Fresh Fenwick finds win over St. Ignatius
Luthringhausen goals give Friars 1st win over Wolfpack since '15
By Michael Wojtychiw
RIVER FOREST - It'd been 10 days since Fenwick played someone not dressed in Friars gear.
After playing their first game on the year on March 13, Fenwick had its next game, a Chicago Catholic League Blue Division matchup with Mount Carmel, canceled due to COVID-19 complications within the Caravan program.
So, the team knew right away that its conference opener against rival St. Ignatius would be a tougher game than normal. It'd have to shake off some rust and contend with pouring rain of the first half.
"It was definitely great to face an actual tough opponent," senior defender Anders Luthringhausen said. "We're used to scrimmaging our JV and other teammates, so it's a little tricky to get right back and face a tough opponent like St. Ignatius right away."
Luthringhausen scored both goals for the Friars, who are ranked 20th-ranked in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The second half tallies led his team to a 2-1 win and got them off to a successful start in conference play.
The rainy weather caused both teams to change their game plans a bit, knowing that the slick surface wouldn't play the same as a dry pitch.
For a no. 23 St. Ignatius team that came into the game having outscored its opponents 8-1 through two games, it was reasonable to assume that the Wolfpack might be prime candidates for a team to be slowed down by the weather.
That wasn't exactly the case, however. The visitors got on the board first when junior midfielder Aidan Hurst lined up and slotted a free kick past the outstretched arms of Fenwick keeper Greg Price in the fifth minute.
"With the weather today, we had to adjust things a little more," St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller said. "We had to keep things a little more compact and get bodies behind the ball. The goalkeeper needs to change his approach a little bit, but overall it's still the same game."
A little past midway through the first half, Fenwick thought it had a game-tying goal, but the Zach Hernandez score was wiped away by an offside call.
The decision seemed to light a fire under both teams. Rach went hard to goal and kept the pressure on until the Fenwick (2-0-0, 1-0-0) defense made a save just before the half to keep its deficit at one score.
Both teams went into the half with multiple changes in mind.
"We allowed them to keep possession in their first third, and we would contain," Miller said. "When they got past the 25 or so, we'd try to pressure hard and pressure quickly."
"It was a little bit of human nature, where they were confident because they were up, and we were hungry because we were down," Fenwick coach Craig Blazer said about the team's mentality going into the half. "The biggest play was right before the end of the half where Jack Powers saved a ball off the goal line; we would have been going into halftime down 2-0.
"So, credit to Jack, he's our right midfielder and came all the way back and had great defensive nature and presence. Once the game was 1-1 though, the game could have gone either way.
"They (St. Ignatius) really brought it when we were up 2-1, but credit to our defense, because they were really resilient in their play."
After a couple Fenwick chances, Luthringhausen finally got the hosts on the scoreboard in the 58th minute when he slotted in an Ari Vellilotis cross from the right side of the goal.
"We like to play short in the back, so we needed to adjust the game plan in the second half," Luthringhausen said. "That's why you saw a lot more long balls in the second half."
Four minutes later, he lined up to take a corner. His send bounced off the goalie's hands and trickled into the goal before the St. Ignatius defense could clear it.
"That wasn't really the plan on how I was hoping to execute it," Luthringhausen laughed.
"Of course you like to pull ahead, but I would have liked to make it more of a professional goal. A goal is a goal though."
For his efforts, Luthringhausen was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
The two teams have a storied history between each other, including a last-minute goal, something that Luthringhausen said Fenwick’s players had on their minds.
The win marked the first time since 2015 that the Friars have beaten the Wolfpack (2-1-0, 1-1-0), losing the last three times they'd played.
"This is the first time beating them since I've been here," Luthringhausen said. "It's a really good feeling, especially since it's so challenging.
"The guys that were on the team last year, we've had (2019's 2-1 loss) on our minds. We knew we wanted to get this one back."
Both coaches saw positives in their teams play. Miller was pleased with what he saw in the first half but knew what needed to be done after the team's second half.
"Obviously, it's a disappointing result, but we started off strong and structured," said the St. Ignatius coach. "We lost a little bit of shape in the midfield in the first half, adjusted into a five-man midfield in the second half to try to prevent the long ball. We didn't do much of a high-pressing game in the second half, but we'll learn from this."
"Going down 1-nil to a really good St. Ignatius team and then coming back was very encouraging," Blazer said. "Our first objective was to continue playing how we trained and the guys did.
"We gave up a number of shots, and I'm sure they had more free kicks and restarts than we did. But the mentality of the guys on the bench, they remained positive."
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK: Nicholas Barkidjija
D: Charlie Kennedy
D: Luke Hogan
D: Gavin Troy
D: Billy Thompson
M: Alex Tan
M: Jaden Rice
M: Aidan Hurst
M: Dillon Kraft
F: Isaac Rice
Fenwick
GK: Greg Price
D: Anders Luthringhausen
D: Dylan Kupiec
D: Matty Garcia
D: Joey Karris
M: Luigi Mollo
M: Diego Salinas
M: Jack Powers
M: Jack Lowe
M: Ryan Bero
F: Narayan Sharma
F: Ari Vellilotis
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Anders Luthringhausen, sr. D, Fenwick
Scoring summary
First half
St. Ignatius - Aidan Hurst (FK), fifth minute
Second half
Fenwick - Anders Luthringhausen (Ari Vellilotis), 58th minute
Fenwick - Luthringhausen, 62nd minute
Luthringhausen goals give Friars 1st win over Wolfpack since '15
By Michael Wojtychiw
RIVER FOREST - It'd been 10 days since Fenwick played someone not dressed in Friars gear.
After playing their first game on the year on March 13, Fenwick had its next game, a Chicago Catholic League Blue Division matchup with Mount Carmel, canceled due to COVID-19 complications within the Caravan program.
So, the team knew right away that its conference opener against rival St. Ignatius would be a tougher game than normal. It'd have to shake off some rust and contend with pouring rain of the first half.
"It was definitely great to face an actual tough opponent," senior defender Anders Luthringhausen said. "We're used to scrimmaging our JV and other teammates, so it's a little tricky to get right back and face a tough opponent like St. Ignatius right away."
Luthringhausen scored both goals for the Friars, who are ranked 20th-ranked in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The second half tallies led his team to a 2-1 win and got them off to a successful start in conference play.
The rainy weather caused both teams to change their game plans a bit, knowing that the slick surface wouldn't play the same as a dry pitch.
For a no. 23 St. Ignatius team that came into the game having outscored its opponents 8-1 through two games, it was reasonable to assume that the Wolfpack might be prime candidates for a team to be slowed down by the weather.
That wasn't exactly the case, however. The visitors got on the board first when junior midfielder Aidan Hurst lined up and slotted a free kick past the outstretched arms of Fenwick keeper Greg Price in the fifth minute.
"With the weather today, we had to adjust things a little more," St. Ignatius coach Matt Miller said. "We had to keep things a little more compact and get bodies behind the ball. The goalkeeper needs to change his approach a little bit, but overall it's still the same game."
A little past midway through the first half, Fenwick thought it had a game-tying goal, but the Zach Hernandez score was wiped away by an offside call.
The decision seemed to light a fire under both teams. Rach went hard to goal and kept the pressure on until the Fenwick (2-0-0, 1-0-0) defense made a save just before the half to keep its deficit at one score.
Both teams went into the half with multiple changes in mind.
"We allowed them to keep possession in their first third, and we would contain," Miller said. "When they got past the 25 or so, we'd try to pressure hard and pressure quickly."
"It was a little bit of human nature, where they were confident because they were up, and we were hungry because we were down," Fenwick coach Craig Blazer said about the team's mentality going into the half. "The biggest play was right before the end of the half where Jack Powers saved a ball off the goal line; we would have been going into halftime down 2-0.
"So, credit to Jack, he's our right midfielder and came all the way back and had great defensive nature and presence. Once the game was 1-1 though, the game could have gone either way.
"They (St. Ignatius) really brought it when we were up 2-1, but credit to our defense, because they were really resilient in their play."
After a couple Fenwick chances, Luthringhausen finally got the hosts on the scoreboard in the 58th minute when he slotted in an Ari Vellilotis cross from the right side of the goal.
"We like to play short in the back, so we needed to adjust the game plan in the second half," Luthringhausen said. "That's why you saw a lot more long balls in the second half."
Four minutes later, he lined up to take a corner. His send bounced off the goalie's hands and trickled into the goal before the St. Ignatius defense could clear it.
"That wasn't really the plan on how I was hoping to execute it," Luthringhausen laughed.
"Of course you like to pull ahead, but I would have liked to make it more of a professional goal. A goal is a goal though."
For his efforts, Luthringhausen was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
The two teams have a storied history between each other, including a last-minute goal, something that Luthringhausen said Fenwick’s players had on their minds.
The win marked the first time since 2015 that the Friars have beaten the Wolfpack (2-1-0, 1-1-0), losing the last three times they'd played.
"This is the first time beating them since I've been here," Luthringhausen said. "It's a really good feeling, especially since it's so challenging.
"The guys that were on the team last year, we've had (2019's 2-1 loss) on our minds. We knew we wanted to get this one back."
Both coaches saw positives in their teams play. Miller was pleased with what he saw in the first half but knew what needed to be done after the team's second half.
"Obviously, it's a disappointing result, but we started off strong and structured," said the St. Ignatius coach. "We lost a little bit of shape in the midfield in the first half, adjusted into a five-man midfield in the second half to try to prevent the long ball. We didn't do much of a high-pressing game in the second half, but we'll learn from this."
"Going down 1-nil to a really good St. Ignatius team and then coming back was very encouraging," Blazer said. "Our first objective was to continue playing how we trained and the guys did.
"We gave up a number of shots, and I'm sure they had more free kicks and restarts than we did. But the mentality of the guys on the bench, they remained positive."
Starting lineups
St. Ignatius
GK: Nicholas Barkidjija
D: Charlie Kennedy
D: Luke Hogan
D: Gavin Troy
D: Billy Thompson
M: Alex Tan
M: Jaden Rice
M: Aidan Hurst
M: Dillon Kraft
F: Isaac Rice
Fenwick
GK: Greg Price
D: Anders Luthringhausen
D: Dylan Kupiec
D: Matty Garcia
D: Joey Karris
M: Luigi Mollo
M: Diego Salinas
M: Jack Powers
M: Jack Lowe
M: Ryan Bero
F: Narayan Sharma
F: Ari Vellilotis
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Anders Luthringhausen, sr. D, Fenwick
Scoring summary
First half
St. Ignatius - Aidan Hurst (FK), fifth minute
Second half
Fenwick - Anders Luthringhausen (Ari Vellilotis), 58th minute
Fenwick - Luthringhausen, 62nd minute