S. Elgin, St. Francis get offensive in 3-3 tie
Draw signals turnarounds for both squads
By Dave Owen
ROSELLE - Two teams hungry to break losing streaks staged a back-and-forth battle to the finish line Saturday.
Entering their Hillner Tournament match with three-game winless skeins, South Elgin and St. Francis both showed early-season fight that should pay off down the road.
For the Storm (1-4-1), a blazing start produced two goals in the first 11 minutes of play.
The Spartans (0-3-1) answered that early punch in style, scoring twice before halftime to even the tally.
Fast forward to the last three-plus minutes of the 2-2 match, and there was no backing down by either side.
St. Francis appeared to have capped its comeback with 3:07 left, when freshman Adrien Graffin’s 8-yard finish off a Sam Premak send put the Spartans up 3-2.
But that celebration was short lived.
A South Elgin attack just 43 seconds later produced an Anthony Sisler cross from the left post, and a Jack McCall right post chip-in that ended a wild match in a 3-3 tie.
“I guess we kind of realized we had to pick up our pace when they went ahead,” McCall said. “I just saw (the ball) slip through and knocked it in.”
Having endured South Elgin’s blistering start to lead late, St. Francis saw an impressive comeback end in a draw.
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda pulled it out,” Spartans coach Kevin Ward said. “But where we’ve been this year, to be able to come out today and score three goals is a plus for us. Before this we had scored one (all year).
“We haven’t defended too bad. Even though we’ve lost a couple games by three goals, they’ve been late goals when we were trying to push guys forward. So I’m not satisfied (with a tie), but there are good positive signs for us.”
The first positive signs for either side Saturday were provided by South Elgin junior Lucas Reutimann.
Moved from the back to forward to generate more offense for the Storm, Reutimann produced results just 7:46 into the match.
Off a nice send from the midfield by Victor Chagoya, Reutimann tipped the loose ball away from St. Francis goalkeeper Adam Thill and lined a right side blast into the lower left corner of the open net.
Three minutes later, Reutimann was back for more.
Off a Chagoya left side cross, Reutimann lined a 6-yard shot inside the right post for a 2-0 edge.
Talk about instant offense.
“I like it a lot better (at forward),” Reutimann said. “You get more touches on the ball, and you feel you have more control of the game.
“Long balls (were the key to the early goals), after a while we kind of stopped them. Then we started going back to long balls again, working that again, kind of pressed. And when we put pressure on, they made mistakes, and we capitalized on them.”
South Elgin coach Simon Brinklow couldn’t have asked for much better results from the position switch.
“We’ve been playing Lucas in the back, and he can play different positions,” Brinklow said. “We had him up front today, and I thought he did very well, scoring two goals and causing some problems. And I thought Victor played very well on the outside. He had two of the three assists today.”
Looking to recapture the fire of their season-opening upset of St. Charles East, the Storm achieved that goal quickly Saturday.
“We’ve struggled a little this season,” Brinklow said. “We talked about trying to start well, because this is the last game of the tournament, and we did start well. We got in behind and caused them a lot of problems. So I was happy about that.”
But in the next 16 minutes, the happiness level on the St. Francis side started to soar.
The Spartans started to cook in the 15th minute, when a pass from Nico Lajewski to Samuel Audy resulted in a sliding block of Audy’s 8-yard shot by South Elgin’s Jacob Zupan.
Then 21:43 before halftime, St. Francis drew within 2-1 on a play similar to the first South Elgin goal.
Midfielder Sean Conley’s long send sprung Graffin on left on a breakaway. He nicely tipped the ball around the charging Storm keeper Zack Juszko and into the open net to ignite the Spartans comeback.
“We just played it simple,” Conley said of the rally. “We were dribbling too much in the early stages of the game. We found ourselves down and moved the ball a little better, tried to find our outside mids coming back and switch the ball a little quicker.”
Graffin showed great poise on that putaway, his first goal as a Spartan.
“We knew we had to step up, because we’ve been playing bad the first couple games,” Graffin said. “So we knew we had to turn the score around.”
That turnaround was complete in the 27th minute.
Off a 40-yard free kick, a would-be clearing attempt in the box deflected off a Storm defender’s leg and high into the air. Conley did the rest, pounding a running 10-yard shot into the net to forge a 2-2 tie.
“Sean’s been a mainstay for us for four years,” Ward said.
With one goal in 240 minutes coming in to the day, St. Francis had netted two in just over eight minutes.
“We just tried to open it up a little more and tried to look a little more downfield,” Ward said. “The soccer I like to play is a good possession style, but sometimes situations dictate a different path.”
The two sides each had a quality chance late in the first half. In the 31st minute, Thill made a high grab of a well-struck Ryan Doherty 25-yarder. Then in the 37th minute, a Graffin 18-yarder went just wide of the left post.
In the second half, South Elgin came out with a similar drive to the beginning of the match.
A great chance came with 32:45 left, when Reutimann’s cross just missed connection with Anthony Sisler sprinting to the left post.
But despite an edge to the Storm in second half chances for the first 35 minutes of the half, St. Francis changed all that in a flash.
A long send by midfielder Premak found Graffin sprinting in on goal, and the freshman’s poised putaway had the Spartans in front.
“We need goal production out of him (Graffin) up-top, no question,” Ward said. “I was pleased we were able to find his feet, and he was able to put the ball in the hole.”
Graffin’s two-goal breakout game was a result of acclimating to high school soccer, and another adjustment.
“It was difficult the first few games because I wasn’t used to the physicality,” Graffin said. “But I just got used to it every game.
“Today they had this one center back no. 22 (Elijah Patrick), he was their best player,” Graffin added. “So I went to the other side (of the field).”
St. Francis’ ability to respond to the early South Elgin blitz was impressive. McCall’s goal right after the Spartans went up 3-2 also bodes well for the Storm.
“Our team knows a lot of kids from this (St. Francis) team,” Reutimann said. “It’s kind of personal.
“We pushed a lot harder than we did earlier, because we knew we just couldn’t lose to these dudes because of bragging rights. We needed to push harder and tie the game back up.”
Whatever the incentive, Brinklow liked what he saw all day from his offense.
“It was unfortunate we let them claw back into the game at 2-2 at halftime,” Brinklow said. “I didn’t think we were a bad team in the second half, but we weren’t lucky enough to win the game. So overall we still conceded one or two cheap goals, but we looked more dangerous going forward which we haven’t this season. That was a positive.
“We’re OK,” Brinklow added. “We’re a young team so we’re doing fine. We just have to play a little more in the final third and try to get support for our forwards. Scoring three goals today is a good thing.”
After early struggles in the tournament, the Storm feels progress has been made.
“This tournament kind of sets you up for the rest of your season,” Reutimann said. “You get confidence out of the games that you win, and you learn what you need to fix from the games that you lose.
“After this game I feel we played a lot better. The last couple of games we kind of got crushed (17 goals allowed in the previous four). We kept them out for awhile (Saturday) and then slipped up a little bit with a couple mistakes. But we’re back to scoring goals. That was nice.”
St. Francis started two freshmen and two sophomores Saturday and is seeing plenty of progress.
“It’s been a shaky first couple games, but we have a lot of young players, and we’re starting to piece it together,” Conley said. “They’re starting to find their roles. A few injuries, a few questionable (yellow) cards, but people are playing their best and playing hard.”
Ward has liked the progress he has seen.
“Adam Thill or goalie has a goals against average right now that’s not indicative of how he’s been playing,” he said. “The first few games he had an average of half a goal a game (including a 0-0 tie with Wheaton North). If he can maintain his level of play, that’ll be good.
“Our backline is coming, but it’s young. I have kids playing different positions in there, but I’m encouraged by what I see there.
“The key word is young,” Ward added. “We have young kids, playing against kids two or three years older than they are. Right now that makes a difference physically. They’re trying to get used to the game.”
One of those emerging youngsters is Graffin, who offered a perfect recap to the Spartans’ tournament play.
“Our tournament stats aren’t the greatest,” Graffin said, “but each game we got better and better.”
Starting lineups
South Elgin
GK Zack Juszko
D Ryan Doherty
D Elijah Patrick
D Jacob Zupan
D Zack Rys
M Julian Defensor
M Victor Chagoya
M Miguel Salas
M Anthony Sisler
F Jack McCall
F Lucas Reutimann
St. Francis
GK Adam Thill
D Trey Gora
D Nathan Corrigan
D Jack Hartle
D Alex Guiborat
M Sean Conley
M Michael Fasana
M Sam Premak
M Guy DeFeo
M Luke Herard
F Adrien Graffin
Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match: Lucas Reutimann, jr. F, South Elgin
Sean Conley, sr. M, St. Francis
Scoring summary
First half
SE – Lucas Reutimann (Victor Chagoya), 7th minute
SE – Reutimann (Chagoya), 10th minute
SF – Adrien Graffin (Sean Conley), 19th minute
SF – Conley, 27th minute
Second half
SF – Graffin (Sam Premak), 77th minute
SE – Jack McCall (Anthony Sisler), 78th minute
Draw signals turnarounds for both squads
By Dave Owen
ROSELLE - Two teams hungry to break losing streaks staged a back-and-forth battle to the finish line Saturday.
Entering their Hillner Tournament match with three-game winless skeins, South Elgin and St. Francis both showed early-season fight that should pay off down the road.
For the Storm (1-4-1), a blazing start produced two goals in the first 11 minutes of play.
The Spartans (0-3-1) answered that early punch in style, scoring twice before halftime to even the tally.
Fast forward to the last three-plus minutes of the 2-2 match, and there was no backing down by either side.
St. Francis appeared to have capped its comeback with 3:07 left, when freshman Adrien Graffin’s 8-yard finish off a Sam Premak send put the Spartans up 3-2.
But that celebration was short lived.
A South Elgin attack just 43 seconds later produced an Anthony Sisler cross from the left post, and a Jack McCall right post chip-in that ended a wild match in a 3-3 tie.
“I guess we kind of realized we had to pick up our pace when they went ahead,” McCall said. “I just saw (the ball) slip through and knocked it in.”
Having endured South Elgin’s blistering start to lead late, St. Francis saw an impressive comeback end in a draw.
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda pulled it out,” Spartans coach Kevin Ward said. “But where we’ve been this year, to be able to come out today and score three goals is a plus for us. Before this we had scored one (all year).
“We haven’t defended too bad. Even though we’ve lost a couple games by three goals, they’ve been late goals when we were trying to push guys forward. So I’m not satisfied (with a tie), but there are good positive signs for us.”
The first positive signs for either side Saturday were provided by South Elgin junior Lucas Reutimann.
Moved from the back to forward to generate more offense for the Storm, Reutimann produced results just 7:46 into the match.
Off a nice send from the midfield by Victor Chagoya, Reutimann tipped the loose ball away from St. Francis goalkeeper Adam Thill and lined a right side blast into the lower left corner of the open net.
Three minutes later, Reutimann was back for more.
Off a Chagoya left side cross, Reutimann lined a 6-yard shot inside the right post for a 2-0 edge.
Talk about instant offense.
“I like it a lot better (at forward),” Reutimann said. “You get more touches on the ball, and you feel you have more control of the game.
“Long balls (were the key to the early goals), after a while we kind of stopped them. Then we started going back to long balls again, working that again, kind of pressed. And when we put pressure on, they made mistakes, and we capitalized on them.”
South Elgin coach Simon Brinklow couldn’t have asked for much better results from the position switch.
“We’ve been playing Lucas in the back, and he can play different positions,” Brinklow said. “We had him up front today, and I thought he did very well, scoring two goals and causing some problems. And I thought Victor played very well on the outside. He had two of the three assists today.”
Looking to recapture the fire of their season-opening upset of St. Charles East, the Storm achieved that goal quickly Saturday.
“We’ve struggled a little this season,” Brinklow said. “We talked about trying to start well, because this is the last game of the tournament, and we did start well. We got in behind and caused them a lot of problems. So I was happy about that.”
But in the next 16 minutes, the happiness level on the St. Francis side started to soar.
The Spartans started to cook in the 15th minute, when a pass from Nico Lajewski to Samuel Audy resulted in a sliding block of Audy’s 8-yard shot by South Elgin’s Jacob Zupan.
Then 21:43 before halftime, St. Francis drew within 2-1 on a play similar to the first South Elgin goal.
Midfielder Sean Conley’s long send sprung Graffin on left on a breakaway. He nicely tipped the ball around the charging Storm keeper Zack Juszko and into the open net to ignite the Spartans comeback.
“We just played it simple,” Conley said of the rally. “We were dribbling too much in the early stages of the game. We found ourselves down and moved the ball a little better, tried to find our outside mids coming back and switch the ball a little quicker.”
Graffin showed great poise on that putaway, his first goal as a Spartan.
“We knew we had to step up, because we’ve been playing bad the first couple games,” Graffin said. “So we knew we had to turn the score around.”
That turnaround was complete in the 27th minute.
Off a 40-yard free kick, a would-be clearing attempt in the box deflected off a Storm defender’s leg and high into the air. Conley did the rest, pounding a running 10-yard shot into the net to forge a 2-2 tie.
“Sean’s been a mainstay for us for four years,” Ward said.
With one goal in 240 minutes coming in to the day, St. Francis had netted two in just over eight minutes.
“We just tried to open it up a little more and tried to look a little more downfield,” Ward said. “The soccer I like to play is a good possession style, but sometimes situations dictate a different path.”
The two sides each had a quality chance late in the first half. In the 31st minute, Thill made a high grab of a well-struck Ryan Doherty 25-yarder. Then in the 37th minute, a Graffin 18-yarder went just wide of the left post.
In the second half, South Elgin came out with a similar drive to the beginning of the match.
A great chance came with 32:45 left, when Reutimann’s cross just missed connection with Anthony Sisler sprinting to the left post.
But despite an edge to the Storm in second half chances for the first 35 minutes of the half, St. Francis changed all that in a flash.
A long send by midfielder Premak found Graffin sprinting in on goal, and the freshman’s poised putaway had the Spartans in front.
“We need goal production out of him (Graffin) up-top, no question,” Ward said. “I was pleased we were able to find his feet, and he was able to put the ball in the hole.”
Graffin’s two-goal breakout game was a result of acclimating to high school soccer, and another adjustment.
“It was difficult the first few games because I wasn’t used to the physicality,” Graffin said. “But I just got used to it every game.
“Today they had this one center back no. 22 (Elijah Patrick), he was their best player,” Graffin added. “So I went to the other side (of the field).”
St. Francis’ ability to respond to the early South Elgin blitz was impressive. McCall’s goal right after the Spartans went up 3-2 also bodes well for the Storm.
“Our team knows a lot of kids from this (St. Francis) team,” Reutimann said. “It’s kind of personal.
“We pushed a lot harder than we did earlier, because we knew we just couldn’t lose to these dudes because of bragging rights. We needed to push harder and tie the game back up.”
Whatever the incentive, Brinklow liked what he saw all day from his offense.
“It was unfortunate we let them claw back into the game at 2-2 at halftime,” Brinklow said. “I didn’t think we were a bad team in the second half, but we weren’t lucky enough to win the game. So overall we still conceded one or two cheap goals, but we looked more dangerous going forward which we haven’t this season. That was a positive.
“We’re OK,” Brinklow added. “We’re a young team so we’re doing fine. We just have to play a little more in the final third and try to get support for our forwards. Scoring three goals today is a good thing.”
After early struggles in the tournament, the Storm feels progress has been made.
“This tournament kind of sets you up for the rest of your season,” Reutimann said. “You get confidence out of the games that you win, and you learn what you need to fix from the games that you lose.
“After this game I feel we played a lot better. The last couple of games we kind of got crushed (17 goals allowed in the previous four). We kept them out for awhile (Saturday) and then slipped up a little bit with a couple mistakes. But we’re back to scoring goals. That was nice.”
St. Francis started two freshmen and two sophomores Saturday and is seeing plenty of progress.
“It’s been a shaky first couple games, but we have a lot of young players, and we’re starting to piece it together,” Conley said. “They’re starting to find their roles. A few injuries, a few questionable (yellow) cards, but people are playing their best and playing hard.”
Ward has liked the progress he has seen.
“Adam Thill or goalie has a goals against average right now that’s not indicative of how he’s been playing,” he said. “The first few games he had an average of half a goal a game (including a 0-0 tie with Wheaton North). If he can maintain his level of play, that’ll be good.
“Our backline is coming, but it’s young. I have kids playing different positions in there, but I’m encouraged by what I see there.
“The key word is young,” Ward added. “We have young kids, playing against kids two or three years older than they are. Right now that makes a difference physically. They’re trying to get used to the game.”
One of those emerging youngsters is Graffin, who offered a perfect recap to the Spartans’ tournament play.
“Our tournament stats aren’t the greatest,” Graffin said, “but each game we got better and better.”
Starting lineups
South Elgin
GK Zack Juszko
D Ryan Doherty
D Elijah Patrick
D Jacob Zupan
D Zack Rys
M Julian Defensor
M Victor Chagoya
M Miguel Salas
M Anthony Sisler
F Jack McCall
F Lucas Reutimann
St. Francis
GK Adam Thill
D Trey Gora
D Nathan Corrigan
D Jack Hartle
D Alex Guiborat
M Sean Conley
M Michael Fasana
M Sam Premak
M Guy DeFeo
M Luke Herard
F Adrien Graffin
Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match: Lucas Reutimann, jr. F, South Elgin
Sean Conley, sr. M, St. Francis
Scoring summary
First half
SE – Lucas Reutimann (Victor Chagoya), 7th minute
SE – Reutimann (Chagoya), 10th minute
SF – Adrien Graffin (Sean Conley), 19th minute
SF – Conley, 27th minute
Second half
SF – Graffin (Sam Premak), 77th minute
SE – Jack McCall (Anthony Sisler), 78th minute