Brother Rice trips up
St. Ignatius for overdue win
Harris goal all Crusaders need to take early CCL Blue lead
By Steve Millar
CHICAGO – When your team has not won a conference game in nearly three years, it would be understandable if there was a lack of belief in your ability to compete within the league.
But if Brother Rice had those doubts coming into Tuesday’s Chicago Catholic League Blue Division opener against St. Ignatius, the Crusaders started to believe in the second half.
“In the first half, we wanted to play defense and contain, because we thought they were going to be better than us,” Brother Rice’s Bruce Harris said. “Then we realized we could exploit their weaknesses, and we decided we weren’t going to just sit back in the second half. We were going to attack the goal and catch them off guard.
“It worked.”
Indeed, it did. Harris scored in the 58th minute and freshman goalkeeper David Valencia made some big saves and got plenty of help from his backline.
It all added up to a 1-0 win for the host Crusaders, their first league victory since 2019.
With Tuesday’s other two league matches – Mount Carmel vs. Fenwick, and St. Laurence vs. Marmon – both ending in ties, Brother Rice (3-5-1, 1-0-0) finds itself alone atop the table, for now.
“St. Ignatius has just handed it to us the last couple years, so to be able to get one against them is big,” Brother Rice coach Matt Prunckle said. “Our message to the boys was that we had to prove ourselves, and we had to prove it in every moment. I had to prove myself as a coach. That’s where we’ve fallen short.
“I’ve been getting tired of giving up three goals and then saying, ‘Well, if it just wasn’t for those moments.’ We came through in those moments.”
St. Ignatius (6-2-1, 0-1-0) attacked relentlessly throughout the first half, but could not break through.
In the 12th minute, the Wolfpack’s Russell Robertson got a pass from Leonardo Diaz and dribbled around Valencia, who got caught off his line. Robertson appeared to have a shot at an empty net, but Brother Rice defender Julian Cervantes slid in to get his body in the way for a non-goalie save.
“David made a couple freshman mistakes, and Julian was there to pick him up,” Prunckle said. “It wasn’t a mistake that ended up costing us.”
While the young Valencia’s inexperience showed up at times, his talent was on full display.
Valencia, who earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, made four saves including some big ones in the first half.
The highlight came in the 19th minute when Diaz took a free kick from 30 yards and struck it toward the top of the net.
Valencia leaped to punch it over the crossbar.
“It was good positioning, and I wanted to just keep it safe instead of trying to catch it,” Valencia said.
Valencia has been thrown into the fire as a freshman playing in big games, but he knows his teammates have his back.
“My defense helped me a lot with the mistakes I made,” he said. “It was great to get the shutout. This is big. It’s Catholic Blue play, and three points are really big.”
St. Ignatius was left frustrated by both Valencia’s saves and its own missed chances.
Speedy forward Oscar Quinn Pasin was tough for Brother Rice to contain outside as he broke down the left side of the field to create dangerous opportunities on multiple occasions.
Quinn Pasin missed just high and just wide on a pair of shots and was denied by Valencia on a bid from 20 yards.
Midfielder Colin Chough had another seemingly open look shut down by the Brother Rice defense.
“They kind of packed it in, and that made it hard for us to break the line,” Chough said. “We did a good job of getting the ball out wide in good positions. The final ball wasn’t there, I guess.
“We had six or seven chances. My cutback was blocked by a defender. They packed the box and made it hard to get through.”
St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller knew that by not breaking through in the first half, the Wolfpack were tempting fate.
“I told the guys at halftime that if we’re not clinical in front of goal, Brother Rice is only going to grow in confidence and in their stature, and they’re going to threaten us on the counter attack or execute one play,” Miller said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
The hosts spent the back end of the first half holding on, pushed back into their defensive end and fighting off the Wolfpack over and over.
After surviving that unscathed, Brother Rice was ready to challenge St. Ignatius.
“I think the boys were just growing a bit of confidence with the ebbs and flows of the game,” Prunckle said. “Those last 10 minutes of the first half felt like 40 minutes, but we were able to hold on, and the boys adjusted well.”
Brother Rice came out on a mission in the second half, quickly generating offensive chances that were nowhere to be seen in the opening 40 minutes.
St. Ignatius goalkeeper Liam McConnell had to step up big right out of the halftime break, knocking away Cristian Morales’ shot from 15 yards.
The Crusaders earned a couple free kicks that came up empty, but momentum was building.
It ultimately paid off in the 58th minute.
Defender Javier Franco tracked down a ball near midfield and played a quick pass ahead to Harris, who beat a defender and headed toward goal. McConnell charged out of the net and Harris calmly chipped the ball over McConnell’s head and in for the decisive goal.
“I saw our strikers were dropping back, and I took the initiative to go to the top line and put my hands up and call for the ball until I got it,” Harris said. “Their center back didn’t hear me or didn’t see me. The ball got sent, and I took a really nice touch forward. I saw the keeper coming out, and I just decided to chip it over him.
“I really thought the goalie was going to block it. I thought I messed it up. It felt amazing to see it go in.”
The Crusaders were able to limit the chances the rest of the way for a frustrated St. Ignatius team that was unable to overcome the missed early opportunities and Brother Rice’s second-half surge.
“Brother Rice is a good team but we’ve played teams like Stagg, St. Patrick who are really good teams,” Chough said. “We’ve played better games, and we know we can play at that level. We played a decent game (Tuesday), but all the pieces didn’t fall into place.”
The loss leaves St. Ignatius looking to rebound for a big contest Thursday against defending conference champion Mount Carmel.
“Every season, I think you can possibly afford to lose one game in the conference because everyone typically beats everyone,” Miller said. “Now we need to beat the reigning champs on Thursday.
“The way we get back into this is to not take too much of a defeat from this and use it as good motivation for Thursday.”
Meanwhile Brother Rice, which hadn’t beaten St. Ignatius for at least six seasons since 2016, is believing.
“This is really big,” Harris said. “ … This means everything. We want to compete for the Catholic League Blue championship. This is one of the hardest teams we have to face, and we did what we had to do.
“This gives us the confidence to know that we can win.”
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK: Liam McConnell
D: Lucas Hanna
D: Leonardo Diaz
D: Bryce Lynch
D: Enzo Santillan
MF: Colin Chough
MF: David Jacobo
MF: Roman Marsh
MF: Nicholas Rezza
F: Oscar Quinn Pasin
F: Russell Robertson
Brother Rice
GK: David Valencia
D: Andres Andrade
D: Julian Cervantes
D: Javier Franco
MF: Mason Mroz
MF: Bruce Harris
MF: Julian Zambrano
MF: Jovani Zuniga
MF: Angelo Piech
F: Jimmy Gricus
F: Cristian Morales
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
David Valencia, fr., GK, Brother Rice
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Brother Rice: B. Harris (Franco), 58’
St. Ignatius for overdue win
Harris goal all Crusaders need to take early CCL Blue lead
By Steve Millar
CHICAGO – When your team has not won a conference game in nearly three years, it would be understandable if there was a lack of belief in your ability to compete within the league.
But if Brother Rice had those doubts coming into Tuesday’s Chicago Catholic League Blue Division opener against St. Ignatius, the Crusaders started to believe in the second half.
“In the first half, we wanted to play defense and contain, because we thought they were going to be better than us,” Brother Rice’s Bruce Harris said. “Then we realized we could exploit their weaknesses, and we decided we weren’t going to just sit back in the second half. We were going to attack the goal and catch them off guard.
“It worked.”
Indeed, it did. Harris scored in the 58th minute and freshman goalkeeper David Valencia made some big saves and got plenty of help from his backline.
It all added up to a 1-0 win for the host Crusaders, their first league victory since 2019.
With Tuesday’s other two league matches – Mount Carmel vs. Fenwick, and St. Laurence vs. Marmon – both ending in ties, Brother Rice (3-5-1, 1-0-0) finds itself alone atop the table, for now.
“St. Ignatius has just handed it to us the last couple years, so to be able to get one against them is big,” Brother Rice coach Matt Prunckle said. “Our message to the boys was that we had to prove ourselves, and we had to prove it in every moment. I had to prove myself as a coach. That’s where we’ve fallen short.
“I’ve been getting tired of giving up three goals and then saying, ‘Well, if it just wasn’t for those moments.’ We came through in those moments.”
St. Ignatius (6-2-1, 0-1-0) attacked relentlessly throughout the first half, but could not break through.
In the 12th minute, the Wolfpack’s Russell Robertson got a pass from Leonardo Diaz and dribbled around Valencia, who got caught off his line. Robertson appeared to have a shot at an empty net, but Brother Rice defender Julian Cervantes slid in to get his body in the way for a non-goalie save.
“David made a couple freshman mistakes, and Julian was there to pick him up,” Prunckle said. “It wasn’t a mistake that ended up costing us.”
While the young Valencia’s inexperience showed up at times, his talent was on full display.
Valencia, who earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, made four saves including some big ones in the first half.
The highlight came in the 19th minute when Diaz took a free kick from 30 yards and struck it toward the top of the net.
Valencia leaped to punch it over the crossbar.
“It was good positioning, and I wanted to just keep it safe instead of trying to catch it,” Valencia said.
Valencia has been thrown into the fire as a freshman playing in big games, but he knows his teammates have his back.
“My defense helped me a lot with the mistakes I made,” he said. “It was great to get the shutout. This is big. It’s Catholic Blue play, and three points are really big.”
St. Ignatius was left frustrated by both Valencia’s saves and its own missed chances.
Speedy forward Oscar Quinn Pasin was tough for Brother Rice to contain outside as he broke down the left side of the field to create dangerous opportunities on multiple occasions.
Quinn Pasin missed just high and just wide on a pair of shots and was denied by Valencia on a bid from 20 yards.
Midfielder Colin Chough had another seemingly open look shut down by the Brother Rice defense.
“They kind of packed it in, and that made it hard for us to break the line,” Chough said. “We did a good job of getting the ball out wide in good positions. The final ball wasn’t there, I guess.
“We had six or seven chances. My cutback was blocked by a defender. They packed the box and made it hard to get through.”
St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller knew that by not breaking through in the first half, the Wolfpack were tempting fate.
“I told the guys at halftime that if we’re not clinical in front of goal, Brother Rice is only going to grow in confidence and in their stature, and they’re going to threaten us on the counter attack or execute one play,” Miller said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
The hosts spent the back end of the first half holding on, pushed back into their defensive end and fighting off the Wolfpack over and over.
After surviving that unscathed, Brother Rice was ready to challenge St. Ignatius.
“I think the boys were just growing a bit of confidence with the ebbs and flows of the game,” Prunckle said. “Those last 10 minutes of the first half felt like 40 minutes, but we were able to hold on, and the boys adjusted well.”
Brother Rice came out on a mission in the second half, quickly generating offensive chances that were nowhere to be seen in the opening 40 minutes.
St. Ignatius goalkeeper Liam McConnell had to step up big right out of the halftime break, knocking away Cristian Morales’ shot from 15 yards.
The Crusaders earned a couple free kicks that came up empty, but momentum was building.
It ultimately paid off in the 58th minute.
Defender Javier Franco tracked down a ball near midfield and played a quick pass ahead to Harris, who beat a defender and headed toward goal. McConnell charged out of the net and Harris calmly chipped the ball over McConnell’s head and in for the decisive goal.
“I saw our strikers were dropping back, and I took the initiative to go to the top line and put my hands up and call for the ball until I got it,” Harris said. “Their center back didn’t hear me or didn’t see me. The ball got sent, and I took a really nice touch forward. I saw the keeper coming out, and I just decided to chip it over him.
“I really thought the goalie was going to block it. I thought I messed it up. It felt amazing to see it go in.”
The Crusaders were able to limit the chances the rest of the way for a frustrated St. Ignatius team that was unable to overcome the missed early opportunities and Brother Rice’s second-half surge.
“Brother Rice is a good team but we’ve played teams like Stagg, St. Patrick who are really good teams,” Chough said. “We’ve played better games, and we know we can play at that level. We played a decent game (Tuesday), but all the pieces didn’t fall into place.”
The loss leaves St. Ignatius looking to rebound for a big contest Thursday against defending conference champion Mount Carmel.
“Every season, I think you can possibly afford to lose one game in the conference because everyone typically beats everyone,” Miller said. “Now we need to beat the reigning champs on Thursday.
“The way we get back into this is to not take too much of a defeat from this and use it as good motivation for Thursday.”
Meanwhile Brother Rice, which hadn’t beaten St. Ignatius for at least six seasons since 2016, is believing.
“This is really big,” Harris said. “ … This means everything. We want to compete for the Catholic League Blue championship. This is one of the hardest teams we have to face, and we did what we had to do.
“This gives us the confidence to know that we can win.”
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK: Liam McConnell
D: Lucas Hanna
D: Leonardo Diaz
D: Bryce Lynch
D: Enzo Santillan
MF: Colin Chough
MF: David Jacobo
MF: Roman Marsh
MF: Nicholas Rezza
F: Oscar Quinn Pasin
F: Russell Robertson
Brother Rice
GK: David Valencia
D: Andres Andrade
D: Julian Cervantes
D: Javier Franco
MF: Mason Mroz
MF: Bruce Harris
MF: Julian Zambrano
MF: Jovani Zuniga
MF: Angelo Piech
F: Jimmy Gricus
F: Cristian Morales
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
David Valencia, fr., GK, Brother Rice
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Brother Rice: B. Harris (Franco), 58’