St. Rita's fast start dooms Bishop Mac
Mustangs storm out of the gate to down Fighting Irish 6-0
By Steve Millar
CHICAGO – During its recent hot streak, St. Rita has still been plagued by slow starts.
It took the Mustangs 30 minutes to break through in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Guerin.
That was a major talking point for co-head coaches Bob Kellam and Tim McCarthy heading into Monday’s tilt with Bishop McNamara.
“We’ve had some issues getting started, so we were really on them before the game,” Kellam said. “We were telling them they needed to get on top and take control, and they did it.”
The Mustangs wasted no time putting Monday’s game out of reach. They scored four times in the first 21 minutes, rolling to a 6-0 win.
St. Rita (4-7-2, 2-1-0) is 3-1-1 in its last five games.
“We knew we need to start strong and score goals as quick as possible,” senior forward William Beebe said. “Our coaches made sure we were ready to come out fast.”
Beebe, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, led the charge in a big way, recording his first career hat-trick before the game was 12 minutes old.
The talented forward, who’s back with St. Rita after spending the last two years with the Magic Academy, is up to 12 goals on the season.
All three of his scores Monday came off assists from fellow forward Juan Carlos Sanchez.
“It was all (Sanchez),” Beebe said. “He made some great plays and set me up, and I just ended up scoring.”
Beebe and Sanchez worked a nice give-and-go in the fourth minute, with Beebe finishing on a shot that went off the inside of the left post and in.
After making it 2-0 three minutes later, Beebe completed the hat trick in nifty fashion in the 12th minute as he went around a defender with a chip before finding the net.
“(Sanchez) flicked the ball to me, and it would’ve been a hard angle to take a shot, so I just flicked it the opposite direction of where the defender was going,” he said. “Then I waited for the goalkeeper to make a move. I kicked it right as he was going left.”
With the three-goal cushion, Beebe and the Mustangs had no intention to let the Irish (4-7-0) back in the game.
“We wanted to get the lead, then defend and not let them back into the game,” Beebe said. “Against DePaul Prep, we scored two goals, then let them back into the game and ended up losing (4-3 on Sept. 14), so we didn’t want that to happen again.”
The Mustangs’ backline of Kenya Sumpter, Jr., Jaime Banuelos and Tyler Padilla made sure Bishop McNamara wouldn’t.
The Fighting Irish had just two shots on goal and neither were a major test for goalkeeper Hector Aguilera, who recorded his second shutout.
“We just stuck to our man, and made sure we were always guarding them at all times,” Padilla said “We forced them to make bad passes.
“I feel like as a team, we’re making progress each game, and we’ll be able to dominate even more a few games from now.”
Sophomore midfielder Langston Bedgood scored his first two goals of the season to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 5-0 by halftime.
Bedgood scored off a Ryan Dangles pass in the 21st minute, then finished to reward the Mustangs for a flurry of pressure in the 31st.
His second goal was set up by a corner kick that was initially broken up by the Irish. Danny Dargan tracked the ball down and sent it back into the box, where it was flicked by Logan Corum toward the far post.
Brendan Breslin was there, but had his header denied on a nice save by Irish goalkeeper John Ojeda. Bedgood, though, was there to put in the rebound.
Bedgood has been heavily involved in the Mustangs’ attack all season and was happy to finally get into the scoring column.
“It feels great to get a couple goals,” he said. “Last year, I had two goals in one game too and those were my only ones. So now I’m hoping to top that this year.
“I just want to be somebody that my teammates can depend on, so they know if they get me the ball, I won’t lose it. They won’t hesitate to make the pass to me. I want them to have that confidence in me.”
Confidence is starting to spread throughout the Mustangs, who have erased some of the memories of an 0-5-1 start.
“Early-on, we were playing some good teams, and these guys just needed belief in themselves,” Kellam said. “We’ve got a young group, and it took them awhile to get used to playing against some of these teams. All this game experience helps as we keep going forward.”
Padilla added his first career varsity goal in the second half after heading in Dangles’ corner kick.
“That felt wonderful,” Padilla said. “It was an awesome cross from Dangles, and without that I wouldn’t have made it.”
The Mustangs are off until a nonconference game Saturday against Oak Lawn, then a tough stretch of Chicago Catholic League games follows.
They’ll go into those contests with a new sense of belief.
“As we get wins, we learn more about each other because we’re young,” Bedgood said. “Every time we come out here, we get better. We have new things to work on each game and as long as we do what we can do, we know we’ll get a good result.”
Starting lineups
Bishop McNamara
GK: John Ojeda
D: Ricardo Valtierra
D: Preston Lade
D: Edwin Hernandez
D: Aldo Hernandez
M: Pedro Hernandez
M: Hector Alvarez
M: Andrew Kyrouac
M: Javier Martinez
F: Ryan Hardesty
F: Ben Kuntz
St. Rita
GK: Hector Aguilera
D: Kenya Sumpter, Jr.
D: Jaime Banuelos
D: Tyler Padilla
M: Alec Torres
M: Julio Walton
M: Chuy Flores
M: Langston Bedgood
M: Ryan Dangles
F: William Beebe
F: Juan Carlos Sanchez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: William Beebe, F, St. Rita
Scoring summary
St. Rita: Beebe (Sanchez) 4’, Beebe (Sanchez) 7’, Beebe (Sanchez) 12’, Bedgood (Dangles) 21’, Bedgood (Breslin) 31’, Padilla (Dangles) 59’
Mustangs storm out of the gate to down Fighting Irish 6-0
By Steve Millar
CHICAGO – During its recent hot streak, St. Rita has still been plagued by slow starts.
It took the Mustangs 30 minutes to break through in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Guerin.
That was a major talking point for co-head coaches Bob Kellam and Tim McCarthy heading into Monday’s tilt with Bishop McNamara.
“We’ve had some issues getting started, so we were really on them before the game,” Kellam said. “We were telling them they needed to get on top and take control, and they did it.”
The Mustangs wasted no time putting Monday’s game out of reach. They scored four times in the first 21 minutes, rolling to a 6-0 win.
St. Rita (4-7-2, 2-1-0) is 3-1-1 in its last five games.
“We knew we need to start strong and score goals as quick as possible,” senior forward William Beebe said. “Our coaches made sure we were ready to come out fast.”
Beebe, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, led the charge in a big way, recording his first career hat-trick before the game was 12 minutes old.
The talented forward, who’s back with St. Rita after spending the last two years with the Magic Academy, is up to 12 goals on the season.
All three of his scores Monday came off assists from fellow forward Juan Carlos Sanchez.
“It was all (Sanchez),” Beebe said. “He made some great plays and set me up, and I just ended up scoring.”
Beebe and Sanchez worked a nice give-and-go in the fourth minute, with Beebe finishing on a shot that went off the inside of the left post and in.
After making it 2-0 three minutes later, Beebe completed the hat trick in nifty fashion in the 12th minute as he went around a defender with a chip before finding the net.
“(Sanchez) flicked the ball to me, and it would’ve been a hard angle to take a shot, so I just flicked it the opposite direction of where the defender was going,” he said. “Then I waited for the goalkeeper to make a move. I kicked it right as he was going left.”
With the three-goal cushion, Beebe and the Mustangs had no intention to let the Irish (4-7-0) back in the game.
“We wanted to get the lead, then defend and not let them back into the game,” Beebe said. “Against DePaul Prep, we scored two goals, then let them back into the game and ended up losing (4-3 on Sept. 14), so we didn’t want that to happen again.”
The Mustangs’ backline of Kenya Sumpter, Jr., Jaime Banuelos and Tyler Padilla made sure Bishop McNamara wouldn’t.
The Fighting Irish had just two shots on goal and neither were a major test for goalkeeper Hector Aguilera, who recorded his second shutout.
“We just stuck to our man, and made sure we were always guarding them at all times,” Padilla said “We forced them to make bad passes.
“I feel like as a team, we’re making progress each game, and we’ll be able to dominate even more a few games from now.”
Sophomore midfielder Langston Bedgood scored his first two goals of the season to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 5-0 by halftime.
Bedgood scored off a Ryan Dangles pass in the 21st minute, then finished to reward the Mustangs for a flurry of pressure in the 31st.
His second goal was set up by a corner kick that was initially broken up by the Irish. Danny Dargan tracked the ball down and sent it back into the box, where it was flicked by Logan Corum toward the far post.
Brendan Breslin was there, but had his header denied on a nice save by Irish goalkeeper John Ojeda. Bedgood, though, was there to put in the rebound.
Bedgood has been heavily involved in the Mustangs’ attack all season and was happy to finally get into the scoring column.
“It feels great to get a couple goals,” he said. “Last year, I had two goals in one game too and those were my only ones. So now I’m hoping to top that this year.
“I just want to be somebody that my teammates can depend on, so they know if they get me the ball, I won’t lose it. They won’t hesitate to make the pass to me. I want them to have that confidence in me.”
Confidence is starting to spread throughout the Mustangs, who have erased some of the memories of an 0-5-1 start.
“Early-on, we were playing some good teams, and these guys just needed belief in themselves,” Kellam said. “We’ve got a young group, and it took them awhile to get used to playing against some of these teams. All this game experience helps as we keep going forward.”
Padilla added his first career varsity goal in the second half after heading in Dangles’ corner kick.
“That felt wonderful,” Padilla said. “It was an awesome cross from Dangles, and without that I wouldn’t have made it.”
The Mustangs are off until a nonconference game Saturday against Oak Lawn, then a tough stretch of Chicago Catholic League games follows.
They’ll go into those contests with a new sense of belief.
“As we get wins, we learn more about each other because we’re young,” Bedgood said. “Every time we come out here, we get better. We have new things to work on each game and as long as we do what we can do, we know we’ll get a good result.”
Starting lineups
Bishop McNamara
GK: John Ojeda
D: Ricardo Valtierra
D: Preston Lade
D: Edwin Hernandez
D: Aldo Hernandez
M: Pedro Hernandez
M: Hector Alvarez
M: Andrew Kyrouac
M: Javier Martinez
F: Ryan Hardesty
F: Ben Kuntz
St. Rita
GK: Hector Aguilera
D: Kenya Sumpter, Jr.
D: Jaime Banuelos
D: Tyler Padilla
M: Alec Torres
M: Julio Walton
M: Chuy Flores
M: Langston Bedgood
M: Ryan Dangles
F: William Beebe
F: Juan Carlos Sanchez
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: William Beebe, F, St. Rita
Scoring summary
St. Rita: Beebe (Sanchez) 4’, Beebe (Sanchez) 7’, Beebe (Sanchez) 12’, Bedgood (Dangles) 21’, Bedgood (Breslin) 31’, Padilla (Dangles) 59’