Penalty kick apiece leads
to SCE, Wheaton A. draw
79th-minute PK conversion from East's Avendano leads to 1-1 tie
By Matt Le Cren
WEST CHICAGO – St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo cheered and high-fived his assistant coaches when he saw the referee point to the penalty spot after Renato Avendano was taken down in the box.
Only 86 seconds remained in Saturday’s non-onference match with host Wheaton Academy and the Saints were down by a goal.
But not for long.
DiNuzzo knew that Avendano would insist on taking the penalty kick himself. He also knew what the result would be.
Less than 48 hours before, Avendano had converted the game-tying penalty kick in what would become a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival St. Charles North.
Sure enough, he did the same here, ripping his penalty harshly into the lower left corner of the goal as Wheaton Academy goalkeeper Andrew Hoekstra guessed wrong and dove the other way.
Avendano’s goal with 1:26 left allowed the Saints, ranked 22nd in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, to salvage a 1-1 draw and extend their winning streak to nine games. It denied Wheaton Academy a signature win, but the Warriors (8-3-2) still walked away feeling good about the result against the Saints.
“It’s a big confidence booster just because of how high they are ranked in the state, whether it’s 3A or just in general,” Wheaton Academy senior Logan Finnegan said. “One thing that we’ve been talking about in the locker room is just trusting each other.
“Today I think we trusted each other and got the result we wanted.”
Finnegan had given the Warriors a 1-0 lead by burying his own penalty kick with 25:45 remaining. At that point, the Warriors had their sights set on an upset win, and they nearly got it.
“We like to schedule big schools to prepare us for postseason,” Wheaton Academy coach Cody Snouffer said. “This is a crosstown matchup both teams look forward to and I’m very pleased with the result.
“It would have been nice to finish 1-0 but we’ll take 1-1 in an up-a-division match.”
The Class AA Warriors might have had a win despite Avendano’s late spot kick if not for the play of St. Charles East goalkeeper Jack Settle, who was in fine form.
Settle kept his team close by making six saves, five of which came after halftime. The senior deflected Allen Rodriguez’s shot from the right wing over the crossbar about three minutes before Finnegan’s penalty.
Three minutes after the Warriors took the lead, Settle came off his line to punch away Finnegan’s 55-yard free kick and two minutes later he tipped Daniel Rychenkov’s runner over the pipe.
Finnegan, who has a team-leading 13 goals, nearly got his 14th at the 9:05 mark but his open shot from near the spot was kick-saved by Settle and the ball spun over the end line.
“To win games 1-0 is hard in high school so sometimes it’s a race to that second or third goal,” Stouffer said. “I wish we would have had it, but I was proud of us creating the chances for it.
“I thought both sides played a good level of soccer. I was proud of our team for sticking to our game plan. That had us in a good position late in the game.”
Settle acknowledged as much.
“They played scrappy,” Settle said. “Since we’ve been playing well, I feel like we’ve got a target on our backs, and we’ve just got to know that going into every game.
“We’ve been underestimating some teams, but we’ve got to shake it off and go on to the next one. I think we’re going to do that and go far in the postseason.”
This was an interesting match-up for many reasons. The Saints (10-1-2) are primed to make a deep run in Class 3A, while the Warriors, who are now on a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) have to be considered one of the better AA sides.
Many of the players know each from having played on the same club team and both squads were coming off Thursday victories over rivals. Wheaton Academy knocked off St. Francis 4-1 in the annual battle of local private schools.
“We talked prior to this game about how it’s kind of a trap game,” DiNuzzo said. “You had a comeback win over the town rival, and it’s a nonconference game but what’s important about it is it’s right before (playoff) seeding.
“So I’m happy that we were able to battle back and get a point here. I don’t think we deserved to lose today, but we lacked ideas in the final third. We’ve got some things to work on.”
The main problem was that the Warriors managed to force the Saints into playing their style. St. Charles East had the better of the possession but often couldn’t do anything with it.
“(The Warriors) came out with a lot of energy and enthusiasm in that first 10 minutes of the second half and once we got scored on, I felt we kind of settled down and started playing some Saints soccer,” DiNuzzo said. “But it was tough because we had so much possession in the center of the field, and you don’t get anything in that final third.
“They were very compact and pretty disciplined, but we’ll be fine.”
Settle thought so too, even as time was winding down and the Saints were in danger of being shut out for just the second time this season.
“I knew eventually we were going to score,” Settle said. “It was bad it took so long.”
The Saints pressured relentlessly down the stretch and had a great chance to equalize when Hoekstra was whistled for catching a pass from one of his defenders in the box with 1:54 remaining.
That gave the Saints an indirect free kick at the edge of the 6, just to the right of the right post. But on the resulting play, Rychenkov blocked the shot with his face.
East then forced a corner kick, and it was while the Warriors were trying to clear that Avendano was taken down in the left side of the box.
The decision over who would take the kick was easy.
“Yes (it was my call),” Avendano said. “(My mindset was) I’m going to put it in.
“I don’t want to lose this game, so I’m going to put it in. There was no doubt in my mind.”
Avendano was especially motivated to score because he was the one who got dumped.
“We put in a lot of work,” Avendano said. “It’s not easy to get a penalty.
“You’ve got to get yourself in the box, you’ve got to get yourself in a position where they’re going to chop your ankles and knock you down.
“The last 10 minutes it was everything I had, same with North. When they knock you down, there’s no way I’m not taking it.”
Avendano’s equalizer did nothing to take away the satisfaction Finnegan felt about the Warriors’ performance.
“That call at the end was controversial, but we played very well today,” Finnegan said. “I’m really proud of the result too, just because that’s a great team.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Jack Settle
D Ryan Champine
D Zach Gamster
D Tyler Filbert
D Geoff Unterberg
M Alex Mancera
M Brendan Adams
M Jake Maslowski
F Renato Avendano
F Sebastian Carranza
F Sam Wade
Wheaton Academy
GK Andrew Hoekstra
D Kaiden Massie
D Jack Liechty
D Solomon Pitts
D Giovannie Nicoski
M Logan Finnegan
M Haetham Nasr
M Andrew Ramirez
F Danie Rychenkov
F Allen Rodriguez
F Sam Froslid
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jack Settle, sr., GK, St. Charles East
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Wheaton Academy – Logan Finnegan (PK) 25:45
St. Charles East – Renato Avendano (PK) 1:26
to SCE, Wheaton A. draw
79th-minute PK conversion from East's Avendano leads to 1-1 tie
By Matt Le Cren
WEST CHICAGO – St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo cheered and high-fived his assistant coaches when he saw the referee point to the penalty spot after Renato Avendano was taken down in the box.
Only 86 seconds remained in Saturday’s non-onference match with host Wheaton Academy and the Saints were down by a goal.
But not for long.
DiNuzzo knew that Avendano would insist on taking the penalty kick himself. He also knew what the result would be.
Less than 48 hours before, Avendano had converted the game-tying penalty kick in what would become a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival St. Charles North.
Sure enough, he did the same here, ripping his penalty harshly into the lower left corner of the goal as Wheaton Academy goalkeeper Andrew Hoekstra guessed wrong and dove the other way.
Avendano’s goal with 1:26 left allowed the Saints, ranked 22nd in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, to salvage a 1-1 draw and extend their winning streak to nine games. It denied Wheaton Academy a signature win, but the Warriors (8-3-2) still walked away feeling good about the result against the Saints.
“It’s a big confidence booster just because of how high they are ranked in the state, whether it’s 3A or just in general,” Wheaton Academy senior Logan Finnegan said. “One thing that we’ve been talking about in the locker room is just trusting each other.
“Today I think we trusted each other and got the result we wanted.”
Finnegan had given the Warriors a 1-0 lead by burying his own penalty kick with 25:45 remaining. At that point, the Warriors had their sights set on an upset win, and they nearly got it.
“We like to schedule big schools to prepare us for postseason,” Wheaton Academy coach Cody Snouffer said. “This is a crosstown matchup both teams look forward to and I’m very pleased with the result.
“It would have been nice to finish 1-0 but we’ll take 1-1 in an up-a-division match.”
The Class AA Warriors might have had a win despite Avendano’s late spot kick if not for the play of St. Charles East goalkeeper Jack Settle, who was in fine form.
Settle kept his team close by making six saves, five of which came after halftime. The senior deflected Allen Rodriguez’s shot from the right wing over the crossbar about three minutes before Finnegan’s penalty.
Three minutes after the Warriors took the lead, Settle came off his line to punch away Finnegan’s 55-yard free kick and two minutes later he tipped Daniel Rychenkov’s runner over the pipe.
Finnegan, who has a team-leading 13 goals, nearly got his 14th at the 9:05 mark but his open shot from near the spot was kick-saved by Settle and the ball spun over the end line.
“To win games 1-0 is hard in high school so sometimes it’s a race to that second or third goal,” Stouffer said. “I wish we would have had it, but I was proud of us creating the chances for it.
“I thought both sides played a good level of soccer. I was proud of our team for sticking to our game plan. That had us in a good position late in the game.”
Settle acknowledged as much.
“They played scrappy,” Settle said. “Since we’ve been playing well, I feel like we’ve got a target on our backs, and we’ve just got to know that going into every game.
“We’ve been underestimating some teams, but we’ve got to shake it off and go on to the next one. I think we’re going to do that and go far in the postseason.”
This was an interesting match-up for many reasons. The Saints (10-1-2) are primed to make a deep run in Class 3A, while the Warriors, who are now on a four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) have to be considered one of the better AA sides.
Many of the players know each from having played on the same club team and both squads were coming off Thursday victories over rivals. Wheaton Academy knocked off St. Francis 4-1 in the annual battle of local private schools.
“We talked prior to this game about how it’s kind of a trap game,” DiNuzzo said. “You had a comeback win over the town rival, and it’s a nonconference game but what’s important about it is it’s right before (playoff) seeding.
“So I’m happy that we were able to battle back and get a point here. I don’t think we deserved to lose today, but we lacked ideas in the final third. We’ve got some things to work on.”
The main problem was that the Warriors managed to force the Saints into playing their style. St. Charles East had the better of the possession but often couldn’t do anything with it.
“(The Warriors) came out with a lot of energy and enthusiasm in that first 10 minutes of the second half and once we got scored on, I felt we kind of settled down and started playing some Saints soccer,” DiNuzzo said. “But it was tough because we had so much possession in the center of the field, and you don’t get anything in that final third.
“They were very compact and pretty disciplined, but we’ll be fine.”
Settle thought so too, even as time was winding down and the Saints were in danger of being shut out for just the second time this season.
“I knew eventually we were going to score,” Settle said. “It was bad it took so long.”
The Saints pressured relentlessly down the stretch and had a great chance to equalize when Hoekstra was whistled for catching a pass from one of his defenders in the box with 1:54 remaining.
That gave the Saints an indirect free kick at the edge of the 6, just to the right of the right post. But on the resulting play, Rychenkov blocked the shot with his face.
East then forced a corner kick, and it was while the Warriors were trying to clear that Avendano was taken down in the left side of the box.
The decision over who would take the kick was easy.
“Yes (it was my call),” Avendano said. “(My mindset was) I’m going to put it in.
“I don’t want to lose this game, so I’m going to put it in. There was no doubt in my mind.”
Avendano was especially motivated to score because he was the one who got dumped.
“We put in a lot of work,” Avendano said. “It’s not easy to get a penalty.
“You’ve got to get yourself in the box, you’ve got to get yourself in a position where they’re going to chop your ankles and knock you down.
“The last 10 minutes it was everything I had, same with North. When they knock you down, there’s no way I’m not taking it.”
Avendano’s equalizer did nothing to take away the satisfaction Finnegan felt about the Warriors’ performance.
“That call at the end was controversial, but we played very well today,” Finnegan said. “I’m really proud of the result too, just because that’s a great team.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Jack Settle
D Ryan Champine
D Zach Gamster
D Tyler Filbert
D Geoff Unterberg
M Alex Mancera
M Brendan Adams
M Jake Maslowski
F Renato Avendano
F Sebastian Carranza
F Sam Wade
Wheaton Academy
GK Andrew Hoekstra
D Kaiden Massie
D Jack Liechty
D Solomon Pitts
D Giovannie Nicoski
M Logan Finnegan
M Haetham Nasr
M Andrew Ramirez
F Danie Rychenkov
F Allen Rodriguez
F Sam Froslid
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jack Settle, sr., GK, St. Charles East
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Wheaton Academy – Logan Finnegan (PK) 25:45
St. Charles East – Renato Avendano (PK) 1:26