S. Elgin enters win column vs. St. Francis
Doherty leads Storm to 1st victory in Hillner Classic finale
By Curt Herron
ROSELLE - After collecting eight goals in three draws to open the season and then getting none in a pair of defeats, the players on South Elgin were determined to get their scoring touch back in Saturday's final day of play in Lake Park's Norm Hillner Classic while collecting their first win in the process.
Despite falling behind early against St. Francis, the Storm scored the next three goals with help from senior Ryan Doherty to claim a 3-2 victory.
Doherty is the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match after scoring twice and assisting on the other goal; he bounced two other good chances off posts. Senior Ethan Crawford came off the bench to collect the other goal and assist Doherty while sophomore Ryan Nguyen also added an assist in a reserve role.
"It feels really good and hopefully we can continue the momentum," Doherty said. "The overall euphoria of the team is at a high at this point. The draws were kind of getting us down, and we also didn't get to practice a lot because we kept doing games. So, I think finally getting to practice and getting our first win should give us a lot of momentum for the upcoming games.
"With Rocco (Marzullo) and the defense, I think he was our best player today and is a big reason why we won this game. I was definitely looking for a hat-trick today, but it's not about me, and I'm happy with how the team played.
“I just like the chemistry. In the past couple of years there has been a lot of different groups, but overall we all genuinely like each other. We've gotten dinners like five times already."
St. Francis (1-3-1) opened the scoring after senior Anthony Matz connected from close range following a pass from sophomore Luc Swiatek. South Elgin (1-2-3) got the equalizer in the 15th minute when Nguyen found Doherty, who put in a short shot.
The Storm moved in front for good in the 32nd minute when Doherty sent a great pass to Crawford, who converted from in front of the net.
Coach Jerzy Skowron was happy to see his team pick up their first victory and looks forward to more good things from them as the season progresses.
"We've been throwing a lot of new stuff at them," Skowron said. "I think the tactical and positional switches early kind of caught us off guard, and that's how St. Francis was able to get that first one. Coincidentally, they got the second one the same exact way. For the majority of the time, I thought we were the dominant team, no disrespect to them.
"We graduated 13 seniors last year, so this is essentially a brand-new team with a brand-new backline and goalkeeping corps. So, the fact that they were able to start to jell a lot faster than I thought is huge. We're very optimistic about what's coming for these boys."
St. Francis is also a team that is a work in progress. The Spartans have been able to score in each of their matches, including four goals in their win over Hoffman Estates. New coach Jim Winslow is looking forward to what his squad can accomplish this season.
"I'm new to them, and they're new to me," Winslow said. "They play hard and compete for 80 minutes, so I can't ask for anything more. My issue right now is that we just have to stop self-destructing at little moments of time.
"It will be nice to get on turf next week. And the thing I liked is that I made some changes in the second half on how we did things. We stopped trying to be too pretty and started trying to be more direct, and that helped a ton because we started getting forward more. It's just a matter of getting more work in and some practice time in, which we don't have anywhere near enough of."
South Elgin got good scoring chances in the first half included Kendall Andrewin and Omar Lara, who were thwarted by keeper Simon Hartle.
St. Francis had its share of threats before the break from Nick Madden, Mason Karch, Cameron Crawford and Cooper Winslow that were all denied by goalie Aaron Cacucciolo-Forbes.
South Elgin increased its advantage to 3-1 in the 43rd minute when Brandon McKee sent a throw-in to Crawford, who got a touch on the ball that Doherty finished for his second goal of the match.
"We just tried switching up our formations," senior Rocco Marzullo said. "I wanted to step up with backline play at center back, and it turned out.
“The first goal was just unlucky, it was the wrong place at the wrong time. With Ryan being a great finisher and Omar on the right wing, we just keep playing, and it worked out for us.
"We lost a lot of guys. We have to keep playing and keep building chemistry, and we should be good. I like how hard we play. There will be stretches where the other team possesses, and we'll get one player who attacks hard, and we'll start building from the back all the way to the top. So when we're on, it's going to be hard to stop us."
During the final half, South Elgin also received good scoring tries from Kyle Woertendyke and Crawford while the Spartans countered with threatening attempts by Nicolas Posada and Winslow, but they were turned away by keeper Luke Bondi, who took over for the final 40 minutes.
St. Francis senior Guy DeFeo was stopped on two good tries in the late going before connecting on a header in the 80th minute off of an assist from Karch to end the scoring.
"Defensively we were strong, but we had a couple of mistakes that cost us against a good team like this," DeFeo said. "Attacking, we're very young and still learning a lot, but there's some flashes of good stuff. We'll get better and better as the year goes along.
"I'm happy with how we've competed. We've shown a lot of character against big schools like this. Most important is the competitiveness and the resilience to bounce back after we get knocked down."
With early tournament competition out of the way, both squads will set their sights on conference play.
South Elgin lost to Fenton in its Upstate Eight Conference opener and hopes to bounce back at East Aurora this week. The Spartans host St. Edward and Timothy Christian in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division play.
"It was definitely frustrating tying those first three games," Lara said. "But after that first goal happened today, I feel like we all clicked together to make things happen. Four games in a week was kind of tough, but next week we'll be ready to start practice, get some more chemistry going and build some new bonds.
"There's a lot of young guys on the team, and they're all good kids. We're getting to know each other and instead of putting people down, we're trying to bring them up."
Starting lineups
South Elgin
G - Aaron Cacucciolo-Forbes
D - Ethan Diem
D - Brandon McKee
D - Rocco Marzullo
D - Carlos Barajas
M - Ryan Doherty
M - Andrew Montenegro
M - Kyle Woertendyke
M - Omar Lara
F - Kendall Andrewin
F - Lucas McMillan
St. Francis
G - Simon Hartle
D - Nick Madden
D - Sam Wessel
D - Justin Klein
D - Cameron Crawford
M - Anthony Matz
M - Luc Swiatek
M - Brendan Yarusso
M - Cooper Winslow
F - Guy DeFeo
F - Matthew Marsico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ryan Doherty, sr., MF, South Elgin
Scoring summary
First half
SF - Anthony Matz (Luc Swiatek), 3
SE - Ryan Doherty (Ryan Nguyen), 15
SE - Ethan Crawford (Ryan Doherty), 32
Second half
SE - Ryan Doherty (Ethan Crawford), 43
SF - Guy DeFeo (Mason Karch), 80
Doherty leads Storm to 1st victory in Hillner Classic finale
By Curt Herron
ROSELLE - After collecting eight goals in three draws to open the season and then getting none in a pair of defeats, the players on South Elgin were determined to get their scoring touch back in Saturday's final day of play in Lake Park's Norm Hillner Classic while collecting their first win in the process.
Despite falling behind early against St. Francis, the Storm scored the next three goals with help from senior Ryan Doherty to claim a 3-2 victory.
Doherty is the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match after scoring twice and assisting on the other goal; he bounced two other good chances off posts. Senior Ethan Crawford came off the bench to collect the other goal and assist Doherty while sophomore Ryan Nguyen also added an assist in a reserve role.
"It feels really good and hopefully we can continue the momentum," Doherty said. "The overall euphoria of the team is at a high at this point. The draws were kind of getting us down, and we also didn't get to practice a lot because we kept doing games. So, I think finally getting to practice and getting our first win should give us a lot of momentum for the upcoming games.
"With Rocco (Marzullo) and the defense, I think he was our best player today and is a big reason why we won this game. I was definitely looking for a hat-trick today, but it's not about me, and I'm happy with how the team played.
“I just like the chemistry. In the past couple of years there has been a lot of different groups, but overall we all genuinely like each other. We've gotten dinners like five times already."
St. Francis (1-3-1) opened the scoring after senior Anthony Matz connected from close range following a pass from sophomore Luc Swiatek. South Elgin (1-2-3) got the equalizer in the 15th minute when Nguyen found Doherty, who put in a short shot.
The Storm moved in front for good in the 32nd minute when Doherty sent a great pass to Crawford, who converted from in front of the net.
Coach Jerzy Skowron was happy to see his team pick up their first victory and looks forward to more good things from them as the season progresses.
"We've been throwing a lot of new stuff at them," Skowron said. "I think the tactical and positional switches early kind of caught us off guard, and that's how St. Francis was able to get that first one. Coincidentally, they got the second one the same exact way. For the majority of the time, I thought we were the dominant team, no disrespect to them.
"We graduated 13 seniors last year, so this is essentially a brand-new team with a brand-new backline and goalkeeping corps. So, the fact that they were able to start to jell a lot faster than I thought is huge. We're very optimistic about what's coming for these boys."
St. Francis is also a team that is a work in progress. The Spartans have been able to score in each of their matches, including four goals in their win over Hoffman Estates. New coach Jim Winslow is looking forward to what his squad can accomplish this season.
"I'm new to them, and they're new to me," Winslow said. "They play hard and compete for 80 minutes, so I can't ask for anything more. My issue right now is that we just have to stop self-destructing at little moments of time.
"It will be nice to get on turf next week. And the thing I liked is that I made some changes in the second half on how we did things. We stopped trying to be too pretty and started trying to be more direct, and that helped a ton because we started getting forward more. It's just a matter of getting more work in and some practice time in, which we don't have anywhere near enough of."
South Elgin got good scoring chances in the first half included Kendall Andrewin and Omar Lara, who were thwarted by keeper Simon Hartle.
St. Francis had its share of threats before the break from Nick Madden, Mason Karch, Cameron Crawford and Cooper Winslow that were all denied by goalie Aaron Cacucciolo-Forbes.
South Elgin increased its advantage to 3-1 in the 43rd minute when Brandon McKee sent a throw-in to Crawford, who got a touch on the ball that Doherty finished for his second goal of the match.
"We just tried switching up our formations," senior Rocco Marzullo said. "I wanted to step up with backline play at center back, and it turned out.
“The first goal was just unlucky, it was the wrong place at the wrong time. With Ryan being a great finisher and Omar on the right wing, we just keep playing, and it worked out for us.
"We lost a lot of guys. We have to keep playing and keep building chemistry, and we should be good. I like how hard we play. There will be stretches where the other team possesses, and we'll get one player who attacks hard, and we'll start building from the back all the way to the top. So when we're on, it's going to be hard to stop us."
During the final half, South Elgin also received good scoring tries from Kyle Woertendyke and Crawford while the Spartans countered with threatening attempts by Nicolas Posada and Winslow, but they were turned away by keeper Luke Bondi, who took over for the final 40 minutes.
St. Francis senior Guy DeFeo was stopped on two good tries in the late going before connecting on a header in the 80th minute off of an assist from Karch to end the scoring.
"Defensively we were strong, but we had a couple of mistakes that cost us against a good team like this," DeFeo said. "Attacking, we're very young and still learning a lot, but there's some flashes of good stuff. We'll get better and better as the year goes along.
"I'm happy with how we've competed. We've shown a lot of character against big schools like this. Most important is the competitiveness and the resilience to bounce back after we get knocked down."
With early tournament competition out of the way, both squads will set their sights on conference play.
South Elgin lost to Fenton in its Upstate Eight Conference opener and hopes to bounce back at East Aurora this week. The Spartans host St. Edward and Timothy Christian in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division play.
"It was definitely frustrating tying those first three games," Lara said. "But after that first goal happened today, I feel like we all clicked together to make things happen. Four games in a week was kind of tough, but next week we'll be ready to start practice, get some more chemistry going and build some new bonds.
"There's a lot of young guys on the team, and they're all good kids. We're getting to know each other and instead of putting people down, we're trying to bring them up."
Starting lineups
South Elgin
G - Aaron Cacucciolo-Forbes
D - Ethan Diem
D - Brandon McKee
D - Rocco Marzullo
D - Carlos Barajas
M - Ryan Doherty
M - Andrew Montenegro
M - Kyle Woertendyke
M - Omar Lara
F - Kendall Andrewin
F - Lucas McMillan
St. Francis
G - Simon Hartle
D - Nick Madden
D - Sam Wessel
D - Justin Klein
D - Cameron Crawford
M - Anthony Matz
M - Luc Swiatek
M - Brendan Yarusso
M - Cooper Winslow
F - Guy DeFeo
F - Matthew Marsico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Ryan Doherty, sr., MF, South Elgin
Scoring summary
First half
SF - Anthony Matz (Luc Swiatek), 3
SE - Ryan Doherty (Ryan Nguyen), 15
SE - Ethan Crawford (Ryan Doherty), 32
Second half
SE - Ryan Doherty (Ethan Crawford), 43
SF - Guy DeFeo (Mason Karch), 80