Balancing act powers
Plainfield North past St. Francis
Tigers close own tournament with 4-0 win
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Denied early by an offsides call and an incredible goal-line defensive play by St. Francis senior Sam Audy, Plainfield North dug deep to close its inaugural tournament on a major upswing.
With scoring from seven players (including four different goal scorers), the Tigers (7-5-1) used a trio of second half goals to roll to a 4-0 win over the Spartans (2-5-3).
“We’ve been good all year,” Tigers coach Steve Berry said. “We’ve run into some trouble when we’re not great in either box, but today we were pretty good in the box.
“We scored four goals by four different guys, our goalkeeping and backline were much better, and we were able to keep the ball most of the game.”
Plainfield North appeared to go up 1-0 three minutes into the match, but Shea Bechtel’s would-be goal off a Nathan Green pass into the box was denied by an offsides call.
St. Francis’ defense would also do its part to frustrate the Tigers. Goalkeeper Adam Thill made a great lunging save at the right post of a Bechtel 15-yard drive in the fifth minute, and Thill again came up big in the 13th minute with a right post block of John Seeley’s 6-yard header (off a Bechtel corner kick).
Just 90 seconds later, Bechtel would cap his great early offensive surge with what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Intercepting a pass inside midfield, Bechtel sped past the defense for a breakaway chance and a 10-yard rocket into the net for a 1-0 lead with 26:27 left in the half.
“They passed it back to the defender, and I just took his touch and then it was like a breakaway,” Bechtel said.
St. Francis would answer the early blitz with its own chance (a Sean Conley low 22-yard shot saved by goalkeeper Alex Noser).
But it was the Spartans’ defense that would provide the most memorable play of the first half.
In the 31st minute, Bechtel took a Yousef Ismail pass, broke in and chipped a shot over charging goalkeeper Thill and towards the open net. But despite being on his back and seemingly out of the play on a sliding attempt at denying the goal, Audy somehow got a foot on the ball from his prone position and tipped the ball over the crossbar to maintain the 1-0 difference.
“I was kind of freaking out at that moment,” Audy said. “I fell down, and I just threw anything I could up, and I got a touch on it. Thank God for that.”
Audy didn’t stop there in an impressive highlight film-like span of play.
On the ensuing corner kick, Audy blocked the send out of bounds again at the near post. Then on another corner kick, Audy denied Braden Fink’s chance in the box and cleared the ball upfield.
But while Audy’s heroics kept the game close at 1-0, Plainfield North had few complaints about its level of play.
“The big thing tonight was, we were successful playing a wide area,” Tigers midfielder Patrick Elster said. “They let us have the ball a lot, and we were able to move the ball fast and let the ball do the work. It was good to move the ball forward and keep the ball in possession. We possessed well, we finished well – it was a good game for us.”
Two dangerous long throw-ins late in the first half by Nick Franchi (one ending in a blocked shot by St. Francis’ Michael Fasana) foreshadowed a Tigers’ insurance goal with 31:39 to play.
A Franchi throw-in sailed to the back post to a racing Dilan Anweiler, whose putaway put the Tigers up 2-0.
“We took some chances on goal,” Berry said. “The first one (of the half) came on a throw-in, and we hadn’t scored on a throw-in all year. We have a guy (Franchi) who comes of the bench and has a really long throw. We cycled the ball, and the movement up front was good.”
St. Francis answered its two-goal deficit with an added offensive push over the next 11 minutes. Quality chances included a Noser save of a long Alex Guiborat free kick, a Trey Gora shot deflected wide that set up a corner kick, and a 21-yard free kick by Nicholas Gulli with 20:25 left that Noser nicely stopped with a short-hop save.
In the wake of that chance, Plainfield North again unleashed its high-powered offense – and went up 3-0 with 18:45 to play.
Elster’s pass from midfield hit Ismail breaking upfield. Launching a 28-yard shot, Ismail had perfect aim and velocity into the lower right corner of the net.
A standout for the Tigers since arriving on campus, Elster’s assist complimented his usual stellar play at midfielder.
“It’s my fourth year on varsity, and it’s been crazy,” Elster said. “It feels like it was my freshman year yesterday. It’s my second year as captain, and we’ve really been building a lot.
“My freshman and sophomore year we had a little more talent on the team, but we’re starting to put the pieces together and build towards something super cool in the future. I’m super excited for where this program is going.”
One rough development for the Tigers this season was the loss of senior co-captain Brian Bertoni to a torn meniscus. But with a core of other multi-year varsity players like Elster, the squad has begun to regroup.
“The chemistry is everything, especially in high school where you only see each other a portion of the year (as teammates),” Elster said.
“We get together a little in the summer, out here 7 to 10 in the morning, but playing together for a long time is big. Especially letting the new guys feel comfortable and letting them assert themselves in the game. It’s really big how we practice, making sure everyone is assimilated into the same system.”
More depth was on display with 15 minutes left, when Nick Eheart took over at goalkeeper for Noser. He would be tested with 13:25 to go, leaping to deflect a high 28-yard drive by St. Francis’ Luke Herard just over the crossbar.
Ensuing nice defensive plays by Ryan Kuffel (interception off a Spartans corner kick and send upfield) and Kanon Woodill (stepping in to deny a Conley chance in the box) diffused St. Francis threats in the next two minutes.
Then with just under nine minutes left, a Nico Lajewski 23-yarder deflected wide and Adrien Graffin’s shot wide off the ensuing corner kick marked the Spartans’ final decent chances to break through.
“We need to just control the ball,” Audy said. “Make more controlled passes, less turnovers and hopefully that’ll work out better for us.”
As a capper to its strong match, Plainfield North struck again with just 22 seconds left. Seeley’s pass from midfield sprung senior Adan Juarez on a rush, with Juarez burying a 15-yard liner to cap the 4-0 win.
Even before that final strike, St. Francis coach Kevin Ward had been less than enthused by the match.
“Too many mistakes tonight,” Ward said. “It wasn’t our night, and too many mistakes. This was the worst game we’ve played all year.”
Audy and his teammates plan to learn from the night.
“We just should have wanted it more this game,” Audy said. “Next time we definitely will.”
Catching a Plainfield North team on the upswing didn’t help the Spartans’ chances on Thursday.
“We were getting forward and getting into space, and going at defenders,” Bechtel said. “We’re in a good spot. We played good soccer tonight and hopefully that carries into the next couple games.
“I think we just kept playing with the same mentality, to try to get some goals to give us a good cushion to win the game and give us some confidence.”
Elster hopes Thursday’s win begins a repeat of 2017.
“I feel good going forward,” Elster said. “It’s the same thing as last year – we started to peak towards the end of the season. I like that, especially going into conference the next couple of weeks. Almost the rest of our games are in conference – we’ve only played one so far. We’re excited.”
A strong night for all the Tigers produced some emerging standouts.
“We were happy with guys coming off the bench today,” Berry said. “Lloyd Quezada came in and did well, Braden Fink, Sam Martinez – guys that don’t get a lot of time but now are starting to push our older guys. Three of those sophomores were good off the bench.”
Elster enjoyed being part of the Plainfield North tournament debut season.
“Steve Berry and Mr. (Ron) Lear, our athletic director here, are awesome for doing this,” Elster said. “We pulled out of Pepsi to try something new, and having a couple more home games my senior year is awesome. Some quality teams came out here and played. It’s been fun.”
Said Berry: “We’re excited to get through this part of the season. Obviously our own tournament we wish we could get to the final, but Lake Park is deserving of representing our side (of the bracket) in the finals.”
And with a second place finish in their bracket secure, the Tigers are setting their sights on the next big challenges.
“We have eight conference games left, and we’ll get ourselves physically and mentally rested for that and make our push for that,” Berry said. “Last year we were kind of peaking towards the end of the year, and that’s our goal.”
Starting lineups
St. Francis
GK: Adam Thill
D: Trey Gora
D: Nathan Corrigan
D: Sam Audy
D: Brendan Yarusso
M: Jack Hartle
M: Nick Gulli
M: Michael Fasana
M: Sam Premak
M: Sean Conley
F: Adrien Graffin
Plainfield North
GK: Alex Noser
D: Colin Russell
D: Ryan Kuffel
D: Kanon Woodill
D: James Vu
M: John Seeley
M: Yousef Ismail
M: Nathan Green
M: Patrick Elster
F: Shea Bechtel
F: Dilan Anweiler
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Patrick Elster, sr. M, Plainfield North
Scoring summary
First half
PN – Shea Bechtel, 14th minute
PN – Dilan Anweiler (Nick Franchi assist), 49th minute
Second half
PN – Yousef Ismail (Patrick Elster), 62nd minute
PN – Adan Juarez (John Seeley), 80th minute
Plainfield North past St. Francis
Tigers close own tournament with 4-0 win
By Dave Owen
PLAINFIELD – Denied early by an offsides call and an incredible goal-line defensive play by St. Francis senior Sam Audy, Plainfield North dug deep to close its inaugural tournament on a major upswing.
With scoring from seven players (including four different goal scorers), the Tigers (7-5-1) used a trio of second half goals to roll to a 4-0 win over the Spartans (2-5-3).
“We’ve been good all year,” Tigers coach Steve Berry said. “We’ve run into some trouble when we’re not great in either box, but today we were pretty good in the box.
“We scored four goals by four different guys, our goalkeeping and backline were much better, and we were able to keep the ball most of the game.”
Plainfield North appeared to go up 1-0 three minutes into the match, but Shea Bechtel’s would-be goal off a Nathan Green pass into the box was denied by an offsides call.
St. Francis’ defense would also do its part to frustrate the Tigers. Goalkeeper Adam Thill made a great lunging save at the right post of a Bechtel 15-yard drive in the fifth minute, and Thill again came up big in the 13th minute with a right post block of John Seeley’s 6-yard header (off a Bechtel corner kick).
Just 90 seconds later, Bechtel would cap his great early offensive surge with what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Intercepting a pass inside midfield, Bechtel sped past the defense for a breakaway chance and a 10-yard rocket into the net for a 1-0 lead with 26:27 left in the half.
“They passed it back to the defender, and I just took his touch and then it was like a breakaway,” Bechtel said.
St. Francis would answer the early blitz with its own chance (a Sean Conley low 22-yard shot saved by goalkeeper Alex Noser).
But it was the Spartans’ defense that would provide the most memorable play of the first half.
In the 31st minute, Bechtel took a Yousef Ismail pass, broke in and chipped a shot over charging goalkeeper Thill and towards the open net. But despite being on his back and seemingly out of the play on a sliding attempt at denying the goal, Audy somehow got a foot on the ball from his prone position and tipped the ball over the crossbar to maintain the 1-0 difference.
“I was kind of freaking out at that moment,” Audy said. “I fell down, and I just threw anything I could up, and I got a touch on it. Thank God for that.”
Audy didn’t stop there in an impressive highlight film-like span of play.
On the ensuing corner kick, Audy blocked the send out of bounds again at the near post. Then on another corner kick, Audy denied Braden Fink’s chance in the box and cleared the ball upfield.
But while Audy’s heroics kept the game close at 1-0, Plainfield North had few complaints about its level of play.
“The big thing tonight was, we were successful playing a wide area,” Tigers midfielder Patrick Elster said. “They let us have the ball a lot, and we were able to move the ball fast and let the ball do the work. It was good to move the ball forward and keep the ball in possession. We possessed well, we finished well – it was a good game for us.”
Two dangerous long throw-ins late in the first half by Nick Franchi (one ending in a blocked shot by St. Francis’ Michael Fasana) foreshadowed a Tigers’ insurance goal with 31:39 to play.
A Franchi throw-in sailed to the back post to a racing Dilan Anweiler, whose putaway put the Tigers up 2-0.
“We took some chances on goal,” Berry said. “The first one (of the half) came on a throw-in, and we hadn’t scored on a throw-in all year. We have a guy (Franchi) who comes of the bench and has a really long throw. We cycled the ball, and the movement up front was good.”
St. Francis answered its two-goal deficit with an added offensive push over the next 11 minutes. Quality chances included a Noser save of a long Alex Guiborat free kick, a Trey Gora shot deflected wide that set up a corner kick, and a 21-yard free kick by Nicholas Gulli with 20:25 left that Noser nicely stopped with a short-hop save.
In the wake of that chance, Plainfield North again unleashed its high-powered offense – and went up 3-0 with 18:45 to play.
Elster’s pass from midfield hit Ismail breaking upfield. Launching a 28-yard shot, Ismail had perfect aim and velocity into the lower right corner of the net.
A standout for the Tigers since arriving on campus, Elster’s assist complimented his usual stellar play at midfielder.
“It’s my fourth year on varsity, and it’s been crazy,” Elster said. “It feels like it was my freshman year yesterday. It’s my second year as captain, and we’ve really been building a lot.
“My freshman and sophomore year we had a little more talent on the team, but we’re starting to put the pieces together and build towards something super cool in the future. I’m super excited for where this program is going.”
One rough development for the Tigers this season was the loss of senior co-captain Brian Bertoni to a torn meniscus. But with a core of other multi-year varsity players like Elster, the squad has begun to regroup.
“The chemistry is everything, especially in high school where you only see each other a portion of the year (as teammates),” Elster said.
“We get together a little in the summer, out here 7 to 10 in the morning, but playing together for a long time is big. Especially letting the new guys feel comfortable and letting them assert themselves in the game. It’s really big how we practice, making sure everyone is assimilated into the same system.”
More depth was on display with 15 minutes left, when Nick Eheart took over at goalkeeper for Noser. He would be tested with 13:25 to go, leaping to deflect a high 28-yard drive by St. Francis’ Luke Herard just over the crossbar.
Ensuing nice defensive plays by Ryan Kuffel (interception off a Spartans corner kick and send upfield) and Kanon Woodill (stepping in to deny a Conley chance in the box) diffused St. Francis threats in the next two minutes.
Then with just under nine minutes left, a Nico Lajewski 23-yarder deflected wide and Adrien Graffin’s shot wide off the ensuing corner kick marked the Spartans’ final decent chances to break through.
“We need to just control the ball,” Audy said. “Make more controlled passes, less turnovers and hopefully that’ll work out better for us.”
As a capper to its strong match, Plainfield North struck again with just 22 seconds left. Seeley’s pass from midfield sprung senior Adan Juarez on a rush, with Juarez burying a 15-yard liner to cap the 4-0 win.
Even before that final strike, St. Francis coach Kevin Ward had been less than enthused by the match.
“Too many mistakes tonight,” Ward said. “It wasn’t our night, and too many mistakes. This was the worst game we’ve played all year.”
Audy and his teammates plan to learn from the night.
“We just should have wanted it more this game,” Audy said. “Next time we definitely will.”
Catching a Plainfield North team on the upswing didn’t help the Spartans’ chances on Thursday.
“We were getting forward and getting into space, and going at defenders,” Bechtel said. “We’re in a good spot. We played good soccer tonight and hopefully that carries into the next couple games.
“I think we just kept playing with the same mentality, to try to get some goals to give us a good cushion to win the game and give us some confidence.”
Elster hopes Thursday’s win begins a repeat of 2017.
“I feel good going forward,” Elster said. “It’s the same thing as last year – we started to peak towards the end of the season. I like that, especially going into conference the next couple of weeks. Almost the rest of our games are in conference – we’ve only played one so far. We’re excited.”
A strong night for all the Tigers produced some emerging standouts.
“We were happy with guys coming off the bench today,” Berry said. “Lloyd Quezada came in and did well, Braden Fink, Sam Martinez – guys that don’t get a lot of time but now are starting to push our older guys. Three of those sophomores were good off the bench.”
Elster enjoyed being part of the Plainfield North tournament debut season.
“Steve Berry and Mr. (Ron) Lear, our athletic director here, are awesome for doing this,” Elster said. “We pulled out of Pepsi to try something new, and having a couple more home games my senior year is awesome. Some quality teams came out here and played. It’s been fun.”
Said Berry: “We’re excited to get through this part of the season. Obviously our own tournament we wish we could get to the final, but Lake Park is deserving of representing our side (of the bracket) in the finals.”
And with a second place finish in their bracket secure, the Tigers are setting their sights on the next big challenges.
“We have eight conference games left, and we’ll get ourselves physically and mentally rested for that and make our push for that,” Berry said. “Last year we were kind of peaking towards the end of the year, and that’s our goal.”
Starting lineups
St. Francis
GK: Adam Thill
D: Trey Gora
D: Nathan Corrigan
D: Sam Audy
D: Brendan Yarusso
M: Jack Hartle
M: Nick Gulli
M: Michael Fasana
M: Sam Premak
M: Sean Conley
F: Adrien Graffin
Plainfield North
GK: Alex Noser
D: Colin Russell
D: Ryan Kuffel
D: Kanon Woodill
D: James Vu
M: John Seeley
M: Yousef Ismail
M: Nathan Green
M: Patrick Elster
F: Shea Bechtel
F: Dilan Anweiler
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Patrick Elster, sr. M, Plainfield North
Scoring summary
First half
PN – Shea Bechtel, 14th minute
PN – Dilan Anweiler (Nick Franchi assist), 49th minute
Second half
PN – Yousef Ismail (Patrick Elster), 62nd minute
PN – Adan Juarez (John Seeley), 80th minute