Set plays key ND upset of St. Patrick
Shamrocks drop 1st game to Notre Dame since 2017
By Michael Wojtychiw
NILES —— There are few rivalries in Illinois that rival the one between St. Patrick and Notre Dame. As the two largest all-boys Catholic high schools — and two of only three — on the North Side of the city or northern suburbs, the competition between the schools is keen.
Add to that, the duo often competes for future students from the same feeder schools.
So, when the two teams met Wednesday for their yearly East Suburban Catholic Conference matchup, dubbed the Irish Cup, it was inevitable that the game at Notre Dame was going to be hard-fought and emotional one.
What resulted was a 3-1 win for Notre Dame (2-0-1, 2-0-1), their first over the Shamrocks (2-1, 2-1) since 2017.
"We know how good these guys (St. Patrick) are and to do it on our home turf, it's awesome. Such a great feeling for not only us but our alums," Notre Dame coach Mike Smith said. "We said we want the guys to celebrate tonight, but it's a quick turnaround with games coming up. Winning this game gives us a chance to compete and be towards the top of the conference."
"It's obviously disappointing (to lose), especially since all we have to play for this year is conference," St. Patrick senior forward Sebastian Estrada said. "To drop a conference game this early in the season and then to have it be to our rival, makes it tougher."
"Notre Dame earned this win," St. Patrick coach Kyle McClure said. "They came out with a lot of energy, worked their butts off, played physical soccer and I was telling my coaches on the sidelines that they were earning the win.
"We had a couple close-calls, but the fact is they outplayed us. We've got a young team, so hopefully this will be a wakeup call that this is varsity soccer and in this conference it's tough. If you want to win big games, you need to be willing to play really physical, play more aggressively than we did and earn it. We just didn't earn it tonight, and they did."
Both teams came out strong, looking to get the ball on net and get on the board first. St. Patrick put three shots on goal in the first 13 minutes, and Notre Dame had what it thought to be a goal wiped out just just 1 minutes, 56 seconds into the game. The referee called a charging penalty against the host team.
St. Patrick’s luck changed with 6:32 remaining before halftime when Estrada put a free kick from the 10-yard line on the right hash past Notre Dame goalie Luca Lobianco.
"I meant to shoot it, when I got up to the ball, I knew that was the plan," he said. "I've been practicing the shot a lot lately, but my main goal and point was to get it on goal."
The Dons countered with a free kick goal of their own from 20 yards out when sophomore midfielder Danny Deano drilled a shot past the Shamrocks' keeper Bryant Alvarez with 3:15 until the half.
The game went to the break tied 1-1 after 40 minutes of a match that saw plenty of physical play. The refs let the teams play and seemed to understand the importance of the game to both squads.
"We knew it'd be a physical game, and I think that's something we definitely need to improve on, our physical play," McClure said. "The referees did a good job calling it both ways though. They let the kids play and didn't let the game get out of hand."
Even though the hosts had the wind in their favor in the second half, the Shamrocks continued to put pressure on Lobianco. They forced the sophomore keeper to make three saves in the half's first 12 minutes and missed on a shot that sailed just high over the goal.
Notre Dame broke the tie when junior Trevor Johnson put in a cross from Deano with just under 15 minutes remaining/ That gave the Dons a 2-1 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"Deano faked a shot from the outside, fed me a cross, and I found the right corner," said Johnson, who suffered a concussion in the Dons' last game. "I was pretty lucky, to be honest.
"It felt amazing. I couldn't believe it at first, because I didn't think it was a great shot, but then seeing the whole team celebrating, that really made it special."
The Shamrocks, the no. 15 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, had two fantastic opportunities in the last 8:37 of the contest. One forced a Lobianco save; the other hit the far post on a shot from the right of the goal.
Unfortunately for the Shamrocks, neither went in and the Dons put the game away after a Deano free kick that junior Andres Barrezueta knocked it into the net with 1:48 remaining.
"We had our specialist (Deano) take the free kick, and all he had to do was put it in," Barrezueta said. "The goalkeeper came out, I saw the ball coming and just glided it in."
With his play in the win, Deano earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor.
The game featured two young squads. Notre Dame started three freshmen and three sophomores and only carries three seniors on the team. St. Patrick only has 11 upperclassmen on its roster of 24, which includes six freshmen.
With so many young players, this COVID-19-shortened season allowed coaches like McClure the ability to play some on his roster who may not have gotten a lot of playing time otherwise, or use players who might have played on the junior varsity or sophomore levels.
"We told the guys that anyone who didn't get into this game is going to start on Saturday," McClure said. "We want to give everyone a chance to show what they can do on the field and then based on how everyone plays, we potentially have our lineup next week. We've got five days in seven games, have a good practice and go from there.
"Hopefully we can learn from this, and now we really find out what type of team we are."
The Shamrocks tough schedule continues next week with five games in eight days, starting with Speer on Saturday and three conference games to start next week before a nonconference showdown with no. 20 Fenwick.
Estrada and his teammates know that the loss to Notre Dame was hard, but they can't sit around and dwell on it
"With so many younger guys on the team that may not have been in a rivalry game like this, we need to just let them know there will be other games," Estrada said. "We've got a lot of games next week, more time to get better and improve and that even though losing this game wasn't what we had hoped for, we've got to regroup and think about the next game."
Starting Lineups
St. Patrick
GK: Bryant Alvarez
D: Narcizo Ibarra
D: Daniel Carrera
D: Xavier Gamez
MF: Jake Lane
MF: Jorge Parra
MF: Rafael Rios
MF: Nicholas Leon
MF: Ivan Guerrero
F: Sebastian Estrada
F: Jaden Buelvas
Notre Dame
GK: Luca Lobianco
D: Zach Zwolfer
D: Martin Krug
D: Paul Harris
MF: Danny Deano
MF: Michael Ziemba
MF: Zach Martin
MF: Michael Shanahan
F: Freddy Krug
F: Trevor Johnson
F: Francesco Difilippo
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Danny Deano, so., MF, Notre Dame
Scoring Summary
First half
St. Patrick - Sebastian Estrada (FK), 33rd minute
Notre Dame - Danny Deano (FK), 36th minute
Second Half
Notre Dame - Trevor Johnson (Deano), 65th minute
Notre Dame - Andres Barrezueta (Deano), 78th minute
Shamrocks drop 1st game to Notre Dame since 2017
By Michael Wojtychiw
NILES —— There are few rivalries in Illinois that rival the one between St. Patrick and Notre Dame. As the two largest all-boys Catholic high schools — and two of only three — on the North Side of the city or northern suburbs, the competition between the schools is keen.
Add to that, the duo often competes for future students from the same feeder schools.
So, when the two teams met Wednesday for their yearly East Suburban Catholic Conference matchup, dubbed the Irish Cup, it was inevitable that the game at Notre Dame was going to be hard-fought and emotional one.
What resulted was a 3-1 win for Notre Dame (2-0-1, 2-0-1), their first over the Shamrocks (2-1, 2-1) since 2017.
"We know how good these guys (St. Patrick) are and to do it on our home turf, it's awesome. Such a great feeling for not only us but our alums," Notre Dame coach Mike Smith said. "We said we want the guys to celebrate tonight, but it's a quick turnaround with games coming up. Winning this game gives us a chance to compete and be towards the top of the conference."
"It's obviously disappointing (to lose), especially since all we have to play for this year is conference," St. Patrick senior forward Sebastian Estrada said. "To drop a conference game this early in the season and then to have it be to our rival, makes it tougher."
"Notre Dame earned this win," St. Patrick coach Kyle McClure said. "They came out with a lot of energy, worked their butts off, played physical soccer and I was telling my coaches on the sidelines that they were earning the win.
"We had a couple close-calls, but the fact is they outplayed us. We've got a young team, so hopefully this will be a wakeup call that this is varsity soccer and in this conference it's tough. If you want to win big games, you need to be willing to play really physical, play more aggressively than we did and earn it. We just didn't earn it tonight, and they did."
Both teams came out strong, looking to get the ball on net and get on the board first. St. Patrick put three shots on goal in the first 13 minutes, and Notre Dame had what it thought to be a goal wiped out just just 1 minutes, 56 seconds into the game. The referee called a charging penalty against the host team.
St. Patrick’s luck changed with 6:32 remaining before halftime when Estrada put a free kick from the 10-yard line on the right hash past Notre Dame goalie Luca Lobianco.
"I meant to shoot it, when I got up to the ball, I knew that was the plan," he said. "I've been practicing the shot a lot lately, but my main goal and point was to get it on goal."
The Dons countered with a free kick goal of their own from 20 yards out when sophomore midfielder Danny Deano drilled a shot past the Shamrocks' keeper Bryant Alvarez with 3:15 until the half.
The game went to the break tied 1-1 after 40 minutes of a match that saw plenty of physical play. The refs let the teams play and seemed to understand the importance of the game to both squads.
"We knew it'd be a physical game, and I think that's something we definitely need to improve on, our physical play," McClure said. "The referees did a good job calling it both ways though. They let the kids play and didn't let the game get out of hand."
Even though the hosts had the wind in their favor in the second half, the Shamrocks continued to put pressure on Lobianco. They forced the sophomore keeper to make three saves in the half's first 12 minutes and missed on a shot that sailed just high over the goal.
Notre Dame broke the tie when junior Trevor Johnson put in a cross from Deano with just under 15 minutes remaining/ That gave the Dons a 2-1 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"Deano faked a shot from the outside, fed me a cross, and I found the right corner," said Johnson, who suffered a concussion in the Dons' last game. "I was pretty lucky, to be honest.
"It felt amazing. I couldn't believe it at first, because I didn't think it was a great shot, but then seeing the whole team celebrating, that really made it special."
The Shamrocks, the no. 15 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, had two fantastic opportunities in the last 8:37 of the contest. One forced a Lobianco save; the other hit the far post on a shot from the right of the goal.
Unfortunately for the Shamrocks, neither went in and the Dons put the game away after a Deano free kick that junior Andres Barrezueta knocked it into the net with 1:48 remaining.
"We had our specialist (Deano) take the free kick, and all he had to do was put it in," Barrezueta said. "The goalkeeper came out, I saw the ball coming and just glided it in."
With his play in the win, Deano earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor.
The game featured two young squads. Notre Dame started three freshmen and three sophomores and only carries three seniors on the team. St. Patrick only has 11 upperclassmen on its roster of 24, which includes six freshmen.
With so many young players, this COVID-19-shortened season allowed coaches like McClure the ability to play some on his roster who may not have gotten a lot of playing time otherwise, or use players who might have played on the junior varsity or sophomore levels.
"We told the guys that anyone who didn't get into this game is going to start on Saturday," McClure said. "We want to give everyone a chance to show what they can do on the field and then based on how everyone plays, we potentially have our lineup next week. We've got five days in seven games, have a good practice and go from there.
"Hopefully we can learn from this, and now we really find out what type of team we are."
The Shamrocks tough schedule continues next week with five games in eight days, starting with Speer on Saturday and three conference games to start next week before a nonconference showdown with no. 20 Fenwick.
Estrada and his teammates know that the loss to Notre Dame was hard, but they can't sit around and dwell on it
"With so many younger guys on the team that may not have been in a rivalry game like this, we need to just let them know there will be other games," Estrada said. "We've got a lot of games next week, more time to get better and improve and that even though losing this game wasn't what we had hoped for, we've got to regroup and think about the next game."
Starting Lineups
St. Patrick
GK: Bryant Alvarez
D: Narcizo Ibarra
D: Daniel Carrera
D: Xavier Gamez
MF: Jake Lane
MF: Jorge Parra
MF: Rafael Rios
MF: Nicholas Leon
MF: Ivan Guerrero
F: Sebastian Estrada
F: Jaden Buelvas
Notre Dame
GK: Luca Lobianco
D: Zach Zwolfer
D: Martin Krug
D: Paul Harris
MF: Danny Deano
MF: Michael Ziemba
MF: Zach Martin
MF: Michael Shanahan
F: Freddy Krug
F: Trevor Johnson
F: Francesco Difilippo
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Danny Deano, so., MF, Notre Dame
Scoring Summary
First half
St. Patrick - Sebastian Estrada (FK), 33rd minute
Notre Dame - Danny Deano (FK), 36th minute
Second Half
Notre Dame - Trevor Johnson (Deano), 65th minute
Notre Dame - Andres Barrezueta (Deano), 78th minute