Triad endures wild finish,
holds off Grayslake Central
Knights take 2-1 Class AA semifinal win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES -- With dueling quests for history on the line, something had to give in Friday’s Class AA semifinal between Gryaslake Central and Triad.
The suburban St. Louis school is after its first state championship match berth after taking third in 2009 and 2019. The Knights also want to match the girls program’s undefeated state championship in June.
For Grayslake Central (14-7-2), first-year head coach Keith Andersson had guided the Rams to their own first: the initial time the school had ever appeared in the state finals.
It took a wild final five-plus minutes to determine whose dream would continue. And after that frenetic time span had elapsed, Triad (25-0-1) emerged with a 2-1 win that had quickly gone from looking easy to hanging on for dear life.
The Rams’ ability to battle seemingly impossible adversity made that all happen.
With the score 1-0, an open field trip of Triad’s Jake Ellis on a potential breakaway opportunity with 5:15 left gave the Knights a 40-yard free kick. It also left the Rams down one man the rest of the match on a red card ruling on the tackle.
That ensuing free kick by Gibson Hunt became a great bit of creativity when Ellis split the defense for a pass up the middle, raced in and buried a 15-yard line drive upper left corner for a 2-0 Triad lead.
“I saw that big gap in the middle (on Hunt’s free kick),” Ellis said. “I kind of locked eyes with my teammate and hoped he would play it to me and he did. It was a great ball.”
But if Triad thought a 2-0 lead and a man advantage had sealed the win, Grayslake Central wasn’t buying it.
“Did he deserve it (the red card)?,” Andersson asked. “Yes. He was the last man, that's what it is. Nothing you can do.
“The only thing you can do is play the game. It's no different. You're just down one person. You just have to be smart with the ball, and you can't take as many chances as you'd normally like to. In fact, we left two in the back Lucas (Veenstra) and Mitchell (Fein), because we were more concerned about scoring. And it didn't hurt us at all.”
The Rams hardly looked shorthanded with 2:41 left. After a Triad foul, Fien’s 22-yard free kick was denied on an initial block at the post by Knights goalkeeper Brayden Tonn. But Veenstra pounced on the rebound to score and chop the Triad lead to 2-1.
“The ball was crossed in and then sort of deflected out towards me,” Veenstra said. “In the moment I was like ‘I'm just going to hit it, there's only a few minutes left so there's nothing bad that can come from it (down 2-0).’”
Veenstra’s mindset after the one-two gut punch of the red card and then Ellis’ goal summed up a team that defied odds and history all fall.
“Right away I was like ‘We need to go quickly, there's still a chance,’” he said. “Anything in soccer can happen.”
Grayslake Central was back pounding on the door in search of a tie with 1:35 left, when a 50/50 ball win and long send by Ellis from the edge of the box denied that attack.
Then came the last 20 seconds. A send to the crease by Veenstra that goalkeeper Tonn swatted away to the far corner. The Rams regrouped for a 25-yard final shot over the net as time expired -- what had been a 1-0 defensive battle minutes earlier ended in wild fashion.
“All 24 kids did not want this (state title chase) ending today,” Andersson said. “And watching them play so hard those last four and a half minutes, they lit it up.
“There were literally three hand balls in the box. And I was like ‘OK that's just how the game is gonna be.’ We have to shake it off and get one in the back of the net. And they did. Do I wish I had five more minutes? Yeah. Because I think we would have gotten another one.”
Instead, Triad will look to turn its 2019 third place run and disappointment of last year’s non-playoffs due to COVID-19 into a championship.
“It feels like we have something to avenge,” Ellis said. “We were up on the (varsity) team in ‘19 (as sophomores), and our hopes were to make history for Triad. Now it’s going to be this year.”
Said Triad’s Tobey Suter: “Especially not being able to go to state in the spring … we felt we had a pretty good team then that never got the chance to go this far.”
Suter helped pave the way to Saturday’s 1 p.m title match against Boylan (26-1-0) by striking for the first goal of the semifinal on a 12-yard shot just inside the left post 19:49 before halftime.
“There were four or five players right there,” Suter said, “and I think Ellis got a touch onto space. I touched around my man and just had to pick a corner (to shoot to).”
Triad nearly added to its lead in the 33rd minute. Off a Cameron Ramirez pass, Wyatt Suter’s shot was repelled on a great diving save at the left post by goalkeeper Uriel Garcia Perez.
“What can I say about Uriel? He's the unsung hero,” Andersson said. “Game after game on point blank shots … I don't know how he does it.
“I’d be in traction afterwards, but he's an amazing keeper. He just makes you have that comfort level as a defender that if you make a mistake, he's got your back. You don't know how much that helps you as a player if you make a mistake. With Uriel’s play … you saw it today. He stopped some unbelievable shots.”
Despite the wind at its back in the first half, Grayslake Central could never muster a big-time scoring chance over the first 40 minutes.
That quickly changed after the break.
Just 45 seconds into the second half, Alan Alonso’s initial right-side shot was saved by Tonn, then Triad defender Roger Weber blocked Alonso’s rebound try.
“I tried to switch the ball as much as I can and stretch them the defense) out,” Alonso said of the second half strategy. “That's how we started getting forward. Also we tried to play simple and fast.”
The Rams’ higher speed approach came so close to paying off with 23:50 left.
An initial Cameron Paul send sprung Grayslake Central star junior Daniel Marynevych (20 goals this season) in on two defenders.
Marynevych somehow eluded both defenders and a charging Tonn to create an open net opportunity, but his shot went over the net to keep the score 1-0 Triad.
“I had my opportunities and my chances like every other game, and I just didn't finish them,” Marynevych said.
Andersson tried to put a humorous spin on the brilliant effort but ill-fated finish.
“Daniel had that beautiful opportunity,” he said, “beats three guys and unfortunately since he's a football kicker he shot it right through the uprights. All that (football) practice paid off. But just not for us.”
Marynevych had to deal all day with being the central focus of the Triad defense.
“We had Roger Weber man-mark that kid,” Triad coach Jim Jackson said. “We knew he was a good player with his stats and watching him on film. Roger got all-sectional and was one or two votes off of being IHSSCA all-state. He’s one of the best forwards we’ve seen all year.
“We knew if we put Roger on 17 (Marynevych) we’d have a good chance of winning this game. I think overall he did a really good job of keeping him contained most of the game.”
Triad answered that narrow escape with a Jake Stewart right-side shot saved by Perez on a high grab (22:15 left) and a very near miss with 18:05 to go. Off a Hunt corner kick, Ellis sprinted into the box and powered a header off the crossbar.
Both goalies came up big in the ensuing nine minutes: Perez denied shots by Stewart (right of the net) and Ellis (flick off a Weber midfield free kick), then Tonn made a diving block on an Alonso 28-yard shot with 9:55 to go.
The red card and dueling goals in the last 5:08 would follow, leaving Triad alive in their title quest and impressed by their semifinal foe.
“Probably the third toughest (team we’ve played),” Jackson said. “We played Collinsville the first game of the year, and it was a barnburner a 1-1 tie. Urbana in the supersectionals Tuesday (a shootout win), and now these guys … I knew their record, and I’d seen they played three tough 3A schools early in the year.”
That early Rams schedule led to big accomplishments late in the season.
“This is the first of everything,” Andersson said. “This team has never been this far, and this school has never been this far. They're experiencing everything as a first feeling, and now they know what it's going to take to go to the next step. The first half with all the jitters being nervous. They don't need to be. It's just another game. Go out and play your game, and it'll be fine.”
While Triad seeks a title, Grayslake Central also looks to close on a winning note in their 11 a.m. third place game vs. Washington (18-5-2).
“I think it’s just a great experience again,” Veenstra said. “Obviously next year I think we'll be back here, and we'll have that experience, but for now we're just looking towards tomorrow.”
Andersson has the same view of the current experience, and the future.
“Nobody thought we would be here this year,” he said. “I hope the boys take out of this what the seniors are feeling right now They got to experience something they will remember the rest of their lives. Be able to play in the postseason, go to state, and when we get that third place finish it’s something else to cheer about.”
Andersson offered a fitting tribute to the Rams’ fight to the finish against the odds Friday.
“They played hard and with heart, and that's all I can ask for,” he said. “One thing I can say about this team: they're the classiest group I've ever had the opportunity to coach. They get knocked down, get up, don’t say anything and walk away. That's how you have to do it.”
Starting lineups
Triad
GK Brayden Tonn
D Jake Stewart
D Sam Beeman
D Roger Weber
D Luke Beeman
M Cameron Ramirez
M Trent Cissell
M Gibson Hunt
M Jake Ellis
F Tobey Suter
F Wyatt Suter
Grayslake Central
GK Uriel Garcia Perez
D Lucas Veenstra
D Eric Garcia Perez
D Mitchell Fein
D Ben Berry
M Alan Alonso
M Raymond Sereno
M LaFuntae Floyd
M Marko Marynevych
F Daniel Marynevych
F Cameron Paul
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jake Ellis, sr. MF, Triad
Scoring summary
First half
T- Tobey Suter (Jake Ellis assist), 14'
Second half
T- Ellis (Gibson Hunt), 75'
GC- Lucas Veenstra (rebound), 78'
holds off Grayslake Central
Knights take 2-1 Class AA semifinal win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES -- With dueling quests for history on the line, something had to give in Friday’s Class AA semifinal between Gryaslake Central and Triad.
The suburban St. Louis school is after its first state championship match berth after taking third in 2009 and 2019. The Knights also want to match the girls program’s undefeated state championship in June.
For Grayslake Central (14-7-2), first-year head coach Keith Andersson had guided the Rams to their own first: the initial time the school had ever appeared in the state finals.
It took a wild final five-plus minutes to determine whose dream would continue. And after that frenetic time span had elapsed, Triad (25-0-1) emerged with a 2-1 win that had quickly gone from looking easy to hanging on for dear life.
The Rams’ ability to battle seemingly impossible adversity made that all happen.
With the score 1-0, an open field trip of Triad’s Jake Ellis on a potential breakaway opportunity with 5:15 left gave the Knights a 40-yard free kick. It also left the Rams down one man the rest of the match on a red card ruling on the tackle.
That ensuing free kick by Gibson Hunt became a great bit of creativity when Ellis split the defense for a pass up the middle, raced in and buried a 15-yard line drive upper left corner for a 2-0 Triad lead.
“I saw that big gap in the middle (on Hunt’s free kick),” Ellis said. “I kind of locked eyes with my teammate and hoped he would play it to me and he did. It was a great ball.”
But if Triad thought a 2-0 lead and a man advantage had sealed the win, Grayslake Central wasn’t buying it.
“Did he deserve it (the red card)?,” Andersson asked. “Yes. He was the last man, that's what it is. Nothing you can do.
“The only thing you can do is play the game. It's no different. You're just down one person. You just have to be smart with the ball, and you can't take as many chances as you'd normally like to. In fact, we left two in the back Lucas (Veenstra) and Mitchell (Fein), because we were more concerned about scoring. And it didn't hurt us at all.”
The Rams hardly looked shorthanded with 2:41 left. After a Triad foul, Fien’s 22-yard free kick was denied on an initial block at the post by Knights goalkeeper Brayden Tonn. But Veenstra pounced on the rebound to score and chop the Triad lead to 2-1.
“The ball was crossed in and then sort of deflected out towards me,” Veenstra said. “In the moment I was like ‘I'm just going to hit it, there's only a few minutes left so there's nothing bad that can come from it (down 2-0).’”
Veenstra’s mindset after the one-two gut punch of the red card and then Ellis’ goal summed up a team that defied odds and history all fall.
“Right away I was like ‘We need to go quickly, there's still a chance,’” he said. “Anything in soccer can happen.”
Grayslake Central was back pounding on the door in search of a tie with 1:35 left, when a 50/50 ball win and long send by Ellis from the edge of the box denied that attack.
Then came the last 20 seconds. A send to the crease by Veenstra that goalkeeper Tonn swatted away to the far corner. The Rams regrouped for a 25-yard final shot over the net as time expired -- what had been a 1-0 defensive battle minutes earlier ended in wild fashion.
“All 24 kids did not want this (state title chase) ending today,” Andersson said. “And watching them play so hard those last four and a half minutes, they lit it up.
“There were literally three hand balls in the box. And I was like ‘OK that's just how the game is gonna be.’ We have to shake it off and get one in the back of the net. And they did. Do I wish I had five more minutes? Yeah. Because I think we would have gotten another one.”
Instead, Triad will look to turn its 2019 third place run and disappointment of last year’s non-playoffs due to COVID-19 into a championship.
“It feels like we have something to avenge,” Ellis said. “We were up on the (varsity) team in ‘19 (as sophomores), and our hopes were to make history for Triad. Now it’s going to be this year.”
Said Triad’s Tobey Suter: “Especially not being able to go to state in the spring … we felt we had a pretty good team then that never got the chance to go this far.”
Suter helped pave the way to Saturday’s 1 p.m title match against Boylan (26-1-0) by striking for the first goal of the semifinal on a 12-yard shot just inside the left post 19:49 before halftime.
“There were four or five players right there,” Suter said, “and I think Ellis got a touch onto space. I touched around my man and just had to pick a corner (to shoot to).”
Triad nearly added to its lead in the 33rd minute. Off a Cameron Ramirez pass, Wyatt Suter’s shot was repelled on a great diving save at the left post by goalkeeper Uriel Garcia Perez.
“What can I say about Uriel? He's the unsung hero,” Andersson said. “Game after game on point blank shots … I don't know how he does it.
“I’d be in traction afterwards, but he's an amazing keeper. He just makes you have that comfort level as a defender that if you make a mistake, he's got your back. You don't know how much that helps you as a player if you make a mistake. With Uriel’s play … you saw it today. He stopped some unbelievable shots.”
Despite the wind at its back in the first half, Grayslake Central could never muster a big-time scoring chance over the first 40 minutes.
That quickly changed after the break.
Just 45 seconds into the second half, Alan Alonso’s initial right-side shot was saved by Tonn, then Triad defender Roger Weber blocked Alonso’s rebound try.
“I tried to switch the ball as much as I can and stretch them the defense) out,” Alonso said of the second half strategy. “That's how we started getting forward. Also we tried to play simple and fast.”
The Rams’ higher speed approach came so close to paying off with 23:50 left.
An initial Cameron Paul send sprung Grayslake Central star junior Daniel Marynevych (20 goals this season) in on two defenders.
Marynevych somehow eluded both defenders and a charging Tonn to create an open net opportunity, but his shot went over the net to keep the score 1-0 Triad.
“I had my opportunities and my chances like every other game, and I just didn't finish them,” Marynevych said.
Andersson tried to put a humorous spin on the brilliant effort but ill-fated finish.
“Daniel had that beautiful opportunity,” he said, “beats three guys and unfortunately since he's a football kicker he shot it right through the uprights. All that (football) practice paid off. But just not for us.”
Marynevych had to deal all day with being the central focus of the Triad defense.
“We had Roger Weber man-mark that kid,” Triad coach Jim Jackson said. “We knew he was a good player with his stats and watching him on film. Roger got all-sectional and was one or two votes off of being IHSSCA all-state. He’s one of the best forwards we’ve seen all year.
“We knew if we put Roger on 17 (Marynevych) we’d have a good chance of winning this game. I think overall he did a really good job of keeping him contained most of the game.”
Triad answered that narrow escape with a Jake Stewart right-side shot saved by Perez on a high grab (22:15 left) and a very near miss with 18:05 to go. Off a Hunt corner kick, Ellis sprinted into the box and powered a header off the crossbar.
Both goalies came up big in the ensuing nine minutes: Perez denied shots by Stewart (right of the net) and Ellis (flick off a Weber midfield free kick), then Tonn made a diving block on an Alonso 28-yard shot with 9:55 to go.
The red card and dueling goals in the last 5:08 would follow, leaving Triad alive in their title quest and impressed by their semifinal foe.
“Probably the third toughest (team we’ve played),” Jackson said. “We played Collinsville the first game of the year, and it was a barnburner a 1-1 tie. Urbana in the supersectionals Tuesday (a shootout win), and now these guys … I knew their record, and I’d seen they played three tough 3A schools early in the year.”
That early Rams schedule led to big accomplishments late in the season.
“This is the first of everything,” Andersson said. “This team has never been this far, and this school has never been this far. They're experiencing everything as a first feeling, and now they know what it's going to take to go to the next step. The first half with all the jitters being nervous. They don't need to be. It's just another game. Go out and play your game, and it'll be fine.”
While Triad seeks a title, Grayslake Central also looks to close on a winning note in their 11 a.m. third place game vs. Washington (18-5-2).
“I think it’s just a great experience again,” Veenstra said. “Obviously next year I think we'll be back here, and we'll have that experience, but for now we're just looking towards tomorrow.”
Andersson has the same view of the current experience, and the future.
“Nobody thought we would be here this year,” he said. “I hope the boys take out of this what the seniors are feeling right now They got to experience something they will remember the rest of their lives. Be able to play in the postseason, go to state, and when we get that third place finish it’s something else to cheer about.”
Andersson offered a fitting tribute to the Rams’ fight to the finish against the odds Friday.
“They played hard and with heart, and that's all I can ask for,” he said. “One thing I can say about this team: they're the classiest group I've ever had the opportunity to coach. They get knocked down, get up, don’t say anything and walk away. That's how you have to do it.”
Starting lineups
Triad
GK Brayden Tonn
D Jake Stewart
D Sam Beeman
D Roger Weber
D Luke Beeman
M Cameron Ramirez
M Trent Cissell
M Gibson Hunt
M Jake Ellis
F Tobey Suter
F Wyatt Suter
Grayslake Central
GK Uriel Garcia Perez
D Lucas Veenstra
D Eric Garcia Perez
D Mitchell Fein
D Ben Berry
M Alan Alonso
M Raymond Sereno
M LaFuntae Floyd
M Marko Marynevych
F Daniel Marynevych
F Cameron Paul
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jake Ellis, sr. MF, Triad
Scoring summary
First half
T- Tobey Suter (Jake Ellis assist), 14'
Second half
T- Ellis (Gibson Hunt), 75'
GC- Lucas Veenstra (rebound), 78'