WWS stuns St. Charles East with late goals
Tigers’ 2-0 Senior Night win knocks Saints from DuKane lead
By Matt Le Cren
WHEATON – Muhammad Ali called it his “rope-a-dope” strategy.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari readily admitted his Tigers employ the tactic regularly.
They did it to perfection Thursday night, allowing a more talented St. Charles East team to dictate the play and control the ball for most of the game before counterpunching to stun the Saints in a 2-0 upset at Red Grange Field.
The Senior Night victory, which saw seniors Declin Ermer and Sumani Husseini score 75 seconds apart, enabled the Tigers to dim first place St. Charles East’s chances of winning the inaugural DuKane Conference championship.
“That seems to be our footprint, is to absorb and then counter and punch and take advantage of opportunities, especially off of dead balls,” Callipari said. “Most teams will (control the run of play).
“We’re willing to give them the possession as long as we lock it down in the final third, and we can get out in transition. Some teams at this level will get complacent, they get people forward.
“After we scored our first goal, they started to get people up higher with purpose and that left them a little bit more susceptible in transition, and we took advantage of that situation.”
The visiting Saints, ranked 20th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, were utterly dominant for at least the first hour. They outshot the Tigers 12-1 in the first half and 21-6 overall, constantly putting pressure on the Wheaton Warrenville South defense.
But the Tigers’ backline of Ermer, senior Jordy Morales, junior Sam Schlegel and sophomore Jackson Moran never backed down, blocking shot at after shot, and goalkeeper Joe Adamek made seven saves, including three diving efforts, in the first half to keep the game scoreless.
“Our defense is probably the real strong suit of our team,” Morales said. “Offense, we’re still working on it, but sometimes when we connect the defense with the midfield and the offense we create chances.”
The Tigers (5-7-2, 2-2-1) did just that in the 71st minute when a foul gave them a free kick from 36 yards on their right wing. Morales sent a high, curving serve into the middle of the box, where the 6-foot-3 Ermer rose up and sent a powerful header crashing down on the goal line and inside the post with 9:53 remaining.
It was the second goal of the season for Ermer and the second assist for Morales, both of whom are playing new positions. Ermer started the season at striker and Morales is a converted midfielder.
Morales loves getting forward and always looks for Ermer on set pieces.
“Generally that’s the point of when Declin comes into the offense,” Morales said. “We usually use him as a target because he’s the tallest one there, and I usually try to put it on Declin’s head. I got it on there.”
Ermer was glad he did because the goal completely changed the momentum.
“It was a great serve,” Ermer said. He’s been doing that a lot.
“First 50 minutes especially, we came out a little slow. We were getting timid, but we settled in really nicely at the end of the first half and then in the second half we took over.
“We possessed and Jordy was putting great balls in the middle. I think our set pieces have been great. The last five games we’ve scored our goals on set pieces.”
That is how the Tigers will have to do much of their scoring going forward.
“This is the fifth game in a row that we’ve scored off a dead ball,” Callipari said. “We’re feeling that we’re not as efficient as we need to be through the course of play, but we can set up and create something worthy of the game in dead ball environments.
“We’ve done a better job of that and that showed itself again this evening.”
With the Saints (10-6-0, 4-2-0) suddenly desperate for a goal, the Tigers got an insurance score through the run of play. On a fast counterattack. Morales took the ball into the box on a 3-on-3 break and fired from 10 yards.
St. Charles East goalie Jack Settle made a diving save on the far post, but the ball popped free to Husseini, who headed it in with 8:38 to go to seal a victory that no one save for Callipari saw coming.
“I was (expecting it),” Callipari said. “Not 2-0, but I was certainly expecting 1-0.”
The coach has a reason to be upbeat. The Tigers have won two-consecutive games for the first time this fall and have taken three of their last four.
“It feels wonderful,” Ermer said. “I know for all the rest of my seniors it’s been a great year playing with them.
“It was a win that we needed, for us seniors and as a team, to go out like that on Senior Night, there’s nothing like it.”
For St. Charles East, the loss was a stinging reminder to take nothing for granted. The Saints played without two injured starters, including star midfielder Truitt Battin, but still had plenty of chances to win the game.
“That’s not why we lost,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said of the injuries. “We lost because we didn’t execute. We didn’t finish our chances, were panicky in the center of the midfield, especially in the second half, and credit to them.
“They were organized defensively, kept everything in front of them.”
Callipari, a 28-year veteran, can relate. He’s been on the losing end of games his team has dominated.
“Kudos to St. Charles,” Callipari said. “They’re a good team; they work hard.
“They didn’t allow us to build at all. I’m sure they’re not happy with the result and feel like they probably should be worthy of more, but that’s not how this game works.”
Indeed, the Saints have had some strange results. They have had a generally strong season but have lost to the Tigers, South Elgin and Glenbard North, teams that have combined for 10 wins. Yet they have wins over new DuKane Conference leader Wheaton North and Neenah (Wis.), which at the time was ranked in the top 10 nationally by one website.
“I think we got a little ahead of ourselves,” DiNuzzo said. “We were talking a lot about how kids are looking forward to playoffs at this time and you kind of lose (focus on) the conference. We didn’t get up for this game, and they capitalized on our mistakes.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Jack Settle
D Ryan Carpenter
D Ulises Cabellero
D Ryan Unterbert
D Grayson Biddle
D Andrew Cayton
M Brendan Adams
M Alex Mancera
M Luke Schnitker
M Sam Wade
F Sebastian Carranza
Wheaton Warrenville South
GK Joe Adamek
D Sam Schlegel
D Declin Ermer
DJordy Morales
D Jackson Moran
M Nick McGrath
M Kevin Stumbris
M Ryan Dupty
M Paul Thalmann
M Christian Munoz
F Sumani Husseini
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Declin Ermer, D, Wheaton Warrenville South.
Scoring summary
Second half
WWS – Declin Ermer (Jordy Morales) 9:53
WWS – Sumani Husseini 8:38
Tigers’ 2-0 Senior Night win knocks Saints from DuKane lead
By Matt Le Cren
WHEATON – Muhammad Ali called it his “rope-a-dope” strategy.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari readily admitted his Tigers employ the tactic regularly.
They did it to perfection Thursday night, allowing a more talented St. Charles East team to dictate the play and control the ball for most of the game before counterpunching to stun the Saints in a 2-0 upset at Red Grange Field.
The Senior Night victory, which saw seniors Declin Ermer and Sumani Husseini score 75 seconds apart, enabled the Tigers to dim first place St. Charles East’s chances of winning the inaugural DuKane Conference championship.
“That seems to be our footprint, is to absorb and then counter and punch and take advantage of opportunities, especially off of dead balls,” Callipari said. “Most teams will (control the run of play).
“We’re willing to give them the possession as long as we lock it down in the final third, and we can get out in transition. Some teams at this level will get complacent, they get people forward.
“After we scored our first goal, they started to get people up higher with purpose and that left them a little bit more susceptible in transition, and we took advantage of that situation.”
The visiting Saints, ranked 20th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, were utterly dominant for at least the first hour. They outshot the Tigers 12-1 in the first half and 21-6 overall, constantly putting pressure on the Wheaton Warrenville South defense.
But the Tigers’ backline of Ermer, senior Jordy Morales, junior Sam Schlegel and sophomore Jackson Moran never backed down, blocking shot at after shot, and goalkeeper Joe Adamek made seven saves, including three diving efforts, in the first half to keep the game scoreless.
“Our defense is probably the real strong suit of our team,” Morales said. “Offense, we’re still working on it, but sometimes when we connect the defense with the midfield and the offense we create chances.”
The Tigers (5-7-2, 2-2-1) did just that in the 71st minute when a foul gave them a free kick from 36 yards on their right wing. Morales sent a high, curving serve into the middle of the box, where the 6-foot-3 Ermer rose up and sent a powerful header crashing down on the goal line and inside the post with 9:53 remaining.
It was the second goal of the season for Ermer and the second assist for Morales, both of whom are playing new positions. Ermer started the season at striker and Morales is a converted midfielder.
Morales loves getting forward and always looks for Ermer on set pieces.
“Generally that’s the point of when Declin comes into the offense,” Morales said. “We usually use him as a target because he’s the tallest one there, and I usually try to put it on Declin’s head. I got it on there.”
Ermer was glad he did because the goal completely changed the momentum.
“It was a great serve,” Ermer said. He’s been doing that a lot.
“First 50 minutes especially, we came out a little slow. We were getting timid, but we settled in really nicely at the end of the first half and then in the second half we took over.
“We possessed and Jordy was putting great balls in the middle. I think our set pieces have been great. The last five games we’ve scored our goals on set pieces.”
That is how the Tigers will have to do much of their scoring going forward.
“This is the fifth game in a row that we’ve scored off a dead ball,” Callipari said. “We’re feeling that we’re not as efficient as we need to be through the course of play, but we can set up and create something worthy of the game in dead ball environments.
“We’ve done a better job of that and that showed itself again this evening.”
With the Saints (10-6-0, 4-2-0) suddenly desperate for a goal, the Tigers got an insurance score through the run of play. On a fast counterattack. Morales took the ball into the box on a 3-on-3 break and fired from 10 yards.
St. Charles East goalie Jack Settle made a diving save on the far post, but the ball popped free to Husseini, who headed it in with 8:38 to go to seal a victory that no one save for Callipari saw coming.
“I was (expecting it),” Callipari said. “Not 2-0, but I was certainly expecting 1-0.”
The coach has a reason to be upbeat. The Tigers have won two-consecutive games for the first time this fall and have taken three of their last four.
“It feels wonderful,” Ermer said. “I know for all the rest of my seniors it’s been a great year playing with them.
“It was a win that we needed, for us seniors and as a team, to go out like that on Senior Night, there’s nothing like it.”
For St. Charles East, the loss was a stinging reminder to take nothing for granted. The Saints played without two injured starters, including star midfielder Truitt Battin, but still had plenty of chances to win the game.
“That’s not why we lost,” St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said of the injuries. “We lost because we didn’t execute. We didn’t finish our chances, were panicky in the center of the midfield, especially in the second half, and credit to them.
“They were organized defensively, kept everything in front of them.”
Callipari, a 28-year veteran, can relate. He’s been on the losing end of games his team has dominated.
“Kudos to St. Charles,” Callipari said. “They’re a good team; they work hard.
“They didn’t allow us to build at all. I’m sure they’re not happy with the result and feel like they probably should be worthy of more, but that’s not how this game works.”
Indeed, the Saints have had some strange results. They have had a generally strong season but have lost to the Tigers, South Elgin and Glenbard North, teams that have combined for 10 wins. Yet they have wins over new DuKane Conference leader Wheaton North and Neenah (Wis.), which at the time was ranked in the top 10 nationally by one website.
“I think we got a little ahead of ourselves,” DiNuzzo said. “We were talking a lot about how kids are looking forward to playoffs at this time and you kind of lose (focus on) the conference. We didn’t get up for this game, and they capitalized on our mistakes.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Jack Settle
D Ryan Carpenter
D Ulises Cabellero
D Ryan Unterbert
D Grayson Biddle
D Andrew Cayton
M Brendan Adams
M Alex Mancera
M Luke Schnitker
M Sam Wade
F Sebastian Carranza
Wheaton Warrenville South
GK Joe Adamek
D Sam Schlegel
D Declin Ermer
DJordy Morales
D Jackson Moran
M Nick McGrath
M Kevin Stumbris
M Ryan Dupty
M Paul Thalmann
M Christian Munoz
F Sumani Husseini
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Declin Ermer, D, Wheaton Warrenville South.
Scoring summary
Second half
WWS – Declin Ermer (Jordy Morales) 9:53
WWS – Sumani Husseini 8:38