
Sezonov was the starting goalkeeper on the 2014 championship team. He also played on the state qualifying teams the two years prior to that, losing heartbreaking games in PKs against St. Ignatius in 2013 in Hoffman Estates and against Notre Dame (Peoria) in 2012 during the last state finals to be played at the former Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort.
“During my time, and even before that, there were a lot of successful teams here throughout the years that just couldn’t get it done. But the playoffs are hard and it’s hard to get to the Final Four,” Sezonov said. “And it’s even harder to win when you get there.
“There’s been a foundation for excellence here for a while, and I think that started with Jeff (Brooke) and the others. I played for Jeff and am now working with Cody. Jeff made such an impact on my life as a young man trying to figure out life and stuff, and I can’t say enough things about Cody.
“No one wants to be the guy who follows a legend. I can’t say enough about the leadership up-top here with the coaches and especially with Cody being on the outside and not working at the school. He’s been phenomenal.”
Highlights and memories of the season are plentiful, but a standout is the twin junior Mariotti brothers scoring in the state title game.
“I would say it’s truly something special that we were able to win a state title, and Caleb and I both scored,” Joshua said. “We’ve got to regional finals with club but going into a state final game was a different feeling. It was really awesome. For both of us to score, it’s definitely a memory I’ll never forget.”
“It’s been such a great feeling with the entire school behind us,” Caleb said. “For club, as much fun as that is, there aren’t many people to back you up. Playing for a school is full of good memories, and I’m so happy we won, and we scored. What a memory – scoring in a state final. It’s something I’m never going to forget.”
While the Class of 2022 need never stop basking in the glow of the state title, the bar has been set at its highest for those who will return. What can Wheaton Academy do for an encore?
The team loses top scorers Platt and Nicoski-Rios to graduation in their group of eight seniors.
The Warriors should be tough again next season with Finnegan, Eckert, Pitts and the Mariotti twins heading a platoon of more than a dozen players who could return.
Regardless of the future, everyone will enjoy this grand memory which their coach kind of predicted.
“When I became the varsity coach three years ago, our athletic director said ‘How do you feel about the team?’” Snouffer said. “At that time we had some really talented seniors. I said we’ll have a good year and a couple seniors will go on and play (college), and they are, but in three years we’ll win state or we’ll have the chance to win state.”
After evaluating the talent of the freshmen and sophomores at that time, Snouffer was aware that he had the ingredients to create something truly amazing.
“Looking at those classes, they were just very talented and very talented in a lot of key positions,” he said. “From freshmen who I thought would be great center mids to a goalkeeper who I thought would be one of the best in program history to sophomores who would be great outside attacking players or center backs. So as a coach I see all the ingredients, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. But having the ingredients is really fun and maybe we can pull this off.
“It was a good season, so that was a huge success. To win it all is just the icing on the cake,” he continued. “It’s not something we needed in the end to know how special this group was and how productive the season has been, but icing on cake is the best analogy for it. We capped it all off in a really sweet way.”
Slow start culminates in 12-game win streak and Class A title
By Chris Walker
As a volunteer for the 2014 Wheaton Academy boys team, eight-year-old Declan Finnegan raced after balls on the sidelines while his older brother Hunter and his teammates chased after the program’s first state title. They achieved their goal, the Class AA crown, with a 5-1 win over St. Joseph on Nov. 8 in Hoffman Estates.
Now coming off of his second-consecutive season in 2021 as the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division’s Goalkeeper of the Year, Declan was in the net in East Peoria on Oct. 31 as the Warriors held on to edge Althoff 2-1 for the Warriors second state title.
“I was the ball boy for that whole season, and my brother (senior captain Hunter) was on the team,” he said. “I knew all the guys, and they were super fun and nice.
“I felt like I was a part of it and knew that I always wanted to do that with a team. So, to do that and to get a ring, it’s just like a dream.”
Wheaton Academy’s recent fall state title run wasn’t some wild, crazy and far-fetched dream come true. The Warriors returned 17 players from a squad that went 12-3-1 in the truncated spring season, so they expected to be a high-quality side. They also had won eight of their last nine games before their momentum dissipated in the compressed COVID-19 substitute season with no state series.
The confident Class A Warriors opened the season with a slate of Class 3A competition. They recorded a scoreless draw against Geneva at home in their nonconference season-opener.
Next up was an ambitious placing in the St. Charles Invitational as the only Class A school among seven potential foes from Class 3A.
It stated with a 3-2 loss to Maine South (7-10-2) followed by an 8-0 drubbing from highly ranked St. Charles East (18-5-1) that left the Warriors scratching their heads.
“Wheaton Academy doesn’t really get smacked 8-0,” Finnegan said. “That was a big wake-up call, and it just put a fire in everyone’s bellies that we’re not as good as we think and haven’t reached our full potential. There was some shame and morale was down, but it made us train harder and become better. It turned out pretty well.”
The night of the loss to the Saints, senior Robert Platt texted coach Cody Snouffer.
“I asked him what am I doing wrong, and he came back with the question of ‘How can the front five do better?’” Platt said. “That was the turning point. We needed to work together as the front five and not individuals. You can create so many more chances to score that way.”
Snouffer acknowledged that when he and assistant coach and alumnus Drew Sezonov put the season schedule together they knew it would be especially difficult early, and that it would help them gauge what their team was made of.
“We said if we are .500 at the end of two weeks we’ll know we’re onto something,” Snouffer said. “And (then) we were 0-2-1 with two games to play to be .500 and maybe save our jobs.
“I told them in the spring that I don’t want to face anything for the first time in the playoffs. I don’t want us to go down a goal for the first time in the playoffs, to have our first shootout in the playoffs. I wanted to arrive at the playoffs with a lot of experience that you can draw on.
“We put together the best schedule hoping that would happen. The only thing we didn’t experience prior to state was a red card.”
The Warriors turned things around and did improve to .500 after their first five games with tournament-ending shootout wins over Plainfield Central and Downers Grove North. The victories started a five-game win streak.
They never really slowed down after that and overcame most of the obstacles that were thrown their way. Wheaton Academy went on to win 17 of its last 19 games including 12 straight to end the season with the state title.
“We were pleased with those two results,” Platt said. “They prepared us for the playoffs where you’ve got to get that one goal to get the game.
“Coach Snouffer said winning two games on PKs is going to be big in the tournament.”
Fortunately for the Warriors, they never had to turn to PKs to advance in the playoffs, but memories of a loss to Timothy on PKs during the conference season on Sept. 16 remained fresh on their minds when they battled the Trojans in a state semifinal Oct. 29.
“I felt like we played down and didn’t get the job done (in the loss),” Platt said. “I missed a PK that I should’ve scored. (We should have) beat them 3-2 and won conference (instead of a loss after a seven-round shootout).
Platt, a senior who helped the team earn a state title in his first postseason, led the Warriors with 20 goals and added 10 assists while earning all-sectional accolades from the Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association.
Acknowledging that he had watched the 2014 state-title run as a youngster and wanted to play for former coach Jeff Brooke and become the next Ty Seager (the Warriors star who went on to play at Northwestern), Platt could not have written a better ending for his high school soccer career.
“The program is unbelievable, and I’m going to miss it,” he said. “These four years have been great and then having a fairytale ending. These last two years have been my best years of soccer. In my only true varsity season to never lose in the playoffs and to score 20 goals and have 10 assists. It’s the perfect ending.”
The Warriors opened up play in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division with an 8-1 win in Elgin against host St. Edward. Jakob Karlson and Gio Nicoski-Rios both scored twice, Platt and Joshua Mariotti each scored and had assists. Haetham Nasr and Luke Poland added goals; Poland and Karlson notched their first varsity markers. Xander Anaya, Evan Eckert, Jude Barton, Viwe Baleni, Lucas Landstrom and Scotty Murray had assists as 12 Warriors entered the box score.
It was a sign of things to come this fall for the Warriors whose only league hiccup, the loss to Timothy, prevented them from earning a sixth-straight Metro Suburban Conference divisional title. They were otherwise dominant and outscored their league foes 31-6.
While Platt led the Warriors goal scorers, Nasr led the squad with 13 assists while adding 12 goals. Nicoski-Rios was second on the team with 14 goals. Eckert (7 goals, 4 assists), Joshua Mariotti (9 goals, 4 assists), Caleb Mariotti (4 goals, 6 assists) and Scotty Murray (5 goals, 5 assists) were all part of a potent and deep attack that deposited 87 goals in the back of the net for a 3.6 goals per game average for the 24-game season. They allowed 30 goals, but just nine against Class A competition. They shut out nine opponents including three Class 3A and two Class AA teams.
The Warriors offense pressured opponents with a selfless multi-headed attack that saw them score two or more goals in 16 of their last 19 games. The only time the offense was shutout in that span was against defending Class 3A state champion West Chicago in a 3-0 loss on Sept. 25.
“The guys did a good job of buying in and believing, and they had to do it collectively,” Snouffer said. “You get to the end of the season and if your front line has scored in the 40s and your midfield has scored in the high 20s and your backline is in double digits, that’s a well-rounded team attack. That takes a team scoring-mentality so credit to the guys for doing it.”
The Warriors rebounded from the West Chicago loss with a 5-1 win over St. Francis on Sept. 28 before they headed to the Great River Classic in Burlington, Ia., where they again found themselves in tough competition. Wheaton Academy posted wins over Althoff and Evanston in PKs and then beat Middleton (Wis.) 5-2 for the Heartland Lodge bracket title.
The victory over Evanston, a school with more than 3,500 students, was impressive. The Wildkits were ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 entering the game against unranked Wheaton Academy. Evanston (16-3-4) went on to a 4-0-1 streak after the game and won a Class 3A regional title before falling in the New Trier Sectional championship to a strong Oak Park and River Forest.
“The Iowa tournament was a great catalyst moment for us, and I think that’s when the guys started to believe in themselves,” Snouffer said. “We had some really tough opponents and had underperformed against tougher opponents so far. Losing to West Chicago and beating St. Francis at home, then we didn’t lose again. That included a PK win (against Althoff on Oct. 1) which was good. I didn’t want to see a shootout in the state tournament so to get a couple in Iowa where there were stakes to be played for was big. And anytime you beat a big 3A school that’s a lot of fun and a big boost.”
In the opening Iowa victory, Platt gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead. But after Althoff scored twice to take the lead, the Warriors needed to dig deep late. They got a rebound goal from Nasr with five minutes left in regulation to force overtime. In the shootout, Finnegan stopped a pair of PKs, and Josiah Pitts buried the game-winner on his attempt to give the Warriors the victory.
Against Evanston, Jude Barton scored on a header to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead but Evanston rallied with the equalizer in the second half. Once again Finnegan came up huge during the PK session, making a save and putting his team in position for Nicoski-Rios to convert the game-winner.
The postseason was foreign to most of Wheaton Academy’s roster. A collective unfamiliarity was felt throughout the state, especially after the lack of a state series in the prior school year.
In addition, the Warriors persevered through a couple of major injuries to its defense during the season. Anaya was sidelined with a broken hip, and Kaiden Massie worked through the concussion protocol for three-to-four weeks.
“You never want to lose any players, let alone seniors and defenders, so those were two huge setbacks,” Snouffer said. “We had two players lose grandparents, and that’s a hard thing to go through. (Our) young men (had) to support each other through that. We had some eligibility issues to iron out, some sickness, sniffles, those kind of things.”
When Anaya went down on Senior Night and an ambulance arrived to tend to him, it hit home that his injury was serious. Rather than sulk, the Warriors rallied behind him, and someone else was called into duty.
“We have that confidence of next man up,” Finnegan said. “It did sting for a while when we lost that in our backline. Don’t get me wrong, we have the best backline in the state, but when a crucial part goes missing it’s going to be a big hit.”
That’s why it’s so important for personnel to be ready to go when their number is called. Even if Finnegan, who was dynamite and dependable, went down the Warriors felt they were in good hands with junior Brandon Hoekstra. Snouffer kept Hoekstra busy with opportunities to play. Sezonov oversaw the development of both players.
“(Declan) has always had a strong desire to get better, and he’s got all the stuff you can’t teach,” Sezonov said. “He’s big; he’s tall: he’s athletic; he’s the man. And we have a great backup. Brandon is great, so we like to say we have the best goalies in the conference.
“Declan was sick or hurt a couple games, and Brandon stepped in. He had a couple great games: against Batavia (a 4-1 win Sept. 11); and he shut out Elmwood Park (7-0 Sept. 14). It’s always good to see guys getting rewarded for sticking with it.”
The Warriors started the playoffs hitting on all cylinders. They blitzed past Aurora Central 8-0 and St. Edward 6-1, to win their first regional since 2017. Nasr and Platt each scored four goals in the regional.
“I think just coming into both of those games we knew the type of team we were, and we knew we had the skill, the talent and the right guys around us,” Nasr said. “Talking to everyone on the team, we knew what we wanted to do. We knew that everyone else was going to want it.
“Seniors on other schools – it’s their last year as well. We wanted to make a statement in the first two games, and it was the mentality aspect of it. Anyone can come in and do big things, but not a lot of teams can do the little things together. We did that and let each other have the big moments. We made a statement, executed and set the tone.”
Wheaton Academy continued its dominant run with a four-goal explosion from Platt in a 7-0 victory over Marengo in a Hinckley-Big Rock Sectional semifinal.
The Warriors moved on to face Genoa-Kingston (21-2-0) in the final. The Cogs came into the game averaging 6.8 goals per game and featured the two-headed scoring machine of junior Jorge Leon and senior Eagan Reams (93 goals, 42 assists combined).
Wheaton Academy kept rolling behind Nasr’s hat-trick and the team’s third postseason shutout in a 6-0 victory.
That set the stage for the supersectional. The Warriors enjoyed the home-field advantage and beat a stubborn and dangerous Cristo Rey St. Martin team 1-0 on Oct. 26.
“They were fantastic,” Snouffer said. “It was back and forth, and there were lots of good chances for both teams. That was a very fun game, and we were fortunate to play at home and fortunate to come out and play really well. They were not a team we could’ve beaten if we didn’t play very well.”
Nasr provided the difference in the epic battle. He scored in the 50th minute when he redirected a pass from Eckert.
With Cristo Rey St. Martin possessing, Nasr was able to sneakily poke the ball free to Joshua Mariotti. The two worked a give-and-go before Mariotti took a couple touches and fed the ball into the penalty area to Nicoski-Rios. The ensuing blast caromed off the cross bar. After several defenders were unable to clear the ball, one headed it into Eckert’s path. He seized the opportunity and fired a shot that Nasr slightly redirected despite being flanked by Cristo Rey St. Martin freshman defender Jairo Bonilla.
“The way that goal came together was just a great feeling,” Nasr said. “That goal described how that game was because of those little things: a weird play; a ball hitting the crossbar; a failed clear; and just reacting. I just stuck a leg on it to redirect it, make the goalie confused. I was so happy to do that for the team.”
For the first time in the postseason the Warriors were seriously threatened, and they responded favorably. Their outlook remained as positive as ever.
“When I got the goal it was an incredible feeling, but the thing is that it was incredible throughout the season,” Nasr said. “I felt closer to the guys off the field than on it, and I don’t think a lot of schools, A, AA or 3A, public or private, have that.
“I can call those guys my brothers. I think the no. 1 reason we won was our culture. If you can’t have culture, you can’t have a good team.”
With Nasr’s goal and the work of Finnegan and his backline, Wheaton Academy punched its ticket to the state finals in East Peoria.
The Warriors used their Iowa tournament success as a blueprint for the state tournament.
“We talked a lot about motivation during the last three weeks of the season and how we’ve got to be motivated for every game,” Snouffer said. “The guys latched up for the love of the game, for the love the team, for the guy next to you. Heading into the state series it was just one game at a time until we won seven. Once we got to Timothy, sure this was game six, but no matter who it is you want to win that and win number seven.”
The Warriors had not forgotten about their previous loss to the Trojans, and the semifinal was nothing like it. After holding a 1-0 lead at the half, Wheaton Academy roared to a decisive 6-1 victory. Platt delivered a hat-trick and Karlson, Caleb Mariotti and Nicoski-Rios added to the scoring line on a rainy night in East Peoria.
Twins Caleb and Joshua Mariotti didn’t attribute all of the team’s success to the hard work it put in prior to stepping on the field this fall or even in the spring but recognized that their preparedness could ultimately lead to great heights.
“We were always working hard in the offseason doing our training, and we would keep training and get together and train outside of practice so that way the chemistry went way up,” Joshua Mariotti said. “Some of us also play some club together in the offseason, so I would say our team was super encouraged that we were all going to keep getting better.”
Like their foes, the Warriors were in uncharted waters after the first interruption in the history of the state tournament. With many playing their first postseason and the single-elimination format, tension was high. If you lose, you’re done.
“We had to prepare ourselves mentally to be ready to play teams just as good if not better than us. I think preparing ourselves in that way helped set the stage for winning the state title,” Caleb Mariotti said. “The teams coming into the supersectionals and finals are really good, so we had to be ready.”
The Warriors exemplified the team’s theme.
“The cool thing about the program is our one motto, ‘ST – Stronger Together,’” Platt said. “We are better as a unit. We will not be selfish, the people up-top, whoever scores scores, as long we win no one really cares.”
Platt bought into hard work and commitment to turn into the standout player he became. He didn’t earn a spot on the varsity roster as a freshman and sophomore.
“I started training at 5 a.m. during the week and gained 25 pounds,” he said. “I embraced the mentality that a lot of my teammates who train every day have. And we had a great foundation here from the past guys. The 2014 team left such a foundation to build the program.”
History shows Wheaton Academy has had a strong base for a long time. The Warriors’ last losing season was 1993. Seven of the school’s nine state-qualifiers have come since the 2004 season, and six have returned with hardware.
After consecutive fourth place finishes in AA in 2012 and 2013, the program won its first state title. The Warriors added a third place finish in AA in 2017 as part of a seven-year run that saw the Warriors earn 20 or more victories in five seasons. The program finished third in Class A in 2005.
“I’ve lived in West Chicago for almost 10 years now,” Snouffer said. “I had heard a lot about Wheaton Academy and was coaching all 10 of those years. I (was) at a lot of those Wheaton Academy games, because I was close, and I would see the lights on. I’d come to see some good soccer.
“I watched them win a state championship in 2014, and I built a relationship with (former longtime coach) Jeff Brooke who I looked up to as a mentor. It’s a great school, a great campus to be on, and they love the game. It’s been a great place to make a soccer home.”
Sezonov was the starting goalkeeper on the 2014 championship team. He also played on the state qualifying teams the two years prior to that, losing heartbreaking games in PKs against St. Ignatius in 2013 in Hoffman Estates and against Notre Dame (Peoria) in 2012 during the last state finals to be played at the former Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort.
“During my time, and even before that, there were a lot of successful teams here throughout the years that just couldn’t get it done. But the playoffs are hard and it’s hard to get to the Final Four,” Sezonov said. “And it’s even harder to win when you get there.
“There’s been a foundation for excellence here for a while, and I think that started with Jeff (Brooke) and the others. I played for Jeff and am now working with Cody. Jeff made such an impact on my life as a young man trying to figure out life and stuff, and I can’t say enough things about Cody.
“No one wants to be the guy who follows a legend. I can’t say enough about the leadership up-top here with the coaches and especially with Cody being on the outside and not working at the school. He’s been phenomenal.”
Highlights and memories of the season are plentiful, but a standout is the twin junior Mariotti brothers scoring in the state title game.
“I would say it’s truly something special that we were able to win a state title, and Caleb and I both scored,” Joshua said. “We’ve got to regional finals with club but going into a state final game was a different feeling. It was really awesome. For both of us to score, it’s definitely a memory I’ll never forget.”
“It’s been such a great feeling with the entire school behind us,” Caleb said. “For club, as much fun as that is, there aren’t many people to back you up. Playing for a school is full of good memories, and I’m so happy we won, and we scored. What a memory – scoring in a state final. It’s something I’m never going to forget.”
While the Class of 2022 need never stop basking in the glow of the state title, the bar has been set at its highest for those who will return. What can Wheaton Academy do for an encore?
The team loses top scorers Platt and Nicoski-Rios to graduation in their group of eight seniors.
The Warriors should be tough again next season with Finnegan, Eckert, Pitts and the Mariotti twins heading a platoon of more than a dozen players who could return.
Regardless of the future, everyone will enjoy this grand memory which their coach kind of predicted.
“When I became the varsity coach three years ago, our athletic director said ‘How do you feel about the team?’” Snouffer said. “At that time we had some really talented seniors. I said we’ll have a good year and a couple seniors will go on and play (college), and they are, but in three years we’ll win state or we’ll have the chance to win state.”
After evaluating the talent of the freshmen and sophomores at that time, Snouffer was aware that he had the ingredients to create something truly amazing.
“Looking at those classes, they were just very talented and very talented in a lot of key positions,” he said. “From freshmen who I thought would be great center mids to a goalkeeper who I thought would be one of the best in program history to sophomores who would be great outside attacking players or center backs. So as a coach I see all the ingredients, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. But having the ingredients is really fun and maybe we can pull this off.
“It was a good season, so that was a huge success. To win it all is just the icing on the cake,” he continued. “It’s not something we needed in the end to know how special this group was and how productive the season has been, but icing on cake is the best analogy for it. We capped it all off in a really sweet way.”