Morton rally takes
Pepsi title from Wheaton Academy
4 2nd half goals erase 2-1 deficit in 5-2 Mustangs victory
By Dave Owen
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – Morton’s two youngest players emerged as the Mustangs’ biggest at a key time.
Trailing Wheaton Academy 2-1 at halftime of Sunday’s PepsiCo Showdown U.S. Navy Bracket title game at Robert Morris College, Morton (9-1-1) erupted to a 5-2 win thanks to huge second half performances by sophomores Jesus Perez and Christian Perez.
Off consecutive, nice assists by Jesus Perez, Christian Perez scored two goals in a span of seven minutes, turning a 2-2 tie into an eventual a tournament title for the Mustangs (9-1-1).
“Jesus and Christian took over,” Morton coach Jim Bageanis said. “That’s how we’ve been trying to play, by committee. Whoever might get open after Adrian (Barrera) pulls guys away, we’re hoping whoever steps in there puts the ball in the net. It began to happen in the second half.”
The win leapfrogged Morton over Wheaton Academy in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Mustangs now sit in third, just above the fourth-ranked Warriors.
Morton's turnaround began with a lucky bounce. Off a Jesus Perez corner kick, a send to the box took a funny hop off the arm of a Wheaton Academy player. Barrera’s ensuing penalty kick score tied the game 2-2 with 29:12 left.
Then after enduring two bids to answer by the Warriors (a pair of nice corner kicks by the Warriors’ Sam Froslid), Morton nearly took the lead with 23:40 left when Jesus Perez split two defenders on a left side rush but was denied on a great save by Wheaton Academy goalkeeper R.J. Simmons.
But just 23 seconds later, more Morton heat produced the eventual deciding goal.
Racing towards an opportunity at the top of the box off a Jesus Perez left side push, Christian Perez nicely ran onto the ball and powered an 18-yard drive into the lower left corner of the net for a 3-2 lead.
Then with 16:35 left, Jesus Perez drew the defense with a left side rush, then dished to Christian Perez for a straight on 20-yard low rocket off the right post and in to up the lead to 4-2.
“We’ve played together in club, so we have a kind of connection,” Jesus Perez said. “We know how each other plays. He (Christian) was on the right side, I was on the left. He’s a lefty so it gave him a better shot. I saw him in the box, and he got his two goals.”
With opposing defenses challenged by star senior forward Barrera, the next wave of Morton luminaries delivered in a big game.
“I told them from the beginning of the game, ‘I’m not always going to be the target guy. Someone else has to step up,’” Barrera said. “And that’s exactly what they did. They proved me right. And we ended up with a win.”
Said Bageanis: “We were holding the ball too much in the first half, and Adrian was trying to do too much for the team. Then we let the sophomores take over.
“Jesus is a threat all the time with his speed. He might not finish every time, but he knows when to release the ball, and we’re hoping a guy fills that gap. Today it was Christian Perez twice. That took the wind out of their sails a little bit when he got a couple of them.”
As much as the two Perez-to-Perez goals were decisive, tough luck for Wheaton Academy with 21:52 left and the score 3-2 also loomed large.
Seamus Kilgallon was knocked down near the top of the box on a Logan Finnegan corner kick, setting up a potential tying penalty kick for the Warriors.
But star forward Jack Kilgallon (whose nice finish three minutes into the match had given the Warriors a quick 1-0 lead) drove his PK try over the net, keeping the lead in Morton’s favor.
In hindsight, even a PK finish there might have only delayed, not derailed, the express train called Morton.
“I thought we had more of the ball in the first half so we weren’t defending as much,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said. “In the second half we were really chasing, really running.
“And obviously against Morton, anytime the game opens up they have talent in so many spots. They had a few world class goals, so credit them. But our goalie (Simmons) also made some great saves.”
And with more marquee matches to come for his team, Brooke saw the Sunday PepsiCo title battle as an important test.
“We want to play in this great tournament, to play teams like Morton and get stretched,” he said. “Down 3-2 we miss a PK that almost ties it 3-3, then you face the adversity of those moments. Just having been through it will help us toughen up and be ready for the next one.”
With Morton up 4-2 after the second Christian Perez goal, Morton goalkeeper Andruw Martinez made a nice low grab of a well-struck Finnegan 35-yard free kick with 10:50 left. Then 35 seconds later, passes by Morton’s Edwin Zizumbo and Barrera sprung Isaac Carnalla for a 12-yard drive that Simmons nicely saved with a two-handed block.
But with 9:47 to go, Morton was again on target from the edge of the box. Off a corner kick clear attempt, Mustangs senior Andre Olvera lined a 20-yard shot into the upper left corner of the net to finish the lead at 5-2.
“We were holding the ball too much in the first half,” Bageanis said. “We started playing a little quicker, and I think keeping the pressure on wore them down a little bit. They were playing defense too much.
“They (Wheaton Academy) are an excellent team, right with us in the rankings and national rankings as well. We knew it would be an even game, and we got a little lucky to put a few away and make it a bigger difference. The score doesn’t tell how close the game was. But we’re happy to be on the winning end.”
A three-goal margin seemed impossible for the vast majority of the match – especially the frenetic opening minutes.
Just 2:48 into the match, a Seamus Kilgallon rush set up a Wheaton Academy corner kick. Finnegan’s ensuing send connected with Jack Kilgallon for a near post header goal and a quick 1-0 Warriors lead.
Goalkeeper Simmons guarded that lead in the 16th minute with his first of many great saves, denying a Jesus Perez 8-yard drive with a point-blank kick save and smothering of the rebound.
A Barrera pass had sprung Jesus Perez for that close-in chance, and that duo was at it again with better results 17:04 before halftime.
Barrera’s longer send up the left side found Jesus Perez 1-v.-1 on the left. Spinning past a defender, Jesus somehow snuck a 6-yard drive through a sliver of daylight between Simmons and the left post to tie the game 1-1.
“They’re good,” Brooke said. “Morton can really play.”
But so can the Warriors, who proved it with their own impressive goal to retake a 2-1 lead 6:42 before halftime.
A Nikko Camiola-to-Owen Setran pass initiated the play. Then after Setran’s cross attempt from the left side was deflected, junior Sam Froslid pounced on the loose ball and rocketed a 15-yard one-timer into the upper left corner of the net.
“How about it?,” Brooke said of the perfect strike. “We work on crashing the goal and getting that second central middy into the box, and he was in there.
“Sam swung at it, and he’s a really good ball striker. I thought that finish was really strong for him.”
The goal was Froslid’s second of 2018.
“It was just a nice lucky bounce,” he said. “Some hard work from our left mid Owen Setran, and I just closed my eyes and hit it. Kind of a gift from God, a nice one.”
That goal held up for a Warriors lead over the next 17 minutes. And even Morton’s impressive late surge provided more of a valuable lesson to Wheaton Academy than a blow to its collective confidence.
“We’ve got to learn to keep fighting when it gets hard,” Froslid said. “Morton dug down deep and brought it to us. But we’re going to leave today with our heads up and just keep fighting, and realize there’s always, always room for improvement no matter what.
“We’ve worked really hard. I’m so lucky to have great teammates and a great coaching staff. It’s tough. But all credit to Morton. They’re a really good team. If we’re going to lose to anyone, I’m glad it’s them. They’re a great side.”
Adversity has been rare for the Warriors this fall. And Brooke doesn’t expect any lasting effects of Sunday’s second half.
“We can work on defending by having the ball a little bit more and having composure in big games,” he said. “I thought we had that in the first half, then it drifted a little bit on us.
“I really like this group. I think we’ll respond well to this. I think we have the maturity level to use this as a unifying moment rather than a destructive one.”
For Morton, the 2-1 halftime deficit Sunday was added motivation.
“They scored goals on us that we weren’t supposed to let in,” Jesus Perez said. “But this is what our team does a lot. When we’re losing, especially a big game, we just turn it on.”
Chances in the last four minutes of the first half by Morton’s Alex Sery and Yobany Esparza foreshadowed the second half surge.
Simmons’ diving catch of an Isaac Carnalla 18-yard shot with 35:10 left was the Mustangs’ first quality chance of the second half, then Warriors defender Eli Lebo made an excellent tackle to deny a Zizumbo rush into the box four minutes later.
And while Morton’s offensive push stole the second half headlines, the defense more than did its part to finally quiet the potent Wheaton Academy attack.
“Saul Juarez played a great game in the back for us,” Bageanis said. “He can play anywhere across the backline, and he was our savior back there.
“We had a problem marking up in the first half, and in the second half when we got the lead he did a nice job stepping up to their forward and not letting him receive balls easily, beating him to the ball a few times, and disrupting their play. He was our defensive Man of the Match.”
Up 5-2, Morton’s defense denied a well-designed set piece by Wheaton Academy with 5:35 left (a Jack Kilgallon 18-yard free kick cross to Finnegan, whose back post send produced a Kilgallon header and nice Martinez save).
Then with 4:50 to go, Morton’s offense was back at it when a Zizumbo scoring bid was denied on Simmons’ nice sliding save and a Brian Henry clear.
“We kept the momentum and didn’t stop fighting until the last whistle,” Barrera said. “We’re a really hard-working team, and we got the win working hard and passing the ball. We knew we were better than the other team, and we just had to show it. That’s what we did.”
And the prize was literally sweet – Morton players dousing each other with bottles of Pepsi in the tournament’s traditional victory celebration.
“This was actually a top mission that I had, to win this again,” Barrera said. “I won it in 2016 , and I’m really happy to win it again in my last year of high school.”
Morton’s super sophomores missed the 2016 party, but helped start this one.
“There’s a lot of seniors on this team in their last year,” Jesus Perez said. “To win it in my sophomore year is pretty big for me.
“This boosts up our confidence a lot, but I’m looking forward to the rest of this year and the next two years. We fell back in the rankings last year. Hopefully this will show us we’re back up, and we’re not going to give up.”
More big tests loom for Morton and Wheaton Academy. While in different brackets, both the Mustangs and Warriors jump into another high-profile tournament, the Go 4 the Goal Classic in Burlington, Iowa, this weekend.
“This (title) is a good start for that, playing in a top-level game with a top-level team,” Bageanis said.
Starting lineups
Wheaton Academy
GK: R.J. Simmons
D: Jack Liechty
D: Jon Austriaco
D: Brian Henry
D: Eli Lebo
M: Logan Finnegan
M: Seamus Kilgallon
M: Chris Eklund
M: Owen Setran
F: Jack Kilgallon
F: Daniel Rychenkov
Morton
GK: Andruw Martinez
D: Israel Carranza
D: Anarbol Barajas
D: Saul Juarez
D: Jose Arellano
M: Edwin Zizumbo
M: Christian Perez
M: Yobany Esparza
M: Alex Sery
F: Jesus Perez
F: Adrian Barrera
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jesus Perez, so. F, Morton.
Scoring summary
First half
WA – Jack Kilgallon (Logan Finnegan assist), 3rd minute
M – Jesus Perez (Adrian Barrera), 23rd minute
WA – Sam Froslid (Owen Setran), 34th minute
Second half
M – Barrera (PK), 51st minute
M – Christian Perez (Jesus Perez), 57th minute
M – Christian Perez (Jesus Perez), 64th minute’
M – Andre Olvera, 71st minute
Pepsi title from Wheaton Academy
4 2nd half goals erase 2-1 deficit in 5-2 Mustangs victory
By Dave Owen
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – Morton’s two youngest players emerged as the Mustangs’ biggest at a key time.
Trailing Wheaton Academy 2-1 at halftime of Sunday’s PepsiCo Showdown U.S. Navy Bracket title game at Robert Morris College, Morton (9-1-1) erupted to a 5-2 win thanks to huge second half performances by sophomores Jesus Perez and Christian Perez.
Off consecutive, nice assists by Jesus Perez, Christian Perez scored two goals in a span of seven minutes, turning a 2-2 tie into an eventual a tournament title for the Mustangs (9-1-1).
“Jesus and Christian took over,” Morton coach Jim Bageanis said. “That’s how we’ve been trying to play, by committee. Whoever might get open after Adrian (Barrera) pulls guys away, we’re hoping whoever steps in there puts the ball in the net. It began to happen in the second half.”
The win leapfrogged Morton over Wheaton Academy in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Mustangs now sit in third, just above the fourth-ranked Warriors.
Morton's turnaround began with a lucky bounce. Off a Jesus Perez corner kick, a send to the box took a funny hop off the arm of a Wheaton Academy player. Barrera’s ensuing penalty kick score tied the game 2-2 with 29:12 left.
Then after enduring two bids to answer by the Warriors (a pair of nice corner kicks by the Warriors’ Sam Froslid), Morton nearly took the lead with 23:40 left when Jesus Perez split two defenders on a left side rush but was denied on a great save by Wheaton Academy goalkeeper R.J. Simmons.
But just 23 seconds later, more Morton heat produced the eventual deciding goal.
Racing towards an opportunity at the top of the box off a Jesus Perez left side push, Christian Perez nicely ran onto the ball and powered an 18-yard drive into the lower left corner of the net for a 3-2 lead.
Then with 16:35 left, Jesus Perez drew the defense with a left side rush, then dished to Christian Perez for a straight on 20-yard low rocket off the right post and in to up the lead to 4-2.
“We’ve played together in club, so we have a kind of connection,” Jesus Perez said. “We know how each other plays. He (Christian) was on the right side, I was on the left. He’s a lefty so it gave him a better shot. I saw him in the box, and he got his two goals.”
With opposing defenses challenged by star senior forward Barrera, the next wave of Morton luminaries delivered in a big game.
“I told them from the beginning of the game, ‘I’m not always going to be the target guy. Someone else has to step up,’” Barrera said. “And that’s exactly what they did. They proved me right. And we ended up with a win.”
Said Bageanis: “We were holding the ball too much in the first half, and Adrian was trying to do too much for the team. Then we let the sophomores take over.
“Jesus is a threat all the time with his speed. He might not finish every time, but he knows when to release the ball, and we’re hoping a guy fills that gap. Today it was Christian Perez twice. That took the wind out of their sails a little bit when he got a couple of them.”
As much as the two Perez-to-Perez goals were decisive, tough luck for Wheaton Academy with 21:52 left and the score 3-2 also loomed large.
Seamus Kilgallon was knocked down near the top of the box on a Logan Finnegan corner kick, setting up a potential tying penalty kick for the Warriors.
But star forward Jack Kilgallon (whose nice finish three minutes into the match had given the Warriors a quick 1-0 lead) drove his PK try over the net, keeping the lead in Morton’s favor.
In hindsight, even a PK finish there might have only delayed, not derailed, the express train called Morton.
“I thought we had more of the ball in the first half so we weren’t defending as much,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said. “In the second half we were really chasing, really running.
“And obviously against Morton, anytime the game opens up they have talent in so many spots. They had a few world class goals, so credit them. But our goalie (Simmons) also made some great saves.”
And with more marquee matches to come for his team, Brooke saw the Sunday PepsiCo title battle as an important test.
“We want to play in this great tournament, to play teams like Morton and get stretched,” he said. “Down 3-2 we miss a PK that almost ties it 3-3, then you face the adversity of those moments. Just having been through it will help us toughen up and be ready for the next one.”
With Morton up 4-2 after the second Christian Perez goal, Morton goalkeeper Andruw Martinez made a nice low grab of a well-struck Finnegan 35-yard free kick with 10:50 left. Then 35 seconds later, passes by Morton’s Edwin Zizumbo and Barrera sprung Isaac Carnalla for a 12-yard drive that Simmons nicely saved with a two-handed block.
But with 9:47 to go, Morton was again on target from the edge of the box. Off a corner kick clear attempt, Mustangs senior Andre Olvera lined a 20-yard shot into the upper left corner of the net to finish the lead at 5-2.
“We were holding the ball too much in the first half,” Bageanis said. “We started playing a little quicker, and I think keeping the pressure on wore them down a little bit. They were playing defense too much.
“They (Wheaton Academy) are an excellent team, right with us in the rankings and national rankings as well. We knew it would be an even game, and we got a little lucky to put a few away and make it a bigger difference. The score doesn’t tell how close the game was. But we’re happy to be on the winning end.”
A three-goal margin seemed impossible for the vast majority of the match – especially the frenetic opening minutes.
Just 2:48 into the match, a Seamus Kilgallon rush set up a Wheaton Academy corner kick. Finnegan’s ensuing send connected with Jack Kilgallon for a near post header goal and a quick 1-0 Warriors lead.
Goalkeeper Simmons guarded that lead in the 16th minute with his first of many great saves, denying a Jesus Perez 8-yard drive with a point-blank kick save and smothering of the rebound.
A Barrera pass had sprung Jesus Perez for that close-in chance, and that duo was at it again with better results 17:04 before halftime.
Barrera’s longer send up the left side found Jesus Perez 1-v.-1 on the left. Spinning past a defender, Jesus somehow snuck a 6-yard drive through a sliver of daylight between Simmons and the left post to tie the game 1-1.
“They’re good,” Brooke said. “Morton can really play.”
But so can the Warriors, who proved it with their own impressive goal to retake a 2-1 lead 6:42 before halftime.
A Nikko Camiola-to-Owen Setran pass initiated the play. Then after Setran’s cross attempt from the left side was deflected, junior Sam Froslid pounced on the loose ball and rocketed a 15-yard one-timer into the upper left corner of the net.
“How about it?,” Brooke said of the perfect strike. “We work on crashing the goal and getting that second central middy into the box, and he was in there.
“Sam swung at it, and he’s a really good ball striker. I thought that finish was really strong for him.”
The goal was Froslid’s second of 2018.
“It was just a nice lucky bounce,” he said. “Some hard work from our left mid Owen Setran, and I just closed my eyes and hit it. Kind of a gift from God, a nice one.”
That goal held up for a Warriors lead over the next 17 minutes. And even Morton’s impressive late surge provided more of a valuable lesson to Wheaton Academy than a blow to its collective confidence.
“We’ve got to learn to keep fighting when it gets hard,” Froslid said. “Morton dug down deep and brought it to us. But we’re going to leave today with our heads up and just keep fighting, and realize there’s always, always room for improvement no matter what.
“We’ve worked really hard. I’m so lucky to have great teammates and a great coaching staff. It’s tough. But all credit to Morton. They’re a really good team. If we’re going to lose to anyone, I’m glad it’s them. They’re a great side.”
Adversity has been rare for the Warriors this fall. And Brooke doesn’t expect any lasting effects of Sunday’s second half.
“We can work on defending by having the ball a little bit more and having composure in big games,” he said. “I thought we had that in the first half, then it drifted a little bit on us.
“I really like this group. I think we’ll respond well to this. I think we have the maturity level to use this as a unifying moment rather than a destructive one.”
For Morton, the 2-1 halftime deficit Sunday was added motivation.
“They scored goals on us that we weren’t supposed to let in,” Jesus Perez said. “But this is what our team does a lot. When we’re losing, especially a big game, we just turn it on.”
Chances in the last four minutes of the first half by Morton’s Alex Sery and Yobany Esparza foreshadowed the second half surge.
Simmons’ diving catch of an Isaac Carnalla 18-yard shot with 35:10 left was the Mustangs’ first quality chance of the second half, then Warriors defender Eli Lebo made an excellent tackle to deny a Zizumbo rush into the box four minutes later.
And while Morton’s offensive push stole the second half headlines, the defense more than did its part to finally quiet the potent Wheaton Academy attack.
“Saul Juarez played a great game in the back for us,” Bageanis said. “He can play anywhere across the backline, and he was our savior back there.
“We had a problem marking up in the first half, and in the second half when we got the lead he did a nice job stepping up to their forward and not letting him receive balls easily, beating him to the ball a few times, and disrupting their play. He was our defensive Man of the Match.”
Up 5-2, Morton’s defense denied a well-designed set piece by Wheaton Academy with 5:35 left (a Jack Kilgallon 18-yard free kick cross to Finnegan, whose back post send produced a Kilgallon header and nice Martinez save).
Then with 4:50 to go, Morton’s offense was back at it when a Zizumbo scoring bid was denied on Simmons’ nice sliding save and a Brian Henry clear.
“We kept the momentum and didn’t stop fighting until the last whistle,” Barrera said. “We’re a really hard-working team, and we got the win working hard and passing the ball. We knew we were better than the other team, and we just had to show it. That’s what we did.”
And the prize was literally sweet – Morton players dousing each other with bottles of Pepsi in the tournament’s traditional victory celebration.
“This was actually a top mission that I had, to win this again,” Barrera said. “I won it in 2016 , and I’m really happy to win it again in my last year of high school.”
Morton’s super sophomores missed the 2016 party, but helped start this one.
“There’s a lot of seniors on this team in their last year,” Jesus Perez said. “To win it in my sophomore year is pretty big for me.
“This boosts up our confidence a lot, but I’m looking forward to the rest of this year and the next two years. We fell back in the rankings last year. Hopefully this will show us we’re back up, and we’re not going to give up.”
More big tests loom for Morton and Wheaton Academy. While in different brackets, both the Mustangs and Warriors jump into another high-profile tournament, the Go 4 the Goal Classic in Burlington, Iowa, this weekend.
“This (title) is a good start for that, playing in a top-level game with a top-level team,” Bageanis said.
Starting lineups
Wheaton Academy
GK: R.J. Simmons
D: Jack Liechty
D: Jon Austriaco
D: Brian Henry
D: Eli Lebo
M: Logan Finnegan
M: Seamus Kilgallon
M: Chris Eklund
M: Owen Setran
F: Jack Kilgallon
F: Daniel Rychenkov
Morton
GK: Andruw Martinez
D: Israel Carranza
D: Anarbol Barajas
D: Saul Juarez
D: Jose Arellano
M: Edwin Zizumbo
M: Christian Perez
M: Yobany Esparza
M: Alex Sery
F: Jesus Perez
F: Adrian Barrera
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jesus Perez, so. F, Morton.
Scoring summary
First half
WA – Jack Kilgallon (Logan Finnegan assist), 3rd minute
M – Jesus Perez (Adrian Barrera), 23rd minute
WA – Sam Froslid (Owen Setran), 34th minute
Second half
M – Barrera (PK), 51st minute
M – Christian Perez (Jesus Perez), 57th minute
M – Christian Perez (Jesus Perez), 64th minute’
M – Andre Olvera, 71st minute