St. Francis fights but falls to East Aurora
Spartans see positives in 3-0 defeat
By Chris Walker
PLAINFIELD – East Aurora has 3,000 more students than St. Francis.
On Thursday, the Tomcats had 3 more goals. They blanked St. Francis, 3-0 in a Plainfield Classic group game at Plainfield Central.
“Were getting there, but it’s still a work in progress right now,” Spartans coach Kevin Ward said. “It’s a mental game more than anything else. We can hang in there and play. And we’re not playing bad against pretty darn good 3A competition, and we took it to them quite a bit at the end, even if it wasn’t pretty.”
The Tomcats didn’t know it at the time, but Downers Grove North would lose to Oswego East in the nightcap at Plainfield Central. A win from the Trojans would’ve meant that they would’ve finished undefeated in Group 4 pool play and advanced to Saturday’s semifinals. Even a tie would’ve given them a point and allowed them to advance regardless if East Aurora won this game since the Trojans had beaten East Aurora 2-0 last Saturday.
But since the Trojans lost, they received zero points and finished pool play with seven points, while the Tomcats got three points for victory as well as an additional point for winning by shutout to finish with eight points and advance.
That was great news for East Aurora senior midfielder Giovanni Villegas who scored twice for the Tomcats and was recognized as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“We had a very tough game against a very tough team (on Wednesday, a 6-3 loss to Glenbard East), but we learned from our mistakes,” he said. “We knew we had to win this game by a shutout to have a chance to advance.”
East Aurora (3-6-2) jumped on St. Francis in the 6th minute when sophomore Roman Hernandez connected with junior forward Jose Sanchez who finished for a 1-0 lead.
The Tomcats extended their lead to 2-0 in the 16th minute when Villegas broke free and converted a 1-v.-1 opportunity.
“I learned from playing against Glenbard East that we were taking too many touches,” Villegas said. “We’ve been practicing two-touch max in practice to make sure they won’t be able to turn on us so it’s two-touch and then go around them. After the first goal we knew we could go through the middle. So we tried it again, and it worked.”
St. Francis (2-6-1) had some scoring chances in the first half.
Trey Gora had a header attempt in the 18th minute that was stopped.
Sam Premak has an opportunity in the 25th minute but skied it through the uprights.
Guy Defeo received a nice cross but overshot it in the 32nd minute.
Frank Marsico and Premak had a nice little give-and-go action working in the 33rd minute but Marsico’s shot was just wide left.
“Our defensive shape got better as we went along,” Defeo said. “Once we started combining in the midfield, things clicked a lot more.”
St. Francis was able to hold the Tomcats in check until very late in the second half, challenging them with a few solid scoring opportunities, including a missile off the foot of Gora in the 58th minute that required a diving save from East Aurora senior goalkeeper Raul Escobar or the Spartans would’ve pulled within one.
“I think our slow start really hurt us because then we started to pick it up at the end,” Premak said. “We just couldn’t get enough shots on target to make a difference in the game. I think if we could’ve gotten one back we could’ve won the game for sure because the momentum would’ve shifted, but we didn’t execute in the attacking third toward the end.”
Marsico took one of the Spartans few corner kick chances in the 65th minute but the Tomcats were able to clear it before St. Francis could create something anything out of it.
“I don’t know how many shots we had for the game, maybe eight, but I think we only had three on goal,” Ward said. “I can think of two for sure that we probably should’ve put in, one in the first half and then one here in the second half if we just cleaned it up, but we didn’t get either.”
But creating those chances and fighting for them gives Ward hope.
“I’m optimistic because it didn’t seem like we’ve lost our resolve yet,” Ward said. “If we lose our resolve our season is not going to be pretty, but we’re kind of in rebuilding mode right now. We’re a little light on seniors. We’ve got some good talent on our lower ranks, but we’re not quite there yet. We’re progressing. We’ve had some success here lately, which is good. People know they’ve played against us when they play us, but we’re just not coming out on top.”
Playing bigger schools is always a great challenge, but it’s also something the Spartans do year in, year out. And while the two schools might be a lot different from each other in a lot of ways, they’re also similar in many ways as well. That includes a love for the game of soccer, and thanks to the Plainfield Classic tournament, teams are given an opportunity to play teams they probably would never see. And since the Tomcats are obviously 3A and the Spartans are 2A, they can’t see each other in the post-season.
One fear of playing the bigger boys though is staying mentally strong when you come up on the short end of things, but historically, dominant AA teams have played a schedule peppered with 3A programs.
Last year, Class AA state champion Crystal Lake South only had two losses and both were to Class 3A teams -- Addison Trail and Wheaton Academy.
When Wheaton Academy was a AA team and won the title in 2014 its lone loss was to Class 3A powerhouse Morton while some of its biggest victories came against schools like Libertyville, St. Charles East, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South among others.
And when St. Francis went 16-2-4 and won a sectional title in 2015, big regular season wins came against notable 3A programs which included Bartlett, Geneva, Wheaton North and York.
“I think our main focus especially with these 3A games is we understand we’re going against some great teams and we have to clean things up for conference and for postseason,” Marsico said. “I think we understand these 3A teams are going to be tough but by no means are we going to let them roll over us. We also have to understand that we have keep our heads up and not let them hurt our confidence.”
The Spartans have certainly hung tough.
“I think everything we struggled with today is correctible,” Marsico said. “We’ve had some good games recently. We showed it in our win over Oswego East and even in this game we lost, but I thought we played pretty well.”
Seeing the positives in a 3-0 loss may not always be easy, but as a senior leader, Marsico is going to turn his attention to finding some as well as pointing out things that need to be corrected to his teammates.
“We always have to keep our heads up, especially when you have a game like this and things are correctible,” Marsico said. “It’s not easy to be on a decent streak like we were and then to lose 3-0. This just honestly wasn’t the best all-around game for us. That’s hard to come back from, but we’ll find a way to keep our heads up going into Saturday morning. We just have got to try to clean things up. We know what we have to do, but the key is doing it and to keep working our hardest.”
Villegas blasted in a PK with 4:04 left in the game to seal the victory for the Tomcats.
St. Francis will not only get another chance to play another big school, but will have to get up early on Saturday as the Spartans take on Lincoln-Way East (2,902 students) at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Plainfield East. Fortunately, they should be rested.
“We’re taking Friday off,” Ward said. “We’ve got some Homecoming stuff going on and they’ve had things going on every day this week. It’ll give them a little breather and hopefully they’ll come back and know what to do. We’ll jump right back into it on Saturday, and we’ll see if we continue to use this to get better.”
Starting lineups
St. Francis
GK Adam Thill
Cameron Crawford
Guy Defeo
Nathan Corrigan
Sam Premak
Frank Marsico
Brenda Yarusso
Henry Engelmann
Jack Hartle
Michael Fasna
Trey Gora
East Aurora
GK Raul Escobar
D Ulysses Cepeda
D Gabriel Gutierrez
D Jesus Nicacio
MF Jerry Enriquez
MF Yahir Gonzalez
MF Roman Hernandez
MF Fernando Silva
F Adrian Ferrer
F Jose Sanchez
F Giovanni Villegas
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Giovanni Villegas, sr., MF, East Aurora
Scoring summary
East Aurora 3, St. Francis 0
East Aurora 2 1 - 3
St. Francis 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First half
East Aurora – Jose Sanchez (Roman Hernandez) 33:56
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (German Casas) 23:11
Second half
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas PK 4:04
Spartans see positives in 3-0 defeat
By Chris Walker
PLAINFIELD – East Aurora has 3,000 more students than St. Francis.
On Thursday, the Tomcats had 3 more goals. They blanked St. Francis, 3-0 in a Plainfield Classic group game at Plainfield Central.
“Were getting there, but it’s still a work in progress right now,” Spartans coach Kevin Ward said. “It’s a mental game more than anything else. We can hang in there and play. And we’re not playing bad against pretty darn good 3A competition, and we took it to them quite a bit at the end, even if it wasn’t pretty.”
The Tomcats didn’t know it at the time, but Downers Grove North would lose to Oswego East in the nightcap at Plainfield Central. A win from the Trojans would’ve meant that they would’ve finished undefeated in Group 4 pool play and advanced to Saturday’s semifinals. Even a tie would’ve given them a point and allowed them to advance regardless if East Aurora won this game since the Trojans had beaten East Aurora 2-0 last Saturday.
But since the Trojans lost, they received zero points and finished pool play with seven points, while the Tomcats got three points for victory as well as an additional point for winning by shutout to finish with eight points and advance.
That was great news for East Aurora senior midfielder Giovanni Villegas who scored twice for the Tomcats and was recognized as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“We had a very tough game against a very tough team (on Wednesday, a 6-3 loss to Glenbard East), but we learned from our mistakes,” he said. “We knew we had to win this game by a shutout to have a chance to advance.”
East Aurora (3-6-2) jumped on St. Francis in the 6th minute when sophomore Roman Hernandez connected with junior forward Jose Sanchez who finished for a 1-0 lead.
The Tomcats extended their lead to 2-0 in the 16th minute when Villegas broke free and converted a 1-v.-1 opportunity.
“I learned from playing against Glenbard East that we were taking too many touches,” Villegas said. “We’ve been practicing two-touch max in practice to make sure they won’t be able to turn on us so it’s two-touch and then go around them. After the first goal we knew we could go through the middle. So we tried it again, and it worked.”
St. Francis (2-6-1) had some scoring chances in the first half.
Trey Gora had a header attempt in the 18th minute that was stopped.
Sam Premak has an opportunity in the 25th minute but skied it through the uprights.
Guy Defeo received a nice cross but overshot it in the 32nd minute.
Frank Marsico and Premak had a nice little give-and-go action working in the 33rd minute but Marsico’s shot was just wide left.
“Our defensive shape got better as we went along,” Defeo said. “Once we started combining in the midfield, things clicked a lot more.”
St. Francis was able to hold the Tomcats in check until very late in the second half, challenging them with a few solid scoring opportunities, including a missile off the foot of Gora in the 58th minute that required a diving save from East Aurora senior goalkeeper Raul Escobar or the Spartans would’ve pulled within one.
“I think our slow start really hurt us because then we started to pick it up at the end,” Premak said. “We just couldn’t get enough shots on target to make a difference in the game. I think if we could’ve gotten one back we could’ve won the game for sure because the momentum would’ve shifted, but we didn’t execute in the attacking third toward the end.”
Marsico took one of the Spartans few corner kick chances in the 65th minute but the Tomcats were able to clear it before St. Francis could create something anything out of it.
“I don’t know how many shots we had for the game, maybe eight, but I think we only had three on goal,” Ward said. “I can think of two for sure that we probably should’ve put in, one in the first half and then one here in the second half if we just cleaned it up, but we didn’t get either.”
But creating those chances and fighting for them gives Ward hope.
“I’m optimistic because it didn’t seem like we’ve lost our resolve yet,” Ward said. “If we lose our resolve our season is not going to be pretty, but we’re kind of in rebuilding mode right now. We’re a little light on seniors. We’ve got some good talent on our lower ranks, but we’re not quite there yet. We’re progressing. We’ve had some success here lately, which is good. People know they’ve played against us when they play us, but we’re just not coming out on top.”
Playing bigger schools is always a great challenge, but it’s also something the Spartans do year in, year out. And while the two schools might be a lot different from each other in a lot of ways, they’re also similar in many ways as well. That includes a love for the game of soccer, and thanks to the Plainfield Classic tournament, teams are given an opportunity to play teams they probably would never see. And since the Tomcats are obviously 3A and the Spartans are 2A, they can’t see each other in the post-season.
One fear of playing the bigger boys though is staying mentally strong when you come up on the short end of things, but historically, dominant AA teams have played a schedule peppered with 3A programs.
Last year, Class AA state champion Crystal Lake South only had two losses and both were to Class 3A teams -- Addison Trail and Wheaton Academy.
When Wheaton Academy was a AA team and won the title in 2014 its lone loss was to Class 3A powerhouse Morton while some of its biggest victories came against schools like Libertyville, St. Charles East, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South among others.
And when St. Francis went 16-2-4 and won a sectional title in 2015, big regular season wins came against notable 3A programs which included Bartlett, Geneva, Wheaton North and York.
“I think our main focus especially with these 3A games is we understand we’re going against some great teams and we have to clean things up for conference and for postseason,” Marsico said. “I think we understand these 3A teams are going to be tough but by no means are we going to let them roll over us. We also have to understand that we have keep our heads up and not let them hurt our confidence.”
The Spartans have certainly hung tough.
“I think everything we struggled with today is correctible,” Marsico said. “We’ve had some good games recently. We showed it in our win over Oswego East and even in this game we lost, but I thought we played pretty well.”
Seeing the positives in a 3-0 loss may not always be easy, but as a senior leader, Marsico is going to turn his attention to finding some as well as pointing out things that need to be corrected to his teammates.
“We always have to keep our heads up, especially when you have a game like this and things are correctible,” Marsico said. “It’s not easy to be on a decent streak like we were and then to lose 3-0. This just honestly wasn’t the best all-around game for us. That’s hard to come back from, but we’ll find a way to keep our heads up going into Saturday morning. We just have got to try to clean things up. We know what we have to do, but the key is doing it and to keep working our hardest.”
Villegas blasted in a PK with 4:04 left in the game to seal the victory for the Tomcats.
St. Francis will not only get another chance to play another big school, but will have to get up early on Saturday as the Spartans take on Lincoln-Way East (2,902 students) at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Plainfield East. Fortunately, they should be rested.
“We’re taking Friday off,” Ward said. “We’ve got some Homecoming stuff going on and they’ve had things going on every day this week. It’ll give them a little breather and hopefully they’ll come back and know what to do. We’ll jump right back into it on Saturday, and we’ll see if we continue to use this to get better.”
Starting lineups
St. Francis
GK Adam Thill
Cameron Crawford
Guy Defeo
Nathan Corrigan
Sam Premak
Frank Marsico
Brenda Yarusso
Henry Engelmann
Jack Hartle
Michael Fasna
Trey Gora
East Aurora
GK Raul Escobar
D Ulysses Cepeda
D Gabriel Gutierrez
D Jesus Nicacio
MF Jerry Enriquez
MF Yahir Gonzalez
MF Roman Hernandez
MF Fernando Silva
F Adrian Ferrer
F Jose Sanchez
F Giovanni Villegas
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Giovanni Villegas, sr., MF, East Aurora
Scoring summary
East Aurora 3, St. Francis 0
East Aurora 2 1 - 3
St. Francis 0 0 - 0
Scoring
First half
East Aurora – Jose Sanchez (Roman Hernandez) 33:56
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas (German Casas) 23:11
Second half
East Aurora – Giovanni Villegas PK 4:04