St. Patrick's PK perfection edges Palatine
Shamrocks earn BodyArmor bracket final with 4-2 shootout win
By Dave Owen
SCHAUMBURG – Sometimes non-practice also makes perfect.
After battling Palatine to a 1-1 draw through regulation of their BodyArmor second-round game Sunday, St. Patrick grabbed victory in the match by outscoring the Pirates 4-2 in the penalty kick session.
And if the perfect 4-for-4 conversions by Shamrock shooters Jorge Parra, Nicolas Leon, Sergio Barron and Daniel Carrera looked impressive, that’s only half the story.
“Those are our first PKs (of the season),” St. Patrick co-head coach Kyle McClure said. “And we haven’t practiced them to be honest. Our league doesn't have them, so as we get closer to playoffs we’ll practice them.
“But we knew which guys were taking them, because we have guys who are confident with them.”
As both a defender and PK shooter, Daniel Carrera plays with confidence. And it was his PK, powered home to the upper right, that sealed the win.
“It’s all about confidence,” Carrera said of the team’s PK approach. “You have to know where you're putting it and don't switch up, don't hesitate.”
Palatine’s first two shooters Karol Noga and Dennis ValleRauda both converted their shots, the second despite St. Patrick goalkeeper Michael Cerron’s great effort to deflect the ball – he nearly kept it from barely crossing the goal line.
Cerron then got a hand on the third Palatine try that went over frame, the first of two-straight Pirates PK misses.
In the run of play preceding PKs, the offensive dominance by each team in respective halves was determined largely by one factor: a howling wind towards the south goal.
St. Patrick had the wind advantage in the first half, but had to deal with another weather factor for the first 15 minutes of play: a steady rain falling since mid-morning.
The Shamrocks’ offense literally made a splash about 10 minutes in. A Leon corner kick spun across the crease to Parra, whose 12-yard liner put St. Patrick up 1-0.
“It was raining but I was confident,” Parra said. “I saw the ball coming, and I didn't have time to turn around. I just put it in.”
Leon’s corner send set up the result.
“We have a lot of chemistry,” Parra said of his teammate Leon. “We play a lot out of school together too. That helps not only in this game but every game. He has a lot of assists on my (five) goals this year.”
The strong wind kept Palatine goalkeeper Augustine Medina hopping in the first half. Literally. He made a high block of a Rafael Rios shot in the 13th minute, then followed with a leaping deflection at the crossbar of Leon’s 40-yard wind-aided rocket one minute later.
Palatine (7-3-0) not only had to cope with a talented foe with a gale at its backs, but an early season tendency of its own.
“We're slow starters,” first-year Palatine head coach Aaron Morris said. “We have to correct that. Once we kind of get into our game we're a tough team to play against. But it's a learning experience.”
The Pirates continued a different trend later of strong second half play. And even in St. Patrick’s early lead and control of play, Palatine generated a great chance about 30 minutes in.
corner kick found Karan Toor free in the box, but Toor’s header try was denied on a nice block by St. Patrick’s Gael Quinonez.
The Pirates also had one other near miss in the first half, an Isaac Lara 30-yarder just over the upper right corner 22 minutes in.
With the wind in its favor in the second half, Palatine increased its share of chances.
An offside call nullified one scoring threat five minutes after the intermission, followed by a Zach Sondergaard pass to Noga rushing in that Nathan Davila nicely blocked.
A Sondergaard header off a throw-in nearly found a Pirate at the left post, but Santiago Rivera nicely blocked the ball away just before it reached ValleRauda at the doorstep.
Carrera summed up the defensive strategy that kept Palatine’s pressure from breaking through until late in the half.
“We cover for each other,” he said. “We have each other's backs no matter what.
“We just had to control the ball. Their game plan was to kick it long with the wind. We just kept it to ourselves and kept it on the ground.”
A Shamrocks threat nine minutes into the second half ended with a Chriz Perez shot wide left off a Quinonez cross to the front.
Then St. Patrick goalkeeper Ceron made his presence felt.
Ceron first saved a low 15-yard drive by Noga, then made his biggest sequence of plays in the match 12 minutes into the half.
Lara launched a 25-yard free kick from the right side that Ceron leaped to make a great one-handed deflection off to the side. Then as an encore, Ceron also punched away the ensuing rebound try and Quinonez blocked a third Palatine shot to end the sequence.
“Michael Ceron is one of the best freshman goalkeepers in the state,” McClure said. “And you can see why. He had one save over here (on Lara’s free kick sequence) that 95% of goalies, that's in.
“We're really excited about him and having him for four years and getting better and better. He's not playing like a freshman. He's confident; he's aggressive.”
Palatine’s offense was also gaining confidence, and would break through on its next quality chance.
With about 12 minutes left in regulation, a Lara throw-in from the 20 skidded across the crease to the back post. After Ceron somehow got a hand on ValleRauda’s initial high shot, Palatine junior Andrew Kania was there to power home the rebound and tie the game 1-1.
“I was kind of just looking for a spot on the back post,” Kania said, “and once it went over I was like 'I've got to get there. I've got to hit that.'”
Kania hit the target for his first goal of 2022.
“I'm in the back usually, but I try to go up a little bit more,” he said.
As for Palatine’s knack all year for improving as games go on?
“I think it's just that after something happens to us, we don't just give up,” Kania said. “We know we have to come back 10 times harder and get them back and get the goal back.”
Morris noted Kania as one of three main standouts in Palatine’s strong start this year.
“Andrew has been strong, and Karol Noga up-top has been really dangerous,” he said. “And Zach (Sondergaard) we've kind of moved around a little bit, and he's found a home as a number 9 (striker).
“We're dangerous getting forward, because he wins a lot of balls out of the air and he cleans up a lot of stuff in the middle.”
With the game now tied and two St. Patrick starters briefly sidelined by leg cramps, Carrera came up big with a nice hustling play to block a ValleRauda 15-yard shot with eight minutes left.
“Daniel Carrera, our center back who made the last penalty kick, he had two goals yesterday,” McClure said. “And holding them (Palatine) obviously to one goal on this field which is pretty small, in this weather, that's not easy to do.
“And we play with a three back (formation) so Daniel’s been really good. He's really good in the air. And Jorge Parra has been scoring a lot of goals. He's been playing really well too.”
The Shamrocks nearly closed the Palatine-dominated second half with a goal of their own. The last four minutes produced a quality shot by Perez (a 20-yarder saved by Medina) and a late rush by Rios and Perez that ended with a nice Kania blocked shot and a Perez rebound try wide right.
From there it was on to PKs, and for St. Patrick, a winning end to a tough battle.
“Sometimes we struggle against physical teams,” McClure said, “and they (Palatine) were a big, physical team. I thought that's something we did a really good job of, picking up our physicality a little bit and keeping our composure. It was a great game. Two really good teams.
“We played well in the first half and probably should have scored one or two more while we had the wind at our backs. But obviously we showed good composure the end of the game.”
The win was St. Patrick’s third in a row after an 0-3-3 start, a tough schedule that began with a one-goal loss to defending Class 3A state champion York.
“We started the season a little slow,” McClure said, “but we've talked about improving week by week and game by game. And the last couple games we've taken a big step forward. Palatine is a really good team. They came in here with seven wins already, so we took another step forward today.”
Said Parra: “We started off slow, but we've picked it up after our first win against Carmel (by a 4-2 score Wednesday). Now I think we're in a groove. We're putting everything together, and we'll see how it goes next game.
“If you win in this tournament it gives you a lot of confidence. So. I don't know who we play next here, but we'll go in with confidence.”
Based on the brackets, that opponent will be Larkin, which won in kicks against Taft on Sunday.
Palatine should have plenty of optimism as well, between its strong start to the season and Sunday’s game effort.
“You have to finish your chances,” Morris said, “and some games you're not going to get as many chances as we did today.
“It's just a matter of cleaning up a few little issues,” Morris said. “But we're right there. Now the focus goes back to conference. This was a good experience. We go on to bigger things now.”
Kania echoed his coach’s view of the bigger picture.
“It’s a tough loss. It was unlucky, and we have to get on to the next game,” he said. “We still have half the season left. We have to get back in it.”
For St. Patrick, early season lessons are paying off.
“I feel like we're doing fine,” Carrera said. “We're coming back from figuring out how our team’s going to be. After that first win over Carmel we’ve just kept going.”
Said McClure: “We really believe in playing a very competitive schedule. If we start out slow or have a learning curve, you're going to lose some games. But we'd rather lose a close game than win an easy game.
“Games like this is where that pays off. We've been in situations like this before and we know how to grind it out.”
Starting lineups
Palatine
GK: Augustine Medina
D: Karan Toor
D: Jordan Mok
D: Liam Rhattigan
D: Fabian Vargas
M: Andrew Kania
M: Isaac Lara
M: Dennis ValleRauda
M: Zach Sondergaard
F: Jesus Leyva
F: Karol Noga
St. Patrick
GK: Michael Cerron
D: Daniel Carrera
D: Gael Quinonez
D: Rafael Ramirez
M: Sergio Barron
M: Rafael Rios
M: Nicolas Leon
M: Christian Medina
M: Nathan Davila
F: Jorge Parra
F: Chriz Perez
Chicagoland Man of the Match: Daniel Carrera, jr., D, St. Patrick
Scoring summary
First half
St P- Jorge Parra (Nicolas Leon corner kick), 10’
Second half
Pal- Andrew Kania, 68’
Shootout
St. Patrick (4): Parra (goal), Leon (goal), Sergio Barron (goal), Daniel Carrera (goal)
Palatine (2): Kania (goal), ValleRauda (goal), Leyva (over), Toor (over)
Shamrocks earn BodyArmor bracket final with 4-2 shootout win
By Dave Owen
SCHAUMBURG – Sometimes non-practice also makes perfect.
After battling Palatine to a 1-1 draw through regulation of their BodyArmor second-round game Sunday, St. Patrick grabbed victory in the match by outscoring the Pirates 4-2 in the penalty kick session.
And if the perfect 4-for-4 conversions by Shamrock shooters Jorge Parra, Nicolas Leon, Sergio Barron and Daniel Carrera looked impressive, that’s only half the story.
“Those are our first PKs (of the season),” St. Patrick co-head coach Kyle McClure said. “And we haven’t practiced them to be honest. Our league doesn't have them, so as we get closer to playoffs we’ll practice them.
“But we knew which guys were taking them, because we have guys who are confident with them.”
As both a defender and PK shooter, Daniel Carrera plays with confidence. And it was his PK, powered home to the upper right, that sealed the win.
“It’s all about confidence,” Carrera said of the team’s PK approach. “You have to know where you're putting it and don't switch up, don't hesitate.”
Palatine’s first two shooters Karol Noga and Dennis ValleRauda both converted their shots, the second despite St. Patrick goalkeeper Michael Cerron’s great effort to deflect the ball – he nearly kept it from barely crossing the goal line.
Cerron then got a hand on the third Palatine try that went over frame, the first of two-straight Pirates PK misses.
In the run of play preceding PKs, the offensive dominance by each team in respective halves was determined largely by one factor: a howling wind towards the south goal.
St. Patrick had the wind advantage in the first half, but had to deal with another weather factor for the first 15 minutes of play: a steady rain falling since mid-morning.
The Shamrocks’ offense literally made a splash about 10 minutes in. A Leon corner kick spun across the crease to Parra, whose 12-yard liner put St. Patrick up 1-0.
“It was raining but I was confident,” Parra said. “I saw the ball coming, and I didn't have time to turn around. I just put it in.”
Leon’s corner send set up the result.
“We have a lot of chemistry,” Parra said of his teammate Leon. “We play a lot out of school together too. That helps not only in this game but every game. He has a lot of assists on my (five) goals this year.”
The strong wind kept Palatine goalkeeper Augustine Medina hopping in the first half. Literally. He made a high block of a Rafael Rios shot in the 13th minute, then followed with a leaping deflection at the crossbar of Leon’s 40-yard wind-aided rocket one minute later.
Palatine (7-3-0) not only had to cope with a talented foe with a gale at its backs, but an early season tendency of its own.
“We're slow starters,” first-year Palatine head coach Aaron Morris said. “We have to correct that. Once we kind of get into our game we're a tough team to play against. But it's a learning experience.”
The Pirates continued a different trend later of strong second half play. And even in St. Patrick’s early lead and control of play, Palatine generated a great chance about 30 minutes in.
corner kick found Karan Toor free in the box, but Toor’s header try was denied on a nice block by St. Patrick’s Gael Quinonez.
The Pirates also had one other near miss in the first half, an Isaac Lara 30-yarder just over the upper right corner 22 minutes in.
With the wind in its favor in the second half, Palatine increased its share of chances.
An offside call nullified one scoring threat five minutes after the intermission, followed by a Zach Sondergaard pass to Noga rushing in that Nathan Davila nicely blocked.
A Sondergaard header off a throw-in nearly found a Pirate at the left post, but Santiago Rivera nicely blocked the ball away just before it reached ValleRauda at the doorstep.
Carrera summed up the defensive strategy that kept Palatine’s pressure from breaking through until late in the half.
“We cover for each other,” he said. “We have each other's backs no matter what.
“We just had to control the ball. Their game plan was to kick it long with the wind. We just kept it to ourselves and kept it on the ground.”
A Shamrocks threat nine minutes into the second half ended with a Chriz Perez shot wide left off a Quinonez cross to the front.
Then St. Patrick goalkeeper Ceron made his presence felt.
Ceron first saved a low 15-yard drive by Noga, then made his biggest sequence of plays in the match 12 minutes into the half.
Lara launched a 25-yard free kick from the right side that Ceron leaped to make a great one-handed deflection off to the side. Then as an encore, Ceron also punched away the ensuing rebound try and Quinonez blocked a third Palatine shot to end the sequence.
“Michael Ceron is one of the best freshman goalkeepers in the state,” McClure said. “And you can see why. He had one save over here (on Lara’s free kick sequence) that 95% of goalies, that's in.
“We're really excited about him and having him for four years and getting better and better. He's not playing like a freshman. He's confident; he's aggressive.”
Palatine’s offense was also gaining confidence, and would break through on its next quality chance.
With about 12 minutes left in regulation, a Lara throw-in from the 20 skidded across the crease to the back post. After Ceron somehow got a hand on ValleRauda’s initial high shot, Palatine junior Andrew Kania was there to power home the rebound and tie the game 1-1.
“I was kind of just looking for a spot on the back post,” Kania said, “and once it went over I was like 'I've got to get there. I've got to hit that.'”
Kania hit the target for his first goal of 2022.
“I'm in the back usually, but I try to go up a little bit more,” he said.
As for Palatine’s knack all year for improving as games go on?
“I think it's just that after something happens to us, we don't just give up,” Kania said. “We know we have to come back 10 times harder and get them back and get the goal back.”
Morris noted Kania as one of three main standouts in Palatine’s strong start this year.
“Andrew has been strong, and Karol Noga up-top has been really dangerous,” he said. “And Zach (Sondergaard) we've kind of moved around a little bit, and he's found a home as a number 9 (striker).
“We're dangerous getting forward, because he wins a lot of balls out of the air and he cleans up a lot of stuff in the middle.”
With the game now tied and two St. Patrick starters briefly sidelined by leg cramps, Carrera came up big with a nice hustling play to block a ValleRauda 15-yard shot with eight minutes left.
“Daniel Carrera, our center back who made the last penalty kick, he had two goals yesterday,” McClure said. “And holding them (Palatine) obviously to one goal on this field which is pretty small, in this weather, that's not easy to do.
“And we play with a three back (formation) so Daniel’s been really good. He's really good in the air. And Jorge Parra has been scoring a lot of goals. He's been playing really well too.”
The Shamrocks nearly closed the Palatine-dominated second half with a goal of their own. The last four minutes produced a quality shot by Perez (a 20-yarder saved by Medina) and a late rush by Rios and Perez that ended with a nice Kania blocked shot and a Perez rebound try wide right.
From there it was on to PKs, and for St. Patrick, a winning end to a tough battle.
“Sometimes we struggle against physical teams,” McClure said, “and they (Palatine) were a big, physical team. I thought that's something we did a really good job of, picking up our physicality a little bit and keeping our composure. It was a great game. Two really good teams.
“We played well in the first half and probably should have scored one or two more while we had the wind at our backs. But obviously we showed good composure the end of the game.”
The win was St. Patrick’s third in a row after an 0-3-3 start, a tough schedule that began with a one-goal loss to defending Class 3A state champion York.
“We started the season a little slow,” McClure said, “but we've talked about improving week by week and game by game. And the last couple games we've taken a big step forward. Palatine is a really good team. They came in here with seven wins already, so we took another step forward today.”
Said Parra: “We started off slow, but we've picked it up after our first win against Carmel (by a 4-2 score Wednesday). Now I think we're in a groove. We're putting everything together, and we'll see how it goes next game.
“If you win in this tournament it gives you a lot of confidence. So. I don't know who we play next here, but we'll go in with confidence.”
Based on the brackets, that opponent will be Larkin, which won in kicks against Taft on Sunday.
Palatine should have plenty of optimism as well, between its strong start to the season and Sunday’s game effort.
“You have to finish your chances,” Morris said, “and some games you're not going to get as many chances as we did today.
“It's just a matter of cleaning up a few little issues,” Morris said. “But we're right there. Now the focus goes back to conference. This was a good experience. We go on to bigger things now.”
Kania echoed his coach’s view of the bigger picture.
“It’s a tough loss. It was unlucky, and we have to get on to the next game,” he said. “We still have half the season left. We have to get back in it.”
For St. Patrick, early season lessons are paying off.
“I feel like we're doing fine,” Carrera said. “We're coming back from figuring out how our team’s going to be. After that first win over Carmel we’ve just kept going.”
Said McClure: “We really believe in playing a very competitive schedule. If we start out slow or have a learning curve, you're going to lose some games. But we'd rather lose a close game than win an easy game.
“Games like this is where that pays off. We've been in situations like this before and we know how to grind it out.”
Starting lineups
Palatine
GK: Augustine Medina
D: Karan Toor
D: Jordan Mok
D: Liam Rhattigan
D: Fabian Vargas
M: Andrew Kania
M: Isaac Lara
M: Dennis ValleRauda
M: Zach Sondergaard
F: Jesus Leyva
F: Karol Noga
St. Patrick
GK: Michael Cerron
D: Daniel Carrera
D: Gael Quinonez
D: Rafael Ramirez
M: Sergio Barron
M: Rafael Rios
M: Nicolas Leon
M: Christian Medina
M: Nathan Davila
F: Jorge Parra
F: Chriz Perez
Chicagoland Man of the Match: Daniel Carrera, jr., D, St. Patrick
Scoring summary
First half
St P- Jorge Parra (Nicolas Leon corner kick), 10’
Second half
Pal- Andrew Kania, 68’
Shootout
St. Patrick (4): Parra (goal), Leon (goal), Sergio Barron (goal), Daniel Carrera (goal)
Palatine (2): Kania (goal), ValleRauda (goal), Leyva (over), Toor (over)