Defending 3A champ York
withstands opening test from St. Patrick
Jose Herrera goal in 38th minute holds up for 2-1 victory
By Dave Owen
ELMHURST -- The champions are still rolling.
York graduated seven seniors from the starting lineup of its 2021 Class 3A state championship game win over Fremd.
But seniors Joe Hernandez and Jose Herrera are back in green and white, and teamed up for a pretty goal in the 36th minute to decide the Dukes’ 2022 season-opening 2-1 win over visiting St. Patrick.
“Me and Jose go way back,” Hernandez said. “We’ve played soccer together many years, since we were little. And I'm glad because that built up to this, so we can play like this in high school. I'm very happy.”
Herrera was very happy to see a perfect through-ball up the middle from Hernandez, springing him to race past the defense and chip a 15-yard shot past charging St. Patrick goalkeeper Anthony Torres.
“I saw an opening. My friend Joe gave me the ball, and I was going,” Herrera said. “I saw (Torres) was coming from the outside, so I cut in and just chipped it over.
“Joe's a great friend, my best friend, like a brother to me. And we have so much chemistry on this team. We just need to work on finishing games and finishing (scoring chances). I see us going far.”
Going far is a new tradition at York, which turned the first state trip in program history into a championship. Herrera was a key figure with three goals and two assists over state weekend. He scored twice in the final vs. Fremd; the first just 39 seconds in.
“At first it was like 'How are we here?,’ Herrera said of the 2021 state run. “Second, it was 'Wow, we're here.' Third, it was 'We did it.'
“It still feels good just to know that we did it. It was a hard task, we followed through, and now we're coming back to do it again.”
Step one towards a repeat was not easy. St. Patrick fell behind 1-0 but tied the game just three minutes later and threatened the Dukes with a furious finishing push to the game.
(York assistant) coach (David) Alvarez said 'It looks like they're up 2-1, not us' the way they played,” Dukes coach Jordan Stopka said. “They're going to be a good team. I'm excited to see what they do this year.”
Stopka has more than a passing interest in St. Patrick’s fate. He was an assistant coach to Shamrocks co-head coaches Melchor Castro and Kyle McClure on St. Patrick’s 2019 Class 3A state fourth place team before taking the helm at York.
“I know a couple of their seniors,” Stopka said, “and I know McClure and Castro very well. We met up for a couple of barbecues this summer and talked a lot of trash then.”
The admiration for Stopka at St. Patrick remains evident.
“He learned a few things from us,” Castro joked. “Stopka has created his own vision over here (at York) from when he came in, and he's doing some very good stuff.
“It's nice to have that relationship with him. He was our assistant, with us for about four years. He was there for that state trip, then right after he came over here. He’s shown that they (York) made the right choice.”
The Castro-McClure coaching combo at St. Patrick has also produced great results, and Thursday was no different.
“It’s not easy to come to the home opener of the state champs and have them kind of against the wall,” Castro said. “The way they're celebrating (the win), it’s kind of like they survived, and that's a good feeling for us.
“Some of our guys had their head down, and I told them definitely don't do that. We did something good tonight.
“This was a test we wanted to have to see where we're at. It shows what we're capable of and shows the guys what we're capable of.
“I think this was a great game,” Castro added. “We held our own. We had a few chances to tie and chances to win it. But that's how it works.”
York came out blazing in the first 18 minutes, before the game settled into a battle of punch and counter punch.
Just 1:45 into the match, St. Patrick keeper Torres made a great one-handed deflection wide of a Frank Rofrano 18-yard shot.
Then on Ryder Kohl’s ensuing corner kick send to the back post, Hernandez clanged a left side 6-yard shot off the crossbar and Herrera chipped a point-blank rebound try just over the net.
The scenario repeated in the 17th minute, as Herrera’s 28-yard free kick rocket was again deflected wide right by a sprawling Torres.
But this time, York’s corner kick had the finishing touch.
Kohl’s send resulted in a point-blank save in front by Torres on Herrera, but Rofrano raced in to pound in the rebound from the crease for a 1-0 York lead 23:30 before halftime.
“On balls like that it's all about attacking,” Rofrano said. “You have to recognize the goalie’s weakness, and the moment the ball hits him I'm gone. “If he catches it, he catches it. If he doesn't I'm there (for the rebound). It's all about the hustle for me.”
The hustle paid off for Rofrano, a spot starter last year at midfield who looks for a more prominent role in 2022.
“It's nice to finally make it to the starting lineup and play 70-plus minutes,” Rofrano said. “It's a big change from last year. Last year I was playing in the middle of the field, and now I'm up here.”
Rofrano’s play certainly made an impression on Stopka.
“Frank Rofrano was a chameleon today,” he said. “He played outside, he played center defensive mid, he played forward. He played wherever we needed him to play, and I think he responded really well.
“He's a kid who was on the team last year and might not have got as much time as he wanted, and I think he pretty much just earned it this game. We were really impressed with him.
“And another unsung hero to me was Jay Waski,” Stopka added. “He was extremely dangerous in the first half. He made all these runs, and he just wasn't getting the ball. He was open, but everyone was looking for their own shot.”
While Waski impressed with his hustle, St. Patrick showed great resiliency down 1-0.
Less than three minutes after Rofrano’s goal, Daniel Carrera made a strong right side run and crossed to Sergio Barron, who was open to the left of the net.
Leaping York goalkeeper Diego Ochoa got a hand on Barron’s high 6-yard rocket near the post, but the ball found the upper left corner of the net and the score was 1-1.
“I saw Daniel my teammate making the run wide on the wing,” Barron said, “and as a left wing my job is to do the same thing, go up the left side. I saw him cross it, I got a good shot off of it, and I scored.
“It was a tight shot (near the back post) but I placed it really well. I always have the mentality that every shot I'm going to take, I'm going to score.”
York’s Herrera has that same mentality, and would kick at the door before knocking it down for the eventual game-winner.
Denied on a header wide off his brother Gustavo Herrera’s corner kick (22nd minute) and then on a 20-yard drive swatted wide by Torres (34th minute), Herrera would have better luck with 4:02 left in the half.
Less than 30 seconds after a Carrera header just wide off a corner kick and nearly gave St. Patrick the lead, the Hernandez-Herrera combination produced a 2-1 York lead.
“Our coach taught us that after we get scored on to just keep on going,” Hernandez said of the Dukes’ strong response to the Shamrocks’ tying goal. “There's no reason for us to put our heads down, no reason to go negative. We have to unite and support each other to keep on going, keep on going.”
When Hernandez and Herrera get going, look out opponents.
“I was contemplating calling them up as sophomores,” Stopka said, “and because of COVID (and the shortened and delayed season) what did we have to lose. We can get them in with all the varsity players.
“Now its year three, and they've been playing together I can't even tell you how many days out of the year. And Jose's little brother Rico (Gustavo Herrera) has as well.”
An equally high-energy Waski nearly added to the York lead 2:30 before halftime, but his left post shot that appeared destined for glory was swept off the goal line by St. Patrick standout Carrera to keep the score 2-1 at halftime.
“I feel like once we started getting going we were OK,” Rofrano said. “We obviously scored our first goal, they scored their goal and then from there it was kind of a battle. I just felt like 50-50 balls turned to 70-30s for us because our hustle was just there.”
York continued its offensive in the first six minutes of the second half, but good chances for Kohl (25-yard high liner blocked and caught by Torres) and Herrera (a great dribble to the top of the box thwarted by a Nicolas Leon steal) were denied.
But as the game reached its final stages, holding off St. Patrick became a handful.
With 17:30 left to go, Rafael Rios’ send to the front of the net was deflected on net from a crowd by Barron. But Ochoa was able to cover up the loose ball.
A Rafael Ramirez shot just wide at the right post (16:05 to play) and an Ochoa diving cover in the box moments before Chriz Perez arrived (14:50 remaining) added to the Shamrocks push, and there was much more to come.
The best bid to tie came with 11:05 left. A foul right of the box set up a free kick from the 6-yard-line for Leon. His chip to the front resulted in a Gael Quinonez header inches over the crossbar.
“Honestly there wasn't that much of a difference (between the teams),” Barron said. “We got a little lazy once they scored that second goal and that dropped our mentality a little bit. But then we started picking it back up towards the end.”
Then with 2:12 to go, there was one last quality Shamrocks chance. Rios spun free of a defender right of the box and sent a low, line-drive 15-yard shot.
But Ochoa made a diving save and dived on the rebound chance just ahead of St. Patrick’s James Gustafson.
Epitomizing the exhausting battle, Rios, Gustafson and York defender Drew Ebner were all down on the field with leg cramps after the play.
But Ebner recovered sufficiently to seal the York win with 10 seconds left, winning a ball just inside midfield and drawing a foul as time expired.
“You can't really ask for a better way to start off a season than a win,” Rofrano said. “There's a team coming into this game thinking, it's time to knock off these state champs. It's good to show them we're still here and still ready to get it going.”
But while a win eluded St. Patrick, they exited Elmhurst with plenty of confidence.
“We fought really hard and that boosts up our mentality for everything,” Barron said, “because playing a state-winning team and only losing by one goal, that's really good for us.”
The view from the coaching standpoint was the same.
“We're such a small school (for 3A),” Castro said, “but we want to instill in our guys the competitiveness. We want to play the really good teams and the big schools, because that shows us that if we can hold on with the big schools. That says a lot about us as a program.
“It was a good game,” Castro added. “We didn't know what to expect today. We definitely had an opportunity to tie it again. This definitely showed us a lot.
“I think our guys understand that they have what it takes to win a lot of games, go deep in the playoffs and who knows, hopefully we see them (York) again in the state tournament.”
York would like nothing more than to enjoy a repeat of its 2021 ride. But it’s one step at a time.
“We know it's a target on our backs (winning state),” Herrera said, “but we also know this shouldn't get to our heads that we won state last year. We haven't won anything right now. So, we have to keep winning.”
Fellow senior Rofrano echoed the different year, same challenge theme.
“What I like to think of it as, it's always a new year,” Rofrano said. “There's always a new team, always room for improvement.
“No team is the same as last year, there's always going to be new guys. So, I like to think of it as a clean state and another year to prove ourselves.”
For his part, Stopka is emphasizing small steps in Friday’s practice. Or in this case after an exhausting second half on Thursday, maybe no steps at all.
“We're going to drink Gatorade in practice and not even move,” he said. “Just pass stationary so we don't get any more calf cramps.
“But this is a nice win to start the year off with. Now we see where we go from here.”
Starting lineups
St. Patrick
GK Anthony Torres
D Chriz Perez
D Jason Torres
D Rafael Rios
D Rafael Ramirez
M Daniel Carrera
M Nicolas Leon
M Nathan Davila
M Christian Medina
F Christian Correa
F Sergio Barron
York
GK Diego Ochoa
D Drew Ebner
D Stefan Rebic
D Alexander Menolascina
D Michael Greco
M Joe Hernandez
M Ryder Kohl
M Gustavo Herrera
M Frank Rofrano
F Jose Herrera
F Jayden Waski
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jose Herrera, sr., F, York
Scoring summary
First half
York- Frank Rofrano (rebound), 17’
St P- Sergio Baron (Daniel Carrera assist), 20’
York- Jose Herrera (Joe Hernandez), 38’
Second half
No scoring
withstands opening test from St. Patrick
Jose Herrera goal in 38th minute holds up for 2-1 victory
By Dave Owen
ELMHURST -- The champions are still rolling.
York graduated seven seniors from the starting lineup of its 2021 Class 3A state championship game win over Fremd.
But seniors Joe Hernandez and Jose Herrera are back in green and white, and teamed up for a pretty goal in the 36th minute to decide the Dukes’ 2022 season-opening 2-1 win over visiting St. Patrick.
“Me and Jose go way back,” Hernandez said. “We’ve played soccer together many years, since we were little. And I'm glad because that built up to this, so we can play like this in high school. I'm very happy.”
Herrera was very happy to see a perfect through-ball up the middle from Hernandez, springing him to race past the defense and chip a 15-yard shot past charging St. Patrick goalkeeper Anthony Torres.
“I saw an opening. My friend Joe gave me the ball, and I was going,” Herrera said. “I saw (Torres) was coming from the outside, so I cut in and just chipped it over.
“Joe's a great friend, my best friend, like a brother to me. And we have so much chemistry on this team. We just need to work on finishing games and finishing (scoring chances). I see us going far.”
Going far is a new tradition at York, which turned the first state trip in program history into a championship. Herrera was a key figure with three goals and two assists over state weekend. He scored twice in the final vs. Fremd; the first just 39 seconds in.
“At first it was like 'How are we here?,’ Herrera said of the 2021 state run. “Second, it was 'Wow, we're here.' Third, it was 'We did it.'
“It still feels good just to know that we did it. It was a hard task, we followed through, and now we're coming back to do it again.”
Step one towards a repeat was not easy. St. Patrick fell behind 1-0 but tied the game just three minutes later and threatened the Dukes with a furious finishing push to the game.
(York assistant) coach (David) Alvarez said 'It looks like they're up 2-1, not us' the way they played,” Dukes coach Jordan Stopka said. “They're going to be a good team. I'm excited to see what they do this year.”
Stopka has more than a passing interest in St. Patrick’s fate. He was an assistant coach to Shamrocks co-head coaches Melchor Castro and Kyle McClure on St. Patrick’s 2019 Class 3A state fourth place team before taking the helm at York.
“I know a couple of their seniors,” Stopka said, “and I know McClure and Castro very well. We met up for a couple of barbecues this summer and talked a lot of trash then.”
The admiration for Stopka at St. Patrick remains evident.
“He learned a few things from us,” Castro joked. “Stopka has created his own vision over here (at York) from when he came in, and he's doing some very good stuff.
“It's nice to have that relationship with him. He was our assistant, with us for about four years. He was there for that state trip, then right after he came over here. He’s shown that they (York) made the right choice.”
The Castro-McClure coaching combo at St. Patrick has also produced great results, and Thursday was no different.
“It’s not easy to come to the home opener of the state champs and have them kind of against the wall,” Castro said. “The way they're celebrating (the win), it’s kind of like they survived, and that's a good feeling for us.
“Some of our guys had their head down, and I told them definitely don't do that. We did something good tonight.
“This was a test we wanted to have to see where we're at. It shows what we're capable of and shows the guys what we're capable of.
“I think this was a great game,” Castro added. “We held our own. We had a few chances to tie and chances to win it. But that's how it works.”
York came out blazing in the first 18 minutes, before the game settled into a battle of punch and counter punch.
Just 1:45 into the match, St. Patrick keeper Torres made a great one-handed deflection wide of a Frank Rofrano 18-yard shot.
Then on Ryder Kohl’s ensuing corner kick send to the back post, Hernandez clanged a left side 6-yard shot off the crossbar and Herrera chipped a point-blank rebound try just over the net.
The scenario repeated in the 17th minute, as Herrera’s 28-yard free kick rocket was again deflected wide right by a sprawling Torres.
But this time, York’s corner kick had the finishing touch.
Kohl’s send resulted in a point-blank save in front by Torres on Herrera, but Rofrano raced in to pound in the rebound from the crease for a 1-0 York lead 23:30 before halftime.
“On balls like that it's all about attacking,” Rofrano said. “You have to recognize the goalie’s weakness, and the moment the ball hits him I'm gone. “If he catches it, he catches it. If he doesn't I'm there (for the rebound). It's all about the hustle for me.”
The hustle paid off for Rofrano, a spot starter last year at midfield who looks for a more prominent role in 2022.
“It's nice to finally make it to the starting lineup and play 70-plus minutes,” Rofrano said. “It's a big change from last year. Last year I was playing in the middle of the field, and now I'm up here.”
Rofrano’s play certainly made an impression on Stopka.
“Frank Rofrano was a chameleon today,” he said. “He played outside, he played center defensive mid, he played forward. He played wherever we needed him to play, and I think he responded really well.
“He's a kid who was on the team last year and might not have got as much time as he wanted, and I think he pretty much just earned it this game. We were really impressed with him.
“And another unsung hero to me was Jay Waski,” Stopka added. “He was extremely dangerous in the first half. He made all these runs, and he just wasn't getting the ball. He was open, but everyone was looking for their own shot.”
While Waski impressed with his hustle, St. Patrick showed great resiliency down 1-0.
Less than three minutes after Rofrano’s goal, Daniel Carrera made a strong right side run and crossed to Sergio Barron, who was open to the left of the net.
Leaping York goalkeeper Diego Ochoa got a hand on Barron’s high 6-yard rocket near the post, but the ball found the upper left corner of the net and the score was 1-1.
“I saw Daniel my teammate making the run wide on the wing,” Barron said, “and as a left wing my job is to do the same thing, go up the left side. I saw him cross it, I got a good shot off of it, and I scored.
“It was a tight shot (near the back post) but I placed it really well. I always have the mentality that every shot I'm going to take, I'm going to score.”
York’s Herrera has that same mentality, and would kick at the door before knocking it down for the eventual game-winner.
Denied on a header wide off his brother Gustavo Herrera’s corner kick (22nd minute) and then on a 20-yard drive swatted wide by Torres (34th minute), Herrera would have better luck with 4:02 left in the half.
Less than 30 seconds after a Carrera header just wide off a corner kick and nearly gave St. Patrick the lead, the Hernandez-Herrera combination produced a 2-1 York lead.
“Our coach taught us that after we get scored on to just keep on going,” Hernandez said of the Dukes’ strong response to the Shamrocks’ tying goal. “There's no reason for us to put our heads down, no reason to go negative. We have to unite and support each other to keep on going, keep on going.”
When Hernandez and Herrera get going, look out opponents.
“I was contemplating calling them up as sophomores,” Stopka said, “and because of COVID (and the shortened and delayed season) what did we have to lose. We can get them in with all the varsity players.
“Now its year three, and they've been playing together I can't even tell you how many days out of the year. And Jose's little brother Rico (Gustavo Herrera) has as well.”
An equally high-energy Waski nearly added to the York lead 2:30 before halftime, but his left post shot that appeared destined for glory was swept off the goal line by St. Patrick standout Carrera to keep the score 2-1 at halftime.
“I feel like once we started getting going we were OK,” Rofrano said. “We obviously scored our first goal, they scored their goal and then from there it was kind of a battle. I just felt like 50-50 balls turned to 70-30s for us because our hustle was just there.”
York continued its offensive in the first six minutes of the second half, but good chances for Kohl (25-yard high liner blocked and caught by Torres) and Herrera (a great dribble to the top of the box thwarted by a Nicolas Leon steal) were denied.
But as the game reached its final stages, holding off St. Patrick became a handful.
With 17:30 left to go, Rafael Rios’ send to the front of the net was deflected on net from a crowd by Barron. But Ochoa was able to cover up the loose ball.
A Rafael Ramirez shot just wide at the right post (16:05 to play) and an Ochoa diving cover in the box moments before Chriz Perez arrived (14:50 remaining) added to the Shamrocks push, and there was much more to come.
The best bid to tie came with 11:05 left. A foul right of the box set up a free kick from the 6-yard-line for Leon. His chip to the front resulted in a Gael Quinonez header inches over the crossbar.
“Honestly there wasn't that much of a difference (between the teams),” Barron said. “We got a little lazy once they scored that second goal and that dropped our mentality a little bit. But then we started picking it back up towards the end.”
Then with 2:12 to go, there was one last quality Shamrocks chance. Rios spun free of a defender right of the box and sent a low, line-drive 15-yard shot.
But Ochoa made a diving save and dived on the rebound chance just ahead of St. Patrick’s James Gustafson.
Epitomizing the exhausting battle, Rios, Gustafson and York defender Drew Ebner were all down on the field with leg cramps after the play.
But Ebner recovered sufficiently to seal the York win with 10 seconds left, winning a ball just inside midfield and drawing a foul as time expired.
“You can't really ask for a better way to start off a season than a win,” Rofrano said. “There's a team coming into this game thinking, it's time to knock off these state champs. It's good to show them we're still here and still ready to get it going.”
But while a win eluded St. Patrick, they exited Elmhurst with plenty of confidence.
“We fought really hard and that boosts up our mentality for everything,” Barron said, “because playing a state-winning team and only losing by one goal, that's really good for us.”
The view from the coaching standpoint was the same.
“We're such a small school (for 3A),” Castro said, “but we want to instill in our guys the competitiveness. We want to play the really good teams and the big schools, because that shows us that if we can hold on with the big schools. That says a lot about us as a program.
“It was a good game,” Castro added. “We didn't know what to expect today. We definitely had an opportunity to tie it again. This definitely showed us a lot.
“I think our guys understand that they have what it takes to win a lot of games, go deep in the playoffs and who knows, hopefully we see them (York) again in the state tournament.”
York would like nothing more than to enjoy a repeat of its 2021 ride. But it’s one step at a time.
“We know it's a target on our backs (winning state),” Herrera said, “but we also know this shouldn't get to our heads that we won state last year. We haven't won anything right now. So, we have to keep winning.”
Fellow senior Rofrano echoed the different year, same challenge theme.
“What I like to think of it as, it's always a new year,” Rofrano said. “There's always a new team, always room for improvement.
“No team is the same as last year, there's always going to be new guys. So, I like to think of it as a clean state and another year to prove ourselves.”
For his part, Stopka is emphasizing small steps in Friday’s practice. Or in this case after an exhausting second half on Thursday, maybe no steps at all.
“We're going to drink Gatorade in practice and not even move,” he said. “Just pass stationary so we don't get any more calf cramps.
“But this is a nice win to start the year off with. Now we see where we go from here.”
Starting lineups
St. Patrick
GK Anthony Torres
D Chriz Perez
D Jason Torres
D Rafael Rios
D Rafael Ramirez
M Daniel Carrera
M Nicolas Leon
M Nathan Davila
M Christian Medina
F Christian Correa
F Sergio Barron
York
GK Diego Ochoa
D Drew Ebner
D Stefan Rebic
D Alexander Menolascina
D Michael Greco
M Joe Hernandez
M Ryder Kohl
M Gustavo Herrera
M Frank Rofrano
F Jose Herrera
F Jayden Waski
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Jose Herrera, sr., F, York
Scoring summary
First half
York- Frank Rofrano (rebound), 17’
St P- Sergio Baron (Daniel Carrera assist), 20’
York- Jose Herrera (Joe Hernandez), 38’
Second half
No scoring