Lesson learned leads St. Charles East
to tourney title over Lake Park
Fighting Saints avenge only loss of season for Streamwood trophy
By Jared Birchfield
STREAMWOOD -- St. Charles East completed two tasks with its 3-1 win over Lake Park in the championship match of the first Streamwood Fall Classic on Saturday at Millennium Field.
First the Fighting Saints, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, won their second tournament title of the season. Secondly, the team atoned for its only loss of the campaign, a 3-2 league decision to the very same Lancers on September 7.
St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo felt his squad responded well to the first encounter with its DuKane Conference foe.
“For us it was learning from the first time we played them,” DiNuzzo said. “I give credit to Lake Park. They exposed some things that we had to clean up, and that was kind of the focus of our training sessions.
“I thought we were solid defensively today in terms of denying corner kicks and defending free kicks. We're just a little more disciplined and a little more focused. It was good, quality competition throughout the tournament.”
Lake Park (4-4-1, 1-0-0) scored the first goal of the match on a Frankie Ciara penalty kick in the sixth minute.
Ciara’s strategy to get the ball past St. Charles North goalkeeper Tyler Benhart worked.
“I tried to make him go right and then I went left,” Ciara said of his 12th goal of the campaign.
“I think Frankie did a really good job earning himself a penalty and putting it away,” said Lake Park coach Sean Crosby.
St. Charles East’s Aaron Frost, who was tasked with marking Ciara, thought earning the championship trophy and getting pay back on Lake Park were both essential.
“Both are important. We lost them earlier in the season, so it was a good revenge game,” said the senior defender. “It was good too, to just win the tournament. Good team bonding.”
Watching the PK, DiNuzzo was worried that he was seeing history repeat itself.
“It kind of felt a little like deja vu. The first time we played these guys, we gave up a penalty kick,” the Saints coach said. “One of those situations where a defender is out of position making a challenge that I think we would like to take back.”
However, the Fighting Saints coach was not concerned the early lead would rattle his team.
“It happened early in the game, so I knew that that the boys had confidence that they had a lot of time to get their footing,” he said.
St. Charles East (9-1-0, 0-1-0) tied the match at the 23:54 mark of the first half. Luca Avendano found the back of the net on a feed from Sebastian Carranza. The Fighting Saints needed less than 30 seconds after that strike to take a 2-1 lead when junior reserve Mason Brockmeyer scored his sixth goal of the season.
“Both times it was just really a dangerous ball in tough spots that put our defenders in a jam, because they had tried to cover a difficult pass,” Crosby said. “We allowed too much time on the ball for the crosses that came in and that made them dangerous balls.”
For his play and tying score, Avendano was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. Avedano’s equalizer was his fourth goal of the campaign.
“Luca was solid today. His work rate was very high,” DiNuzzo said. “He was good at disrupting build-ups, and he was good on the ball. He's been great for us out of the air. He's been more convincing with his height. something that we need in the midfield.”
DiNuzzo also praised Brockmeyer’s effort.
“He changes the pace of the game when he comes off the bench. It's a different look for the opponents, and he's able to stretch the field with his pace,” the St. Charles East coach said. “H's been much better in front of the net with this technique, so he's been a pleasant surprise.”
Lake Park knew the opening goal got their opponent’s attention.
“I think East responded really well after they went down by a goal, good teams respond,” Crosby said. “We knew that one goal wasn't going to be enough to take down a team like that. They responded really well, and that's what made it tough on us.”
The two goals swung the momentum towards St. Charles East.
“After they got the goals, they started to create a lot more possession, so we started chasing the game a little more at that point,” Crosby said. “That opened us up, and we weren't able to get in the flow we wanted.”
DiNuzzo agreed that after the two scores, his team had more scoring opportunities but could not capitalize on them.
“I think the two goals had an impact but unfortunately, we didn't score more than we did,” said the St. Charles East coach.” I don't know how many times we hit the crossbar and post today, but it had to be upwards of four.”
Carranza put his team up 3-1 when he converted a penalty kick in the 53rd minute. The senior, named to the 2021 Spring Chicagoland Soccer All-State Team, leads the Fighting Saints with 14 goals.
Crosby said Ciara was the team’s sparkplug in the tournament, especially when connecting with midfielder Edgar Villagran.
“Frankie is an all-state player, hands down. He scored 10 goals in the last four games,” the Lake Park coach said. “Edgar Villagran is one of the best creators in our sectional and provided Frankie with pretty much every goal. Those two really work well together.”
Ciara thought the day’s effort was not a good showing for his team and hopes for a rematch with the Fighting Saints.
“The key to the match today was playing a full 80 minutes. We didn't do it,” he said. “But we're going to see this team again in playoffs, and we'll show them we’re a way better team than how we played today.
“We're looking 10 times better than we were in the beginning of the season. We're ready to play anyone.”
The Lancers coach liked the performances he got from Aidan Killmer and Erdet Agaj who filled in for injured center backs Oscar Sagan and Shane Donnelly.
“We played four matches short two starting center backs, so Aidan and Erdet had a phenomenal tournament. I don't think there are many teams in our sectional that could sub two center backs and perform the way we did they,” Crosby said
He plans to have the starters return this week.
“Both have been injured for the last week and a half,” said Crosby said. “They should be ready to go Monday or Tuesday.
Starting line ups
Lake Park
GK Andrew Swacha
D Erdet Agaj
D Erik Reyes
D Aidan Killmer
D Jack Tucci
MF EdgarVillagran
MF Anthony Juarez
MF Luca Solarz
F Jason Salwach
F Raim Ramani
F Frankie Caira
St. Charles East
GK Tyler Benhart
D Phil Anton
D Connor King
D Aaron Frost
D Jake Walker
MF Luke Avendano
MF Mason Blenner
MF Josh Ruiz
MF Jack Harrington
F Sebastian Carranza
F Will Orloff
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Lucas Avendano, sr., MF, St. Charles East
Scoring Summary
First half
LP: Frankie Caira (PK) 5th minute
SCE: Luca Avedano (Sebastian Carranza) 17th minute
SCE: Mason Brockmeyer (Mason Blenner) 17th minute
Second half
SCE Sebastian Carranza (PK) 53rd minute
to tourney title over Lake Park
Fighting Saints avenge only loss of season for Streamwood trophy
By Jared Birchfield
STREAMWOOD -- St. Charles East completed two tasks with its 3-1 win over Lake Park in the championship match of the first Streamwood Fall Classic on Saturday at Millennium Field.
First the Fighting Saints, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, won their second tournament title of the season. Secondly, the team atoned for its only loss of the campaign, a 3-2 league decision to the very same Lancers on September 7.
St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo felt his squad responded well to the first encounter with its DuKane Conference foe.
“For us it was learning from the first time we played them,” DiNuzzo said. “I give credit to Lake Park. They exposed some things that we had to clean up, and that was kind of the focus of our training sessions.
“I thought we were solid defensively today in terms of denying corner kicks and defending free kicks. We're just a little more disciplined and a little more focused. It was good, quality competition throughout the tournament.”
Lake Park (4-4-1, 1-0-0) scored the first goal of the match on a Frankie Ciara penalty kick in the sixth minute.
Ciara’s strategy to get the ball past St. Charles North goalkeeper Tyler Benhart worked.
“I tried to make him go right and then I went left,” Ciara said of his 12th goal of the campaign.
“I think Frankie did a really good job earning himself a penalty and putting it away,” said Lake Park coach Sean Crosby.
St. Charles East’s Aaron Frost, who was tasked with marking Ciara, thought earning the championship trophy and getting pay back on Lake Park were both essential.
“Both are important. We lost them earlier in the season, so it was a good revenge game,” said the senior defender. “It was good too, to just win the tournament. Good team bonding.”
Watching the PK, DiNuzzo was worried that he was seeing history repeat itself.
“It kind of felt a little like deja vu. The first time we played these guys, we gave up a penalty kick,” the Saints coach said. “One of those situations where a defender is out of position making a challenge that I think we would like to take back.”
However, the Fighting Saints coach was not concerned the early lead would rattle his team.
“It happened early in the game, so I knew that that the boys had confidence that they had a lot of time to get their footing,” he said.
St. Charles East (9-1-0, 0-1-0) tied the match at the 23:54 mark of the first half. Luca Avendano found the back of the net on a feed from Sebastian Carranza. The Fighting Saints needed less than 30 seconds after that strike to take a 2-1 lead when junior reserve Mason Brockmeyer scored his sixth goal of the season.
“Both times it was just really a dangerous ball in tough spots that put our defenders in a jam, because they had tried to cover a difficult pass,” Crosby said. “We allowed too much time on the ball for the crosses that came in and that made them dangerous balls.”
For his play and tying score, Avendano was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match. Avedano’s equalizer was his fourth goal of the campaign.
“Luca was solid today. His work rate was very high,” DiNuzzo said. “He was good at disrupting build-ups, and he was good on the ball. He's been great for us out of the air. He's been more convincing with his height. something that we need in the midfield.”
DiNuzzo also praised Brockmeyer’s effort.
“He changes the pace of the game when he comes off the bench. It's a different look for the opponents, and he's able to stretch the field with his pace,” the St. Charles East coach said. “H's been much better in front of the net with this technique, so he's been a pleasant surprise.”
Lake Park knew the opening goal got their opponent’s attention.
“I think East responded really well after they went down by a goal, good teams respond,” Crosby said. “We knew that one goal wasn't going to be enough to take down a team like that. They responded really well, and that's what made it tough on us.”
The two goals swung the momentum towards St. Charles East.
“After they got the goals, they started to create a lot more possession, so we started chasing the game a little more at that point,” Crosby said. “That opened us up, and we weren't able to get in the flow we wanted.”
DiNuzzo agreed that after the two scores, his team had more scoring opportunities but could not capitalize on them.
“I think the two goals had an impact but unfortunately, we didn't score more than we did,” said the St. Charles East coach.” I don't know how many times we hit the crossbar and post today, but it had to be upwards of four.”
Carranza put his team up 3-1 when he converted a penalty kick in the 53rd minute. The senior, named to the 2021 Spring Chicagoland Soccer All-State Team, leads the Fighting Saints with 14 goals.
Crosby said Ciara was the team’s sparkplug in the tournament, especially when connecting with midfielder Edgar Villagran.
“Frankie is an all-state player, hands down. He scored 10 goals in the last four games,” the Lake Park coach said. “Edgar Villagran is one of the best creators in our sectional and provided Frankie with pretty much every goal. Those two really work well together.”
Ciara thought the day’s effort was not a good showing for his team and hopes for a rematch with the Fighting Saints.
“The key to the match today was playing a full 80 minutes. We didn't do it,” he said. “But we're going to see this team again in playoffs, and we'll show them we’re a way better team than how we played today.
“We're looking 10 times better than we were in the beginning of the season. We're ready to play anyone.”
The Lancers coach liked the performances he got from Aidan Killmer and Erdet Agaj who filled in for injured center backs Oscar Sagan and Shane Donnelly.
“We played four matches short two starting center backs, so Aidan and Erdet had a phenomenal tournament. I don't think there are many teams in our sectional that could sub two center backs and perform the way we did they,” Crosby said
He plans to have the starters return this week.
“Both have been injured for the last week and a half,” said Crosby said. “They should be ready to go Monday or Tuesday.
Starting line ups
Lake Park
GK Andrew Swacha
D Erdet Agaj
D Erik Reyes
D Aidan Killmer
D Jack Tucci
MF EdgarVillagran
MF Anthony Juarez
MF Luca Solarz
F Jason Salwach
F Raim Ramani
F Frankie Caira
St. Charles East
GK Tyler Benhart
D Phil Anton
D Connor King
D Aaron Frost
D Jake Walker
MF Luke Avendano
MF Mason Blenner
MF Josh Ruiz
MF Jack Harrington
F Sebastian Carranza
F Will Orloff
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Lucas Avendano, sr., MF, St. Charles East
Scoring Summary
First half
LP: Frankie Caira (PK) 5th minute
SCE: Luca Avedano (Sebastian Carranza) 17th minute
SCE: Mason Brockmeyer (Mason Blenner) 17th minute
Second half
SCE Sebastian Carranza (PK) 53rd minute