All-around effort helps
Warren slip past Lakes
Blue Devils record 3-0 nonconference win over damp track
By Tom Hamilton II
LAKE VILLA -- For longtime fans of Lake County high school soccer, there are some things that have become fairly predictable regardless of which players don their school’s uniforms.
Warren will field a deep squad full of young men who play a quick, possession-based style. Lakes will line up with a defensively organized group of players who will battle bravely against whatever is in front of them for 80 minutes.
Thankfully, predictable doesn’t mean boring.
After waiting an extra half hour for kickoff after a lightning delay, the 60 or so fans gathered around Lakes’ waterlogged grass pitch were treated to a highly entertaining and feisty battle.
Despite the valiant defensive efforts of the host Eagles (1-3-0), it was Warren (5-1-0) that went home with an impressive 3-0 victory.
Senior defender Cael Harris opened the scoring early, and senior midfielder Miguel Rodriguez and junior striker Emilio Mancera added to the margin of victory with second half strikes for the well-balanced Blue Devils.
“It was nice to see, not only to score three goals, but also to continue to prevent other teams from scoring,” Warren head coach Jason Ahonen beamed. “We’re six games in now, and we’ve given up two goals. Our defense is doing a really nice job in a lot of ways, and I’m very proud of them.”
The opening minutes were tense but sloppy as both teams adjusted to the wet field conditions. In the fifth minute the Blue Devils -- ranked no. 19 in the current Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 rankings -- had the ball in the back of the Lakes net for an early lead.
With their first corner kick of the match, Warren sent their towering center back pairing of Harris and junior Tyler Hughes into the Lakes 18-yard box. Sophomore outside back Lucas Ahonen whipped a beautiful cross towards the back post for Harris, who slammed the ball into the back of the net with a commanding header.
It wasn’t a boring start to the match, but it was somewhat predictable: Harris’ goal was his team-leading fourth tally of the young season, and Ahonen’s helper was his team-leading fifth.
In similarly predictable fashion, Warren quickly established dominance in possession after the early goal, which led to another chance just minutes later.
After a quick passing sequence involving several Blue Devils, senior holding midfielder Matt Hegge picked up a pass in the middle of the Lakes half of the field and slotted a pass through two defenders. Warren senior attacking phenom Alexis Medina timed his run beautifully to slip behind the defense into open space and fire a low shot.
However, Lakes’ senior goalkeeper Jake Pursell (five saves) bravely came off his line and threw himself at Medina’s feet to block the shot
The save helped Lakes to refocus and establish their typical defensive solidity. Senior center backs Michael Bucko and Kevin Klimas bellowed constant orders to maintain the team’s compact defensive shape, forcing Warren to build play patiently with plenty of lateral passes.
“Defensively, they were awesome,” coach Ahonen said in praise of the opposition. “I’m not gonna lie. They got numbers behind the ball, they [were] diving all over the place, throwing their bodies up-front.
“We had numerous chances that didn’t make it off the foot or within two or three yards because their guys were throwing themselves in front, so hats off to them.”
Lakes head coach Kevin Kullby agreed.
“We’ve got some nice center backs,” he noted. “Our center backs have been very sturdy, very strong. And the midfield’s solid.”
Once the Lakes boys settled into their typically impressive defensive rhythm, the Eagles looked to hit Warren on the counter via tenacious senior striker Andrew Roth. In fact, it was Roth who gave Warren their first true scare of the match in the 18th minute.
A Warren defender attempted to clear a Lakes cross in the box, but Roth threw himself in the way and deflected the ball towards goal. With mere milliseconds to react, Warren senior goalkeeper Justin Uribe (two saves) stretched just in time to parry the impromptu effort away from goal and preserve the Blue Devils’ lead against all odds.
The next stretch of play saw Warren dominate possession in large part due to exceptional play in midfield. Hegge and junior Michael Galvan refused to concede any space at all for the Lakes center midfielders, and both Warren midfielders won challenge after challenge for their team. The two also combined with Rodriguez to provide a three-pronged fulcrum for the Warren attack that worked patiently to search for openings in the Lakes armor.
“Me and Mike [Galvan] and Alexis [Medina] have been playing together for like three years,” explained Hegge when asked about the uncanny connection between the Warren midfielders. “We have good chemistry: we know what each other wants to do with the ball; we know which foot, where to pass it; how to get everyone going forward.”
However, despite a couple of long-range, speculative efforts from Rodriguez that were blocked almost as soon as they left his powerful boot, Lakes created the next good opportunity in the 29th minute.
Senior midfielder Matt Runyard, who combined grit, energy, and creativity in an all-around performance, surged into the Warren box to pounce on a defender’s slip on the loose surface. Runyard fired off a low shot just a few yards from goal, but Uribe dove at full stretch to deny the midfielder.
After Uribe was forced to make way for fellow senior goalkeeper George McAtee after suffering an injury, Harris and Hughes settled Warren’s backline and got back to commanding their teammates with constant, constructive instructions. The return of the quality communication led to an improved performance for Warren in the dying minutes of the first half.
Meanwhile, a brilliant Pursell save on Warren senior midfielder Braden Lechner’s first-time effort and a couple missed chances from late corner kicks meant the Blue Devils had to settle for a 1-0 halftime lead.
Lakes fans raised the volume for the second half, and their team’s intensity level rose to match the energy. However, the nearly unbeatable Hegge and his fellow Warren midfielders forced Lakes to continue the early pattern of playing hopeful long balls on counterattacks.
Once again, however, it was the Blue Devils who started the half with an early goal.
This time, Warren’s energetic pressing led to a throw-in deep into Lakes territory. Senior outside back Ben Conley, who provided brilliant defensive cover off the bench all night for the Blue Devils, hurled a long throw into the Eagles penalty area.
Lakes tried to counter after winning the ensuing scramble, but Warren’s industrious winger Tommy Desanto and Medina -- who had been moved from his usual wide position to a more central role to provide quicker, more precise passing from the middle -- worked hard to break up the potential attack and start one of their own.
Medina then squared the ball to the top of the box for Rodriguez, who showed true composure to wait half a second for an opening in the compact Lakes backline before striking the ball cleanly past Pursell.
The goal was Rodriguez’s first for Warren’s varsity squad, but he was quick to insist that it was a team effort.
“We just won the ball, and we had the space to turn [and] run,” Rodriguez explained. “We found the gaps, we connected the passes, and we put the ball in the net.”
Medina’s move to the middle played a key role in the goal, but he insisted that it was a team goal.
“I feel like I bring the vision to the team. I see any ball that goes up[field]. [But] the runs [and] the communication [are] good on the team. That’s what got [me] the assist tonight.
“It’s not just me, it’s the whole team.”
After the second goal, the game entered an increasingly feistier, more physical phase of play. Warren’s Hegge weathered a series of punishing challenges to come out with the ball time and time again. Meanwhile, Runyard and fellow senior midfielder Billy Block worked unceasingly to make the most of what few inches of space they could find for the Eagles, only for Hughes and company to foil them on the few occasions they could bypass the Warren midfield.
Hughes and Harris -- reinforced by tremendous defensive displays from senior reserves Conley and fearless outside back Kevin Vrabel -- helped the Blue Devils weather a couple spirited attacks from the Eagles between the 50th and 60th minutes. Conley and Vrabel’s contributions in preserving the shutout earned particular praise from their coach.
“Ben Conley and Kevin Vrabel came in and worked their tails off, getting back behind the ball, doing great things,” Ahonen remarked with unmistakable admiration. He offered similar praise for McAtee (one save), who provided vocal leadership from the back from the moment Uribe was forced to leave the game.
The final 20 minutes featured a number of strong tackles and missed headers from crosses for both teams, but the Blue Devils would find one final goal to round off a dream evening.
This time, the Blue Devils took a play out of their opponents’ well-known playbook. After dealing with an Eagles corner kick, the indefatigable Hegge -- Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match -- capped off an imperious performance by picking his head up deep within his own half and playing a stunning long pass upfield behind the high Lakes backline. Junior speedster Mancera surged forward to get to the ball first, cut inside, and fired a hard, low shot past Pursell into the far side-netting to make it 3-0. The goal was Mancera’s third of the season, and the assist was Hegge’s first to go along with a pair of goals.
Hegge might have earned top honors for the evening, but as has become custom for the young Blue Devils, he was adamant that everyone in Warren colors was responsible for the win.
“What got us the win was our hard work,” Hegge insisted. “We never gave up, we played through the hard conditions in the rain [and] the wet grass. We were able to really piece everything together, do what we wanted to do coming into this game, and we got the result.”
Hegge’s coach agreed, though he also noted a crucial tactical switch that proved instrumental in the win.
“Positionally, we made some decisions against Indian Trail (Wis.) on Thursday where we slid Miguel Rodriguez out of the 6 [role] and into the 10 [role], slid Matt Hegge out of the 10 [position] and into the 6 [role], and obviously it paid benefits today,” Ahonen explained. “Both players benefitted from the position change. Matt did a nice job of staying in the center of the park, winning a lot of those balls, distributing, and had a high completion rate. Miguel scored the second goal -- his first varsity goal -- so it’s all good.”
Ahonen also noted that, despite some early scares, his defense read the danger impressively and coped with the Eagles’ trademark direct attacking play admirably.
“For the most part we did a pretty good job of having either Cael Harris or Tyler [Hughes] step up, one cover in case a ball was missed so we weren’t flat, because that’s what they were looking to expose,” Ahonen assessed.
For Lakes, Kullby saw reason for optimism for his side, which is coping with the graduation of 13 seniors from a spring season that saw them earn a three-way tie atop the Northern Lake County Conference standings.
“I think when it was only 1-0 through the better part of the [first] half, we held up pretty well; and we created chances,” Kullby said. “But when we had those chances, we didn’t finish.
“To their credit, they defended well. Second half, they got another early goal. But I like the mentality of our kids, because they didn’t give up. They played until the end.”
With his Eagles set to open conference on Thursday, Kullby explained how the team’s challenging early schedule will help them prepare to achieve their ambitions.
“I think this is a good example,” he noted. “You play tough teams, and it prepares you better to handle tough situations in the conference.
“I just hope we’re competitive and give ourselves a chance to win.”
Warren rides a three-match winning streak into their North Suburban Conference opener at Zion-Benton on Thursday. Lakes makes the short trip to Grayslake North that same evening for their conference opener.
Starting lineups
Lakes (4-3-3)
GK Jake Pursell
D Joel Pellitteri
D Michael Bucko
D Kevin Klimas
D Drew Chamernik
M Billy Block
M Matt Runyard
M Christian Wieczorek
F Wyatt Swanson
F Andrew Roth
F Cory McMahon
Warren (4-3-3)
GK Justin Uribe
D Chris Crowson
D Tyler Hughes
D Cael Harris
D Lucas Ahonen
M Matt Hegge
M Michael Galvan
M Miguel Rodriguez
F Tommy Desanto
F Ryan Stanciak
F Alexis Medina
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Matt Hegge, sr., MF, Warren
Scoring summary
First half
Warren -- Harris (Ahonen), 5th minute
Second half
Warren -- Rodriguez (Medina), 48th minute
Warren -- Mancera (Hegge), 75th minute
Warren slip past Lakes
Blue Devils record 3-0 nonconference win over damp track
By Tom Hamilton II
LAKE VILLA -- For longtime fans of Lake County high school soccer, there are some things that have become fairly predictable regardless of which players don their school’s uniforms.
Warren will field a deep squad full of young men who play a quick, possession-based style. Lakes will line up with a defensively organized group of players who will battle bravely against whatever is in front of them for 80 minutes.
Thankfully, predictable doesn’t mean boring.
After waiting an extra half hour for kickoff after a lightning delay, the 60 or so fans gathered around Lakes’ waterlogged grass pitch were treated to a highly entertaining and feisty battle.
Despite the valiant defensive efforts of the host Eagles (1-3-0), it was Warren (5-1-0) that went home with an impressive 3-0 victory.
Senior defender Cael Harris opened the scoring early, and senior midfielder Miguel Rodriguez and junior striker Emilio Mancera added to the margin of victory with second half strikes for the well-balanced Blue Devils.
“It was nice to see, not only to score three goals, but also to continue to prevent other teams from scoring,” Warren head coach Jason Ahonen beamed. “We’re six games in now, and we’ve given up two goals. Our defense is doing a really nice job in a lot of ways, and I’m very proud of them.”
The opening minutes were tense but sloppy as both teams adjusted to the wet field conditions. In the fifth minute the Blue Devils -- ranked no. 19 in the current Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 rankings -- had the ball in the back of the Lakes net for an early lead.
With their first corner kick of the match, Warren sent their towering center back pairing of Harris and junior Tyler Hughes into the Lakes 18-yard box. Sophomore outside back Lucas Ahonen whipped a beautiful cross towards the back post for Harris, who slammed the ball into the back of the net with a commanding header.
It wasn’t a boring start to the match, but it was somewhat predictable: Harris’ goal was his team-leading fourth tally of the young season, and Ahonen’s helper was his team-leading fifth.
In similarly predictable fashion, Warren quickly established dominance in possession after the early goal, which led to another chance just minutes later.
After a quick passing sequence involving several Blue Devils, senior holding midfielder Matt Hegge picked up a pass in the middle of the Lakes half of the field and slotted a pass through two defenders. Warren senior attacking phenom Alexis Medina timed his run beautifully to slip behind the defense into open space and fire a low shot.
However, Lakes’ senior goalkeeper Jake Pursell (five saves) bravely came off his line and threw himself at Medina’s feet to block the shot
The save helped Lakes to refocus and establish their typical defensive solidity. Senior center backs Michael Bucko and Kevin Klimas bellowed constant orders to maintain the team’s compact defensive shape, forcing Warren to build play patiently with plenty of lateral passes.
“Defensively, they were awesome,” coach Ahonen said in praise of the opposition. “I’m not gonna lie. They got numbers behind the ball, they [were] diving all over the place, throwing their bodies up-front.
“We had numerous chances that didn’t make it off the foot or within two or three yards because their guys were throwing themselves in front, so hats off to them.”
Lakes head coach Kevin Kullby agreed.
“We’ve got some nice center backs,” he noted. “Our center backs have been very sturdy, very strong. And the midfield’s solid.”
Once the Lakes boys settled into their typically impressive defensive rhythm, the Eagles looked to hit Warren on the counter via tenacious senior striker Andrew Roth. In fact, it was Roth who gave Warren their first true scare of the match in the 18th minute.
A Warren defender attempted to clear a Lakes cross in the box, but Roth threw himself in the way and deflected the ball towards goal. With mere milliseconds to react, Warren senior goalkeeper Justin Uribe (two saves) stretched just in time to parry the impromptu effort away from goal and preserve the Blue Devils’ lead against all odds.
The next stretch of play saw Warren dominate possession in large part due to exceptional play in midfield. Hegge and junior Michael Galvan refused to concede any space at all for the Lakes center midfielders, and both Warren midfielders won challenge after challenge for their team. The two also combined with Rodriguez to provide a three-pronged fulcrum for the Warren attack that worked patiently to search for openings in the Lakes armor.
“Me and Mike [Galvan] and Alexis [Medina] have been playing together for like three years,” explained Hegge when asked about the uncanny connection between the Warren midfielders. “We have good chemistry: we know what each other wants to do with the ball; we know which foot, where to pass it; how to get everyone going forward.”
However, despite a couple of long-range, speculative efforts from Rodriguez that were blocked almost as soon as they left his powerful boot, Lakes created the next good opportunity in the 29th minute.
Senior midfielder Matt Runyard, who combined grit, energy, and creativity in an all-around performance, surged into the Warren box to pounce on a defender’s slip on the loose surface. Runyard fired off a low shot just a few yards from goal, but Uribe dove at full stretch to deny the midfielder.
After Uribe was forced to make way for fellow senior goalkeeper George McAtee after suffering an injury, Harris and Hughes settled Warren’s backline and got back to commanding their teammates with constant, constructive instructions. The return of the quality communication led to an improved performance for Warren in the dying minutes of the first half.
Meanwhile, a brilliant Pursell save on Warren senior midfielder Braden Lechner’s first-time effort and a couple missed chances from late corner kicks meant the Blue Devils had to settle for a 1-0 halftime lead.
Lakes fans raised the volume for the second half, and their team’s intensity level rose to match the energy. However, the nearly unbeatable Hegge and his fellow Warren midfielders forced Lakes to continue the early pattern of playing hopeful long balls on counterattacks.
Once again, however, it was the Blue Devils who started the half with an early goal.
This time, Warren’s energetic pressing led to a throw-in deep into Lakes territory. Senior outside back Ben Conley, who provided brilliant defensive cover off the bench all night for the Blue Devils, hurled a long throw into the Eagles penalty area.
Lakes tried to counter after winning the ensuing scramble, but Warren’s industrious winger Tommy Desanto and Medina -- who had been moved from his usual wide position to a more central role to provide quicker, more precise passing from the middle -- worked hard to break up the potential attack and start one of their own.
Medina then squared the ball to the top of the box for Rodriguez, who showed true composure to wait half a second for an opening in the compact Lakes backline before striking the ball cleanly past Pursell.
The goal was Rodriguez’s first for Warren’s varsity squad, but he was quick to insist that it was a team effort.
“We just won the ball, and we had the space to turn [and] run,” Rodriguez explained. “We found the gaps, we connected the passes, and we put the ball in the net.”
Medina’s move to the middle played a key role in the goal, but he insisted that it was a team goal.
“I feel like I bring the vision to the team. I see any ball that goes up[field]. [But] the runs [and] the communication [are] good on the team. That’s what got [me] the assist tonight.
“It’s not just me, it’s the whole team.”
After the second goal, the game entered an increasingly feistier, more physical phase of play. Warren’s Hegge weathered a series of punishing challenges to come out with the ball time and time again. Meanwhile, Runyard and fellow senior midfielder Billy Block worked unceasingly to make the most of what few inches of space they could find for the Eagles, only for Hughes and company to foil them on the few occasions they could bypass the Warren midfield.
Hughes and Harris -- reinforced by tremendous defensive displays from senior reserves Conley and fearless outside back Kevin Vrabel -- helped the Blue Devils weather a couple spirited attacks from the Eagles between the 50th and 60th minutes. Conley and Vrabel’s contributions in preserving the shutout earned particular praise from their coach.
“Ben Conley and Kevin Vrabel came in and worked their tails off, getting back behind the ball, doing great things,” Ahonen remarked with unmistakable admiration. He offered similar praise for McAtee (one save), who provided vocal leadership from the back from the moment Uribe was forced to leave the game.
The final 20 minutes featured a number of strong tackles and missed headers from crosses for both teams, but the Blue Devils would find one final goal to round off a dream evening.
This time, the Blue Devils took a play out of their opponents’ well-known playbook. After dealing with an Eagles corner kick, the indefatigable Hegge -- Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match -- capped off an imperious performance by picking his head up deep within his own half and playing a stunning long pass upfield behind the high Lakes backline. Junior speedster Mancera surged forward to get to the ball first, cut inside, and fired a hard, low shot past Pursell into the far side-netting to make it 3-0. The goal was Mancera’s third of the season, and the assist was Hegge’s first to go along with a pair of goals.
Hegge might have earned top honors for the evening, but as has become custom for the young Blue Devils, he was adamant that everyone in Warren colors was responsible for the win.
“What got us the win was our hard work,” Hegge insisted. “We never gave up, we played through the hard conditions in the rain [and] the wet grass. We were able to really piece everything together, do what we wanted to do coming into this game, and we got the result.”
Hegge’s coach agreed, though he also noted a crucial tactical switch that proved instrumental in the win.
“Positionally, we made some decisions against Indian Trail (Wis.) on Thursday where we slid Miguel Rodriguez out of the 6 [role] and into the 10 [role], slid Matt Hegge out of the 10 [position] and into the 6 [role], and obviously it paid benefits today,” Ahonen explained. “Both players benefitted from the position change. Matt did a nice job of staying in the center of the park, winning a lot of those balls, distributing, and had a high completion rate. Miguel scored the second goal -- his first varsity goal -- so it’s all good.”
Ahonen also noted that, despite some early scares, his defense read the danger impressively and coped with the Eagles’ trademark direct attacking play admirably.
“For the most part we did a pretty good job of having either Cael Harris or Tyler [Hughes] step up, one cover in case a ball was missed so we weren’t flat, because that’s what they were looking to expose,” Ahonen assessed.
For Lakes, Kullby saw reason for optimism for his side, which is coping with the graduation of 13 seniors from a spring season that saw them earn a three-way tie atop the Northern Lake County Conference standings.
“I think when it was only 1-0 through the better part of the [first] half, we held up pretty well; and we created chances,” Kullby said. “But when we had those chances, we didn’t finish.
“To their credit, they defended well. Second half, they got another early goal. But I like the mentality of our kids, because they didn’t give up. They played until the end.”
With his Eagles set to open conference on Thursday, Kullby explained how the team’s challenging early schedule will help them prepare to achieve their ambitions.
“I think this is a good example,” he noted. “You play tough teams, and it prepares you better to handle tough situations in the conference.
“I just hope we’re competitive and give ourselves a chance to win.”
Warren rides a three-match winning streak into their North Suburban Conference opener at Zion-Benton on Thursday. Lakes makes the short trip to Grayslake North that same evening for their conference opener.
Starting lineups
Lakes (4-3-3)
GK Jake Pursell
D Joel Pellitteri
D Michael Bucko
D Kevin Klimas
D Drew Chamernik
M Billy Block
M Matt Runyard
M Christian Wieczorek
F Wyatt Swanson
F Andrew Roth
F Cory McMahon
Warren (4-3-3)
GK Justin Uribe
D Chris Crowson
D Tyler Hughes
D Cael Harris
D Lucas Ahonen
M Matt Hegge
M Michael Galvan
M Miguel Rodriguez
F Tommy Desanto
F Ryan Stanciak
F Alexis Medina
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Matt Hegge, sr., MF, Warren
Scoring summary
First half
Warren -- Harris (Ahonen), 5th minute
Second half
Warren -- Rodriguez (Medina), 48th minute
Warren -- Mancera (Hegge), 75th minute