Premak, St. Francis celebrate 1st victory
Spartans begin life on alternate home field with shutout
By Bill Stone
WHEATON -- St. Francis senior boys soccer midfielder Sam Premak had quite an 18th birthday.
Even during warmups for Thursday’s home opener against Ridgewood, he often heard chants of “Happy Birthday” from the stands.
“(The fans) definitely motivated me to get a goal, and it happened,`” Premak said. “I had school (today), but I’m going to hang out with my family over the weekend. We’ll go out to eat someplace.”
Premak played a key role in the Spartans’ first two goals in the opening 5:19 en route to a 5-0 victory at Graf Park to start play in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division.
Senior Frank Marsico scored all of his three goals within the first 10 minutes for the Spartans (1-4-1).
Premak, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, dominated the central midfield with sophomore Guy DeFeo. With 32:10 remaining, Premak scored the final goal from just beyond the top of the box after the Rebels (3-4-1) tried to clear a shot by junior Trey Gora, who scored the fourth goal in the first half.
“First goal of the year (for me),” Premak said. “I knew I couldn’t get it on the first set so I kind of made a touch and took it with my left (foot) and just put it away.”
In an outing with many new looks for the Spartans, they put away matters early thanks to an energetic and opportunistic offense that unleashed 14 shots on goal, nine in the first half.
Marsico had a streak of four-consecutive goals for the Spartans. His first goal of the season Saturday during the second half achieved a 1-1 tie with South Elgin.
“I think the big key for us is just starting the game off strong, getting the early lead. I think that really helps our play, our confidence,” Marsico said. “With some of our games at Lake Park, we started off on the wrong foot. We picked it up after, but as long as we start off right, we finish well.”
Entering the game, the Spartans had scored five goals total over their five-game schedule at Lake Park’s Hillner Classic. They were shut out twice.
One big difference Thursday was St. Francis moved Marsico and Gora from midfield to forward – arguably the most impactful of numerous lineup switches and formation tests so far.
Another is that Class AA St. Francis was not playing a Class 3A opponents Thursday.
Ridgewood was a AA regional finalist in 2018 and returned 10 seniors. The Rebels arrived with a four-game unbeaten streak with the last three games shutout victories by a combined 10-0 over IC Catholic Prep, North Grand and Guerin.
But since Tuesday’s 6-0 victory over Guerin, the Rebels have lost four starters. That resulted in sophomore striker and leading scorer David Chudzik (3 goals, 3 assists) being moved to goalie against St. Francis.
“We stuck with the things we’re trying to get done right now and be successful at,” St. Francis coach Kevin Ward said. “We played good defense tonight, but we did some of that at Lake Park, too. We had several chances (at Lake Park) where it’s like 1-0 until the last two minutes or something, and then we’d do something stupid.
"We cleaned up our mistakes tonight overall. It was a great, great step into getting a win – finally.”
This also was the first of four home games in the Spartans’ new location, a little more than a mile northeast of the school. The former artificial turf field at the school’s football stadium is trying to be made safe and playable again.
As far as practice, the team still trains south of the school building on grass by the baseball field.
“It’s not the best surface (for practice), but here, it’s beautiful,” Gora said of Graf Park. “It’s a great field. It’s much bigger. It’s clean. It’ smooth. It’s really nice to play on, and we actually moved the ball. It’s not bouncy.”
This was the first time during the season the Spartans have been on the Graf Park field. However, the Spartans did get to test their new home during the offseason. Summer camp was at Graf as well as captain-run practices once or twice weekly.
“Even by the end of last (school) year, we knew our (previous) home field was having problems. They weren’t going to get it done by the end of the year so we figured we’d get some practice in here,” Marsico said.
The Spartans looked right at home. Just 2:31 into the game, Marsico scored by punching home a rebound after Premak passed to DeFeo and his shot deflected off a defender.
On the second goal, the ball squirted out to Premak, who lifted his leg high and put an arcing shot on goal. When the ball came out of Chudzik’s hands, Marsico was right there to head home the rebound.
Marsico’s third goal was speed and power, another strong passing combination with Gora followed by a 25-yard blast.
“I liked the second (goal) a lot,” said Marsico when asked his favorite of the three. “I know it was a little cheesy, but it was scrappy. The other two were good and, honestly, they were probably better goals, but I liked no. 2 because Sam went up-top. I just figured I’d go on (goal), see if I can clean it up, and the keeper made a mistake.”
“Not at all (my intention),” Premak said about his high kick contribution to the goal. “I kind of messed up, but Frank followed up and put it away.”
Gora scored 12:17 before halftime on a counterattack with Marsico and nearly had another sweet goal of his own.
Less than four minutes into the second half, Gora maneuvered around Chudzik and had an apparent empty net but Ridgewood defender Enzo DeCeglie hustled and prevented the score.
“It would have been a great goal,” Gora said with a smile. “I’ve seen a lot of them on TV. I wish I could do it.”
“We were in the midfield together for the first couple of games. I think that kind of helped with our understanding,” Marsico said. “We like to get the ball to each other, make some movements, keep the ball moving between us, finding other players.”
Defensively, St. Francis senior goalie Adam Thill (7 saves) and the starting backline of senior Nathan Corrigan, junior Jack Hartle, and sophomores Cameron Crawford and Brendan Varusso earned the team’s first shutout with help from junior reserve defender Henry Engelmann.
Thill made his first of two big saves by thwarting a charging Christian Montoya in the 35th minute.
Five minutes into the second half, Montoya nearly found paydirt again, but his header from a right-wing corner kick was stopped by Engelmann’s defense of the left post.
Thill also made a nice save of Ivan Garcia’s 25-yard blast of a bouncing ball in the 53rd minute.
“(Our players) responded in the second half, but it was just too little too late,” Ridgewood coach Armando Cabrera said.
In addition to moving Chudzik, the Rebels’ defense was minus a regular starting center defender. That probably contributed to the Spartans’ taking charge early.
“I’m not taking anything away from them. They finished on what we couldn’t (clear),” Cabrera said. “Our defending was poor. We couldn’t mark up the right way, just a real struggle in the first half.
“We’re strong when we’re at full strength, but we’re kind of weak when we’re missing three or four guys. Our three wins are full squad. It’s just one of the things when you don’t have what you need. When you don’t have your full team, it’s kind of hard to put things together.”
St. Francis’ beautiful and relatively new surface at the school has been closed since the spring.
Because the school area is land-locked, the field was knowingly built in a floodway. The overflow from Willow Creek, magnified by the spring’s record rains, not only prompted health concerns but the resulting sediment also hampers the draining basin underneath the turf.
“We’re happy to be here (at Graf Park),” Ward said. “The field’s fine. I think the boys prefer turf over the grass anytime. We’ve traditionally played on turf over the years. It’s not like the kids aren’t used to turf.”
Starting lineups
Ridgewood
G – David Chudzik
D – Enzo DeCeglie
D – Julian Donoso
D – Christian Montoya
D – Michael Robak
M – Ivan Garcia
M – Alex Krzos
M – Adrian Kraszewski
M – Filip Majka
F – Damian Banas
F – Igor Kinal
St. Francis
G – Adam Thill
D – Nathan Corrigan
D – Cameron Crawford
D – Brendan Varusso
D – Jack Hartle
M – Michael Fasana
M – Sam Premak
M – Guy DeFeo
M – Nico Lajewski
F – Trey Gora
F – Frank Marsico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sam Premak, sr., M, St. Francis
Scoring summary
First half
St. Francis: Frank Marsico 2:31
St. Francis: Marsico 5:19
St. Francis: Marsico (Trey Gora) 9:41
St. Francis: Gora (Marsico) 27:43
Second half
St. Francis: Sam Premak 47:50
Goalies
Ridgewood: David Chudzik (10 saves)
St. Francis: Adam Thill (7 saves)
Shots (on goal)
St. Francis 28 (15), Ridgewood 11 (8)
Corner kicks
Ridgewood 4, St. Francis 3
Spartans begin life on alternate home field with shutout
By Bill Stone
WHEATON -- St. Francis senior boys soccer midfielder Sam Premak had quite an 18th birthday.
Even during warmups for Thursday’s home opener against Ridgewood, he often heard chants of “Happy Birthday” from the stands.
“(The fans) definitely motivated me to get a goal, and it happened,`” Premak said. “I had school (today), but I’m going to hang out with my family over the weekend. We’ll go out to eat someplace.”
Premak played a key role in the Spartans’ first two goals in the opening 5:19 en route to a 5-0 victory at Graf Park to start play in the Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division.
Senior Frank Marsico scored all of his three goals within the first 10 minutes for the Spartans (1-4-1).
Premak, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, dominated the central midfield with sophomore Guy DeFeo. With 32:10 remaining, Premak scored the final goal from just beyond the top of the box after the Rebels (3-4-1) tried to clear a shot by junior Trey Gora, who scored the fourth goal in the first half.
“First goal of the year (for me),” Premak said. “I knew I couldn’t get it on the first set so I kind of made a touch and took it with my left (foot) and just put it away.”
In an outing with many new looks for the Spartans, they put away matters early thanks to an energetic and opportunistic offense that unleashed 14 shots on goal, nine in the first half.
Marsico had a streak of four-consecutive goals for the Spartans. His first goal of the season Saturday during the second half achieved a 1-1 tie with South Elgin.
“I think the big key for us is just starting the game off strong, getting the early lead. I think that really helps our play, our confidence,” Marsico said. “With some of our games at Lake Park, we started off on the wrong foot. We picked it up after, but as long as we start off right, we finish well.”
Entering the game, the Spartans had scored five goals total over their five-game schedule at Lake Park’s Hillner Classic. They were shut out twice.
One big difference Thursday was St. Francis moved Marsico and Gora from midfield to forward – arguably the most impactful of numerous lineup switches and formation tests so far.
Another is that Class AA St. Francis was not playing a Class 3A opponents Thursday.
Ridgewood was a AA regional finalist in 2018 and returned 10 seniors. The Rebels arrived with a four-game unbeaten streak with the last three games shutout victories by a combined 10-0 over IC Catholic Prep, North Grand and Guerin.
But since Tuesday’s 6-0 victory over Guerin, the Rebels have lost four starters. That resulted in sophomore striker and leading scorer David Chudzik (3 goals, 3 assists) being moved to goalie against St. Francis.
“We stuck with the things we’re trying to get done right now and be successful at,” St. Francis coach Kevin Ward said. “We played good defense tonight, but we did some of that at Lake Park, too. We had several chances (at Lake Park) where it’s like 1-0 until the last two minutes or something, and then we’d do something stupid.
"We cleaned up our mistakes tonight overall. It was a great, great step into getting a win – finally.”
This also was the first of four home games in the Spartans’ new location, a little more than a mile northeast of the school. The former artificial turf field at the school’s football stadium is trying to be made safe and playable again.
As far as practice, the team still trains south of the school building on grass by the baseball field.
“It’s not the best surface (for practice), but here, it’s beautiful,” Gora said of Graf Park. “It’s a great field. It’s much bigger. It’s clean. It’ smooth. It’s really nice to play on, and we actually moved the ball. It’s not bouncy.”
This was the first time during the season the Spartans have been on the Graf Park field. However, the Spartans did get to test their new home during the offseason. Summer camp was at Graf as well as captain-run practices once or twice weekly.
“Even by the end of last (school) year, we knew our (previous) home field was having problems. They weren’t going to get it done by the end of the year so we figured we’d get some practice in here,” Marsico said.
The Spartans looked right at home. Just 2:31 into the game, Marsico scored by punching home a rebound after Premak passed to DeFeo and his shot deflected off a defender.
On the second goal, the ball squirted out to Premak, who lifted his leg high and put an arcing shot on goal. When the ball came out of Chudzik’s hands, Marsico was right there to head home the rebound.
Marsico’s third goal was speed and power, another strong passing combination with Gora followed by a 25-yard blast.
“I liked the second (goal) a lot,” said Marsico when asked his favorite of the three. “I know it was a little cheesy, but it was scrappy. The other two were good and, honestly, they were probably better goals, but I liked no. 2 because Sam went up-top. I just figured I’d go on (goal), see if I can clean it up, and the keeper made a mistake.”
“Not at all (my intention),” Premak said about his high kick contribution to the goal. “I kind of messed up, but Frank followed up and put it away.”
Gora scored 12:17 before halftime on a counterattack with Marsico and nearly had another sweet goal of his own.
Less than four minutes into the second half, Gora maneuvered around Chudzik and had an apparent empty net but Ridgewood defender Enzo DeCeglie hustled and prevented the score.
“It would have been a great goal,” Gora said with a smile. “I’ve seen a lot of them on TV. I wish I could do it.”
“We were in the midfield together for the first couple of games. I think that kind of helped with our understanding,” Marsico said. “We like to get the ball to each other, make some movements, keep the ball moving between us, finding other players.”
Defensively, St. Francis senior goalie Adam Thill (7 saves) and the starting backline of senior Nathan Corrigan, junior Jack Hartle, and sophomores Cameron Crawford and Brendan Varusso earned the team’s first shutout with help from junior reserve defender Henry Engelmann.
Thill made his first of two big saves by thwarting a charging Christian Montoya in the 35th minute.
Five minutes into the second half, Montoya nearly found paydirt again, but his header from a right-wing corner kick was stopped by Engelmann’s defense of the left post.
Thill also made a nice save of Ivan Garcia’s 25-yard blast of a bouncing ball in the 53rd minute.
“(Our players) responded in the second half, but it was just too little too late,” Ridgewood coach Armando Cabrera said.
In addition to moving Chudzik, the Rebels’ defense was minus a regular starting center defender. That probably contributed to the Spartans’ taking charge early.
“I’m not taking anything away from them. They finished on what we couldn’t (clear),” Cabrera said. “Our defending was poor. We couldn’t mark up the right way, just a real struggle in the first half.
“We’re strong when we’re at full strength, but we’re kind of weak when we’re missing three or four guys. Our three wins are full squad. It’s just one of the things when you don’t have what you need. When you don’t have your full team, it’s kind of hard to put things together.”
St. Francis’ beautiful and relatively new surface at the school has been closed since the spring.
Because the school area is land-locked, the field was knowingly built in a floodway. The overflow from Willow Creek, magnified by the spring’s record rains, not only prompted health concerns but the resulting sediment also hampers the draining basin underneath the turf.
“We’re happy to be here (at Graf Park),” Ward said. “The field’s fine. I think the boys prefer turf over the grass anytime. We’ve traditionally played on turf over the years. It’s not like the kids aren’t used to turf.”
Starting lineups
Ridgewood
G – David Chudzik
D – Enzo DeCeglie
D – Julian Donoso
D – Christian Montoya
D – Michael Robak
M – Ivan Garcia
M – Alex Krzos
M – Adrian Kraszewski
M – Filip Majka
F – Damian Banas
F – Igor Kinal
St. Francis
G – Adam Thill
D – Nathan Corrigan
D – Cameron Crawford
D – Brendan Varusso
D – Jack Hartle
M – Michael Fasana
M – Sam Premak
M – Guy DeFeo
M – Nico Lajewski
F – Trey Gora
F – Frank Marsico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sam Premak, sr., M, St. Francis
Scoring summary
First half
St. Francis: Frank Marsico 2:31
St. Francis: Marsico 5:19
St. Francis: Marsico (Trey Gora) 9:41
St. Francis: Gora (Marsico) 27:43
Second half
St. Francis: Sam Premak 47:50
Goalies
Ridgewood: David Chudzik (10 saves)
St. Francis: Adam Thill (7 saves)
Shots (on goal)
St. Francis 28 (15), Ridgewood 11 (8)
Corner kicks
Ridgewood 4, St. Francis 3