Solorio tops Carmel,
puts CPS in tourney title spotlight
Sun Warriors bracket win is 2nd if its kind for city school
By Dave Owen
LA GRANGE -- Solorio has made great progress since the season began.
Sunday, the Sun Warriors made something else: history.
With its 3-1 win over Carmel (4-4-1) in the championship game of a BodyArmor bracket, Solorio (9-2-0) became just the second Chicago Public School team (following Lane in 2013) to win a title in the 20-year history of the event.
“It’s a lot of pride,” Solorio junior Cristian Bueno said.
“It’s an honor to win this tournament, for the teams from where I like to call the trenches. We're a CPS school, and there's a lot of good suburban schools here. So, it means a lot winning this tournament.”
Solorio has made huge strides since August setbacks to Bloom and St. Laurence. Sunday’s victory marked the squad’s seventh in a row. The Sun Warriors rose a spot to fourth in Chicagoland Soccer's new Class AA Super 7 poll.
“The team is growing,” Sun Warriors coach Adrian Calleros said. “We're a young team. When we lost early to St Laurence, I know people aren’t used to seeing us lose 3-0. So, some people were like 'You guys are down,’ but it is what it is. If that's what you think fine, you'll get to see us later. We’re going to be us again at the end of the year.
“We're a new team. We graduated nine guys that played a lot last year, so it was going to be a minute before we started jelling and understanding and coming together. That's part of it, and it's a mindset of growing and getting better every game.”
Players like Bueno have bought into the message, to improve this year and add their group to Solorio’s list of recent successful teams.
“Keep the tradition going on from what they (earlier teams) left for us,” Bueno said.
“We have four seniors (in 2022). Most of us are juniors. The seniors bring the youngsters under their wing. They train us and push us to go harder in practice, to get us ready for the game.”
Bueno was certainly ready for a big moment 22 minutes into the match. He sparked the Sun Warriors to a 1-0 lead.
Off a pass from Yamir Gallegos, Bueno put on a dribbling clinic of sorts with a left-side rush. Then he cut to the middle to elude the charging Carmel goalkeeper and defenders and deposit a low shot into the vacant net.
As nice as that play was, Bueno came as close as possible to duplicating it less than a minute later. Taking a cross at the 18, Bueno burst in on wing again and sent a low 10-yard shot off the right post.
For good measure 27 minutes in, defense turned into a try and produced more metallic moments for Solorio.
Off a Carmel throw-in, Jose Teudocio’s nice sliding clear ignited a counterattack, with Bueno again in the mix. Bueno’s eventual cross to the top of the box found Orlando Ojeda, whose 15-yard liner caromed off the crossbar and over.
Between the goal and the narrowest of near misses, Solorio’s theme was clear.
“Pressure on top,” Bueno said. “Each striker attacked with intensity, and we caught the defenders sleeping. And our middles were sending good through-balls.”
But in the fickle world of soccer, Solorio’s mid-half run of great chances was met by an extended threat by Carmel. And suddenly, the score was 1-1.
Off a Carmel 40-yard free kick in the 32nd minute, an initial header was cleared away toward the left sideline. There, the Corsairs regrouped with passes by Sammy Arroyo and Sandro Pineda, who angled a ball to Roman Lynch on the right side for a low liner into the net.
“We kept it alive and had a good cross,” Carmel coach Robert Etheridge said. “We brought it back across, recycled the ball, got it wide and had a great finish by Roman.”
Carmel carried that momentum the rest of the half. Solorio goalkeeper David Salgado came up with a nice 38th-minute nice grab over a Corsairs player of a Augie Lombardo free kick send. Then in the final minute, Salgado made the save on an Arroyo shot to end the first stanza 1-1.
That was not a score Solorio would let stand for long.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Bueno attacked again right side and passed to Justino Saucedo.
Saucedo’s ensuing cross found Junior Pineda open atop the box, and the sophomore lasered a low liner inside the left post to put Solorio up for good at 2-1.
“I just saw the open shot. And why not take the shot?” Pineda asked.
“We just had to wake up. We were sleeping in the first half and missing a lot of chances. A little pep talk from our coach helped us come back in the second half.”
Speaking of comebacks, Pineda’s has been very impressive.
“The game we lost to St. Laurence, literally the opening play they nailed him, and he's out of the game,” Calleros said. “All of a sudden we lose our center mid.”
But Pineda worked his way back to health and into the lineup, and now has seven goals in 2022.
“I just kept on fighting through my pain to come back,” said Pineda, who was sidelined for a week but has returned in style as one of several key Solorio sophomores.
“We have a lot of sophomores like our keeper David (Salgado), Junior, Jose (Teudocio),” Calleros said. “It's nice to see the youth playing and developing.”
It was also nice from Solorio’s perspective Sunday to keep attacking and withstand a Carmel push.
Within three minutes of Pineda’s goal, Ojeda (18-yarder just over the net), Ricardo Mejia (right-side rush and 8-yard shot saved by Carmel goalkeeper Luke Reynolds) and Gallegos (10-yarder saved at the left post) all had quality chances.
Then in the 46th minute, a great Ojeda touch pass sprung Gallegos into the box for a 10-yard shot that went just wide left.
But Carmel’s increasing focus on drawing even would soon produce some great chances for the Corsairs.
One strong bid came in the 50th minute. After Cooper Riley was fouled, Lombardo powered a 28-yard free kick off the crossbar and over the top of the net.
“That crossbar,” Etheridge said, “Then we had a chance at 2-1 to go 2-2 with a header and missed it. They're a good team (Solorio), but I think we played pretty well with them.”
The header chance came one minute after the crossbar shot, with this time a left-side run and cross to the front was nodded just wide of the near post.
“We had to take some risks to try to get back to 2-2,” Etheridge said. “But we played really hard. I'm really pleased with how the guys did.”
Carmel had two more decent chances in the 58th minute (a 25-yard indirect free kick that Pineda initially cleared, and Rollando Colin then sent wide right) and the 63rd minute (a Salgado catch save of a Lombardo free kick).
But in the final 15-plus minutes, Solorio had a nice finishing kick.
Bueno had another near miss, sending a Gallegos cross just wide. Pineda then fired a liner over the net off a Saucedo cross. Nice defense was added to the mix from Alejandro Rebollar (a nice 1-v-1 steal just outside the box in the 68th minute) and the combination of Gallegos and Saucedo (making a nice shot-block).
Senior Ivan Lopez summed up the defensive approach that helped close the door vs. Carmel.
“Just putting more intensity into the game,” Lopez said. “I think intensity is something that we've lacked sometimes, but it's the finals so we knew we had to give it our all. And it was that intensity that gave us the win.”
A great Solorio set piece in the 75th minute made the Sun Warriors' hope for a win a lock.
Off Gallegos’ right-side corner send, Lopez sprung open for a back post header that finalized the score at 3-1.
“The set piece (corner) we scored on, we beat Payton Friday with that too,” Calleros said. “So they're starting to understand it.
“It’s a set piece where they have to read and react, and if you can read and react, there's no scouting it. It's a fluid play where they read, and they go from there.
“They're starting to get old enough and experienced enough to recognize it and think through it and react. Its nice.”
Carmel continued to show fight down 3-1, but a Salgado save on Colin’s 20-yard shot and nice late clears near the top of the box by defenders Lopez and Sebastian Gonzalez set off the type of championship celebration that’s rare in CPS circles.
“It's a great experience,” Lopez said. “We haven't won something like this before. And I know the celebration is pretty cool.”
The celebration was literally cool, with the players and coaches spraying each other and themselves with bottles of cold soft drinks as part of the tournament’s traditional trophy ceremony.
Sticky from being soaked with beverages, it seems Lopez’s answer about the key to recent Solorio success was appropriate: sticking together.
“It’s team chemistry,” Lopez said. “Being able to work together as a team. It's always going to get us wins.”
In defeat, Carmel was hardly downbeat.
“We got out of this (tournament) that we played some good teams,” Etheridge said. “and we've beaten some good teams.”
Awash in breakthrough tournament success as well as soda, Solorio heads down the stretch of the season with confidence and energy even caffeine-laced drinks can’t provide.
“This shows that anything is possible,” Pineda said. “Our coach is so good, and all our people are coming together and playing well.”
Bueno was more precise in his expectations for another less-carbonated party to come.
“Hopefully we win state,” he said.
Starting lineups
Solorio
GK: David Salgado
D: Sebastian Gonzalez
D: Ivan Lopez
D: Alfonso Espino
D: Adrian Munoz
M: Justino Saucedo
M: Orlando Ojeda
M: Cristopher Bueno
M: Junior Pineda
F: Ricardo Mejia
F: Yamir Gallegos
Carmel
GK: Luke Reynolds
D: Augie Lombardo
D: Matthew Gonzalez
D: Matt Lochner
D: Josh Kietlyka
M: Aiden Fendel
M: Cooper Riley
M: Roman Lynch
M: Nikita Glokke
F: Sammy Arroyo
F: Sandro Pineda
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Cristopher Bueno, jr., MF, Solorio
Scoring summary
First half
Solorio- Cristopher Bueno, 22’
Carmel- Roman Lynch (Sandro Pineda), 32’
Second half
Solorio- Junior Pineda (Justino Saucedo), 42’
Solorio- Ivan Lopez (Yamir Gallegos corner kick), 75’
puts CPS in tourney title spotlight
Sun Warriors bracket win is 2nd if its kind for city school
By Dave Owen
LA GRANGE -- Solorio has made great progress since the season began.
Sunday, the Sun Warriors made something else: history.
With its 3-1 win over Carmel (4-4-1) in the championship game of a BodyArmor bracket, Solorio (9-2-0) became just the second Chicago Public School team (following Lane in 2013) to win a title in the 20-year history of the event.
“It’s a lot of pride,” Solorio junior Cristian Bueno said.
“It’s an honor to win this tournament, for the teams from where I like to call the trenches. We're a CPS school, and there's a lot of good suburban schools here. So, it means a lot winning this tournament.”
Solorio has made huge strides since August setbacks to Bloom and St. Laurence. Sunday’s victory marked the squad’s seventh in a row. The Sun Warriors rose a spot to fourth in Chicagoland Soccer's new Class AA Super 7 poll.
“The team is growing,” Sun Warriors coach Adrian Calleros said. “We're a young team. When we lost early to St Laurence, I know people aren’t used to seeing us lose 3-0. So, some people were like 'You guys are down,’ but it is what it is. If that's what you think fine, you'll get to see us later. We’re going to be us again at the end of the year.
“We're a new team. We graduated nine guys that played a lot last year, so it was going to be a minute before we started jelling and understanding and coming together. That's part of it, and it's a mindset of growing and getting better every game.”
Players like Bueno have bought into the message, to improve this year and add their group to Solorio’s list of recent successful teams.
“Keep the tradition going on from what they (earlier teams) left for us,” Bueno said.
“We have four seniors (in 2022). Most of us are juniors. The seniors bring the youngsters under their wing. They train us and push us to go harder in practice, to get us ready for the game.”
Bueno was certainly ready for a big moment 22 minutes into the match. He sparked the Sun Warriors to a 1-0 lead.
Off a pass from Yamir Gallegos, Bueno put on a dribbling clinic of sorts with a left-side rush. Then he cut to the middle to elude the charging Carmel goalkeeper and defenders and deposit a low shot into the vacant net.
As nice as that play was, Bueno came as close as possible to duplicating it less than a minute later. Taking a cross at the 18, Bueno burst in on wing again and sent a low 10-yard shot off the right post.
For good measure 27 minutes in, defense turned into a try and produced more metallic moments for Solorio.
Off a Carmel throw-in, Jose Teudocio’s nice sliding clear ignited a counterattack, with Bueno again in the mix. Bueno’s eventual cross to the top of the box found Orlando Ojeda, whose 15-yard liner caromed off the crossbar and over.
Between the goal and the narrowest of near misses, Solorio’s theme was clear.
“Pressure on top,” Bueno said. “Each striker attacked with intensity, and we caught the defenders sleeping. And our middles were sending good through-balls.”
But in the fickle world of soccer, Solorio’s mid-half run of great chances was met by an extended threat by Carmel. And suddenly, the score was 1-1.
Off a Carmel 40-yard free kick in the 32nd minute, an initial header was cleared away toward the left sideline. There, the Corsairs regrouped with passes by Sammy Arroyo and Sandro Pineda, who angled a ball to Roman Lynch on the right side for a low liner into the net.
“We kept it alive and had a good cross,” Carmel coach Robert Etheridge said. “We brought it back across, recycled the ball, got it wide and had a great finish by Roman.”
Carmel carried that momentum the rest of the half. Solorio goalkeeper David Salgado came up with a nice 38th-minute nice grab over a Corsairs player of a Augie Lombardo free kick send. Then in the final minute, Salgado made the save on an Arroyo shot to end the first stanza 1-1.
That was not a score Solorio would let stand for long.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Bueno attacked again right side and passed to Justino Saucedo.
Saucedo’s ensuing cross found Junior Pineda open atop the box, and the sophomore lasered a low liner inside the left post to put Solorio up for good at 2-1.
“I just saw the open shot. And why not take the shot?” Pineda asked.
“We just had to wake up. We were sleeping in the first half and missing a lot of chances. A little pep talk from our coach helped us come back in the second half.”
Speaking of comebacks, Pineda’s has been very impressive.
“The game we lost to St. Laurence, literally the opening play they nailed him, and he's out of the game,” Calleros said. “All of a sudden we lose our center mid.”
But Pineda worked his way back to health and into the lineup, and now has seven goals in 2022.
“I just kept on fighting through my pain to come back,” said Pineda, who was sidelined for a week but has returned in style as one of several key Solorio sophomores.
“We have a lot of sophomores like our keeper David (Salgado), Junior, Jose (Teudocio),” Calleros said. “It's nice to see the youth playing and developing.”
It was also nice from Solorio’s perspective Sunday to keep attacking and withstand a Carmel push.
Within three minutes of Pineda’s goal, Ojeda (18-yarder just over the net), Ricardo Mejia (right-side rush and 8-yard shot saved by Carmel goalkeeper Luke Reynolds) and Gallegos (10-yarder saved at the left post) all had quality chances.
Then in the 46th minute, a great Ojeda touch pass sprung Gallegos into the box for a 10-yard shot that went just wide left.
But Carmel’s increasing focus on drawing even would soon produce some great chances for the Corsairs.
One strong bid came in the 50th minute. After Cooper Riley was fouled, Lombardo powered a 28-yard free kick off the crossbar and over the top of the net.
“That crossbar,” Etheridge said, “Then we had a chance at 2-1 to go 2-2 with a header and missed it. They're a good team (Solorio), but I think we played pretty well with them.”
The header chance came one minute after the crossbar shot, with this time a left-side run and cross to the front was nodded just wide of the near post.
“We had to take some risks to try to get back to 2-2,” Etheridge said. “But we played really hard. I'm really pleased with how the guys did.”
Carmel had two more decent chances in the 58th minute (a 25-yard indirect free kick that Pineda initially cleared, and Rollando Colin then sent wide right) and the 63rd minute (a Salgado catch save of a Lombardo free kick).
But in the final 15-plus minutes, Solorio had a nice finishing kick.
Bueno had another near miss, sending a Gallegos cross just wide. Pineda then fired a liner over the net off a Saucedo cross. Nice defense was added to the mix from Alejandro Rebollar (a nice 1-v-1 steal just outside the box in the 68th minute) and the combination of Gallegos and Saucedo (making a nice shot-block).
Senior Ivan Lopez summed up the defensive approach that helped close the door vs. Carmel.
“Just putting more intensity into the game,” Lopez said. “I think intensity is something that we've lacked sometimes, but it's the finals so we knew we had to give it our all. And it was that intensity that gave us the win.”
A great Solorio set piece in the 75th minute made the Sun Warriors' hope for a win a lock.
Off Gallegos’ right-side corner send, Lopez sprung open for a back post header that finalized the score at 3-1.
“The set piece (corner) we scored on, we beat Payton Friday with that too,” Calleros said. “So they're starting to understand it.
“It’s a set piece where they have to read and react, and if you can read and react, there's no scouting it. It's a fluid play where they read, and they go from there.
“They're starting to get old enough and experienced enough to recognize it and think through it and react. Its nice.”
Carmel continued to show fight down 3-1, but a Salgado save on Colin’s 20-yard shot and nice late clears near the top of the box by defenders Lopez and Sebastian Gonzalez set off the type of championship celebration that’s rare in CPS circles.
“It's a great experience,” Lopez said. “We haven't won something like this before. And I know the celebration is pretty cool.”
The celebration was literally cool, with the players and coaches spraying each other and themselves with bottles of cold soft drinks as part of the tournament’s traditional trophy ceremony.
Sticky from being soaked with beverages, it seems Lopez’s answer about the key to recent Solorio success was appropriate: sticking together.
“It’s team chemistry,” Lopez said. “Being able to work together as a team. It's always going to get us wins.”
In defeat, Carmel was hardly downbeat.
“We got out of this (tournament) that we played some good teams,” Etheridge said. “and we've beaten some good teams.”
Awash in breakthrough tournament success as well as soda, Solorio heads down the stretch of the season with confidence and energy even caffeine-laced drinks can’t provide.
“This shows that anything is possible,” Pineda said. “Our coach is so good, and all our people are coming together and playing well.”
Bueno was more precise in his expectations for another less-carbonated party to come.
“Hopefully we win state,” he said.
Starting lineups
Solorio
GK: David Salgado
D: Sebastian Gonzalez
D: Ivan Lopez
D: Alfonso Espino
D: Adrian Munoz
M: Justino Saucedo
M: Orlando Ojeda
M: Cristopher Bueno
M: Junior Pineda
F: Ricardo Mejia
F: Yamir Gallegos
Carmel
GK: Luke Reynolds
D: Augie Lombardo
D: Matthew Gonzalez
D: Matt Lochner
D: Josh Kietlyka
M: Aiden Fendel
M: Cooper Riley
M: Roman Lynch
M: Nikita Glokke
F: Sammy Arroyo
F: Sandro Pineda
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Cristopher Bueno, jr., MF, Solorio
Scoring summary
First half
Solorio- Cristopher Bueno, 22’
Carmel- Roman Lynch (Sandro Pineda), 32’
Second half
Solorio- Junior Pineda (Justino Saucedo), 42’
Solorio- Ivan Lopez (Yamir Gallegos corner kick), 75’