Kilgallon brothers steal show at St. Francis
Wheaton Academy tops Spartans 3-1 for perfect Metro Blue mark
By Chris Walker
WHEATON – St. Francis honored its five seniors during its Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division clash against Wheaton Academy on Wednesday night.
Then Wheaton Academy celebrated its perfect run through the conference with a 3-1 victory.
Ranked no. 4 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, Wheaton Academy won its sixth-straight game against St. Francis, a streak that dates back to 2011.
“St. Francis did a nice job of dropping a lot of numbers behind the ball. We had some good chances, but they were further away then we would have liked,” Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said. “We still had good shots, and I liked our patience on the attack. You kind of have to take what the game gives you sometimes, and I thought the guys did a nice job of that.”
Wheaton Academy (17-1-0, 6-0-0) jumped on the Spartans when brothers Jack and Seamus Kilgallon flashed back to their childhood days with a little give-and-go just seven minutes into the action.
“Me and Jack like to do that a lot,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “That’s the kind of stuff we used to do in the backyard back in the day. I’d say most of my goals, probably 80 percent, have come to me from my brother and those are the ones I love to get.”
St. Francis (5-8-3, 2-3-0) had two solid offensive threats to get the game-tying goal before the Kilgallons connected again.
The first came via a corner kick with 27:10 left in the first half. Senior Sam Audy was able to get a shot off of it, but it deflected wide right for antoerh Spartans corner. The next serve went to senior Sean Conley, but the Warriors thwarted his effort.
“I feel like we stepped up right away with a good chance right after they scored,” St. Francis senior Alex Guiborat said. “It was nice to see the kids in the midfield pick it up right away there, but we gifted them a couple of goals and should’ve finished some chances. It could’ve been a different ending.”
Wheaton Academy was able to extend its lead to 2-0 with 15:36 in the first half as Jack Kilgallon scored off a ball from Seamus Kilgallon.
“Every game we play we come out and try to score first, because we don’t like coming from behind,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “It’s barely happened. It happened against Normal West in Iowa. When they scored on us first we looked around like ‘This isn’t normal. How do we respond to this?’ But it was a good experience because there are going to be games where we go under. But we always want to score first. It’s a confidence builder.”
A 2-0 lead against a swirling wind of from 15-20 mph made it an even more impressive start, especially with all the energy surrounding St. Francis’ final regular season home game and Senior Night.
“We got the lead and we’re comfortable there,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “Most of our games have been that way. We jump on top and from there it’s like sailing.”
That doesn’t mean the Warriors took St. Francis for granted because of the disparity between the team’s records this fall or Wheaton Academy’s dominance in the all-time series.
“Like our coach said, we don’t think about the (17) wins, but we go into every game thinking, ‘Amen, this is another chance to play the beautiful game,’” Seamus Kilgallon said. “We’re here together with our brothers, so let’s fight for each other. So every game it’s like we’re 0-0 and it’s the first game of the season.
“Whether it’s a championship final or whatever kind of game, we’re not going to look past a team because of their record or how they’ve played in recent games. We’re going to go out, play our game and impress our will upon the game and play our style.”
St. Francis most definitely didn’t back down from their rival either.
“We don’t get to choose our competition, but we wanted to play Wheaton Academy tonight,” St. Francis senior Sean Conley said. “We don’t back away from competition, especially in a rivalry game like this. We came in confident and knew we weren’t going to roll over, and they weren’t going to roll over us. We were ready to compete and we know a lot of guys on their team so we wanted to come out strong.”
St. Francis coach Kevin Ward was loud enough during his halftime discussion with his team that his voice could be heard in the press box. Whatever motivation or strategies he shared didn’t do much good in the opening seconds of the final half. But it definitely seemed to work after that as the Spartans were solid after yielding that final goal while also scoring one of their own and creating far more chances then they did in the first half.
“We’ve been struggling to score so that was nice to get one,” St. Francis senior Nicholas Gulli said. “I was definitely proud of the effort, because we haven’t shown up some games. But we did today which was nice to see.”
They just saw far too much of the Kilgallons and the rest of the Warriors.
“They’re extremely quick with the ball and without the ball and their movement without the ball is fantastic,” Gulli said. “It’s hard to defend. You can’t stay static, or they’ll catch you flatfooted. We had three split seconds turned off, and they had three goals.”
That third goal came from Seamus Kilgallon to Owen Setran just 12 seconds into the second half. Down 2-0 with 40 minutes to play, the Spartans still had a decent chance of at least coming back a bit and making a game of it, but suddenly down 3-0, their chances became close to slim and none.
Seamus Kilgallon finished with a goal and two assists and was recognized as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“I thought the third goal was huge right off the kickoff,” Brooke said. “And I thought we did a nice job overall of keeping the ball. We had a lot of the ball tonight. We looked dangerous at moments, patient in moments, and our back four has been really good so it’s been a good combination.”
The Warriors cemented the league title with the victory, something that Brooke certainly did not overlook.
“I’m so proud of the guys for doing it,” he said. “It’s another conference championship for the program.”
Conley scored for St. Francis with 36:32 still to play, so the goal didn't just break the shutout but had the potential start of a big rally. While the Spartans wouldn’t convert another goal, they posed threats and didn’t go away.
“We wanted to get one early to start, but they got one which made it tough for us to bounce back,” St. Francis senior Luke Herard said. “But we fought hard. We tried our hardest but didn’t get the result.”
Something that may be overlooked is that St. Francis is a AA squad and has been playing a difficult schedule filled with 3A teams such as Wheaton Academy. So while their record isn’t noteworthy, they believe the tough schedule is preparing them for the postseason.
“We kind of like these matchups because they get us ready for regionals,” Gulli said. “We have a tough matchup coming in the regional, but we have it here so I expect to get after it and expect nothing but a win.”
Cleaning up a few things could go a long way with regard to how far the Spartans could go.
“The story of our season has been that we make one or two mistakes every game,” Conley said. “The first two goals tonight were a little bit of mistakes on our part. These are simple mistakes but against a team of this caliber, with so many good, talented players in every position, they’re going to punish you for that. We knew that coming into the game and it was ultimately our downfall.”
St. Francis recognized its five seniors during a pre-game ceremony: Sam Audy (Eastview Middle School), Conley (St. John the Baptist), Guiborat (John F. Kennedy Middle School), Gulli (All Saints Catholic Academy) and Herard (Scullen Middle School). While all five came to St. Francis from different places, they became close teammates and good friends. All picked up, or rather, began kicking a soccer ball for the first time somewhere between the ages of three and six.
Livening things up at halftime as part of the Senior Night festivities, the St. Francis Spartanette Dance Team performed. Posters for the five seniors, adorned with dozens of pictures, were on display on the fence in front of the bleachers for attendees to peruse as well in celebration of the occasion. A post-game event for the seniors and their teammates and families was held near the fieldhouse after the game.
Starting lineups
Wheaton Academy
GK: Ray Simmons
D: Jonathan Austriaco
D: Brian Henry
D: Elijah Lebo
D: John Liechty
MF: Owen Setran
MF: Logan Finnegan
MF: Christofor Eklund
MF: Jack Kilgallon
MF: Seamus Kilgallon
F: Daniel Rychenkov
St. Francis
GK: Adam Thill
D: Nathan Corrigan
D: Trey Gora
MF: Sam Audy
MF: Alex Guiborat
MF: Luke Herard
MF: Sean Conley
MF: Nicholas Gulli
MF: Frank Marsico
MF: Brendan Yarusso
MF: Michael Fasana
Man of the Match: Seamus Kilgallon, Wheaton Academy, sr., MF
Scoring summary
First half
Wheaton Academy – Seamus Kilgallon (Jack Kilgallon), 32:59
Wheaton Academy - Jack Kilgallon (Seamus Kilgallon), 15:36
Second Half
Wheaton Academy – Owen Setran (Seamus Kilgallon), 39:48
St. Francis – Sean Conley (Frank Marsico), 36:32
Wheaton Academy tops Spartans 3-1 for perfect Metro Blue mark
By Chris Walker
WHEATON – St. Francis honored its five seniors during its Metro Suburban Conference Blue Division clash against Wheaton Academy on Wednesday night.
Then Wheaton Academy celebrated its perfect run through the conference with a 3-1 victory.
Ranked no. 4 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, Wheaton Academy won its sixth-straight game against St. Francis, a streak that dates back to 2011.
“St. Francis did a nice job of dropping a lot of numbers behind the ball. We had some good chances, but they were further away then we would have liked,” Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said. “We still had good shots, and I liked our patience on the attack. You kind of have to take what the game gives you sometimes, and I thought the guys did a nice job of that.”
Wheaton Academy (17-1-0, 6-0-0) jumped on the Spartans when brothers Jack and Seamus Kilgallon flashed back to their childhood days with a little give-and-go just seven minutes into the action.
“Me and Jack like to do that a lot,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “That’s the kind of stuff we used to do in the backyard back in the day. I’d say most of my goals, probably 80 percent, have come to me from my brother and those are the ones I love to get.”
St. Francis (5-8-3, 2-3-0) had two solid offensive threats to get the game-tying goal before the Kilgallons connected again.
The first came via a corner kick with 27:10 left in the first half. Senior Sam Audy was able to get a shot off of it, but it deflected wide right for antoerh Spartans corner. The next serve went to senior Sean Conley, but the Warriors thwarted his effort.
“I feel like we stepped up right away with a good chance right after they scored,” St. Francis senior Alex Guiborat said. “It was nice to see the kids in the midfield pick it up right away there, but we gifted them a couple of goals and should’ve finished some chances. It could’ve been a different ending.”
Wheaton Academy was able to extend its lead to 2-0 with 15:36 in the first half as Jack Kilgallon scored off a ball from Seamus Kilgallon.
“Every game we play we come out and try to score first, because we don’t like coming from behind,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “It’s barely happened. It happened against Normal West in Iowa. When they scored on us first we looked around like ‘This isn’t normal. How do we respond to this?’ But it was a good experience because there are going to be games where we go under. But we always want to score first. It’s a confidence builder.”
A 2-0 lead against a swirling wind of from 15-20 mph made it an even more impressive start, especially with all the energy surrounding St. Francis’ final regular season home game and Senior Night.
“We got the lead and we’re comfortable there,” Seamus Kilgallon said. “Most of our games have been that way. We jump on top and from there it’s like sailing.”
That doesn’t mean the Warriors took St. Francis for granted because of the disparity between the team’s records this fall or Wheaton Academy’s dominance in the all-time series.
“Like our coach said, we don’t think about the (17) wins, but we go into every game thinking, ‘Amen, this is another chance to play the beautiful game,’” Seamus Kilgallon said. “We’re here together with our brothers, so let’s fight for each other. So every game it’s like we’re 0-0 and it’s the first game of the season.
“Whether it’s a championship final or whatever kind of game, we’re not going to look past a team because of their record or how they’ve played in recent games. We’re going to go out, play our game and impress our will upon the game and play our style.”
St. Francis most definitely didn’t back down from their rival either.
“We don’t get to choose our competition, but we wanted to play Wheaton Academy tonight,” St. Francis senior Sean Conley said. “We don’t back away from competition, especially in a rivalry game like this. We came in confident and knew we weren’t going to roll over, and they weren’t going to roll over us. We were ready to compete and we know a lot of guys on their team so we wanted to come out strong.”
St. Francis coach Kevin Ward was loud enough during his halftime discussion with his team that his voice could be heard in the press box. Whatever motivation or strategies he shared didn’t do much good in the opening seconds of the final half. But it definitely seemed to work after that as the Spartans were solid after yielding that final goal while also scoring one of their own and creating far more chances then they did in the first half.
“We’ve been struggling to score so that was nice to get one,” St. Francis senior Nicholas Gulli said. “I was definitely proud of the effort, because we haven’t shown up some games. But we did today which was nice to see.”
They just saw far too much of the Kilgallons and the rest of the Warriors.
“They’re extremely quick with the ball and without the ball and their movement without the ball is fantastic,” Gulli said. “It’s hard to defend. You can’t stay static, or they’ll catch you flatfooted. We had three split seconds turned off, and they had three goals.”
That third goal came from Seamus Kilgallon to Owen Setran just 12 seconds into the second half. Down 2-0 with 40 minutes to play, the Spartans still had a decent chance of at least coming back a bit and making a game of it, but suddenly down 3-0, their chances became close to slim and none.
Seamus Kilgallon finished with a goal and two assists and was recognized as the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
“I thought the third goal was huge right off the kickoff,” Brooke said. “And I thought we did a nice job overall of keeping the ball. We had a lot of the ball tonight. We looked dangerous at moments, patient in moments, and our back four has been really good so it’s been a good combination.”
The Warriors cemented the league title with the victory, something that Brooke certainly did not overlook.
“I’m so proud of the guys for doing it,” he said. “It’s another conference championship for the program.”
Conley scored for St. Francis with 36:32 still to play, so the goal didn't just break the shutout but had the potential start of a big rally. While the Spartans wouldn’t convert another goal, they posed threats and didn’t go away.
“We wanted to get one early to start, but they got one which made it tough for us to bounce back,” St. Francis senior Luke Herard said. “But we fought hard. We tried our hardest but didn’t get the result.”
Something that may be overlooked is that St. Francis is a AA squad and has been playing a difficult schedule filled with 3A teams such as Wheaton Academy. So while their record isn’t noteworthy, they believe the tough schedule is preparing them for the postseason.
“We kind of like these matchups because they get us ready for regionals,” Gulli said. “We have a tough matchup coming in the regional, but we have it here so I expect to get after it and expect nothing but a win.”
Cleaning up a few things could go a long way with regard to how far the Spartans could go.
“The story of our season has been that we make one or two mistakes every game,” Conley said. “The first two goals tonight were a little bit of mistakes on our part. These are simple mistakes but against a team of this caliber, with so many good, talented players in every position, they’re going to punish you for that. We knew that coming into the game and it was ultimately our downfall.”
St. Francis recognized its five seniors during a pre-game ceremony: Sam Audy (Eastview Middle School), Conley (St. John the Baptist), Guiborat (John F. Kennedy Middle School), Gulli (All Saints Catholic Academy) and Herard (Scullen Middle School). While all five came to St. Francis from different places, they became close teammates and good friends. All picked up, or rather, began kicking a soccer ball for the first time somewhere between the ages of three and six.
Livening things up at halftime as part of the Senior Night festivities, the St. Francis Spartanette Dance Team performed. Posters for the five seniors, adorned with dozens of pictures, were on display on the fence in front of the bleachers for attendees to peruse as well in celebration of the occasion. A post-game event for the seniors and their teammates and families was held near the fieldhouse after the game.
Starting lineups
Wheaton Academy
GK: Ray Simmons
D: Jonathan Austriaco
D: Brian Henry
D: Elijah Lebo
D: John Liechty
MF: Owen Setran
MF: Logan Finnegan
MF: Christofor Eklund
MF: Jack Kilgallon
MF: Seamus Kilgallon
F: Daniel Rychenkov
St. Francis
GK: Adam Thill
D: Nathan Corrigan
D: Trey Gora
MF: Sam Audy
MF: Alex Guiborat
MF: Luke Herard
MF: Sean Conley
MF: Nicholas Gulli
MF: Frank Marsico
MF: Brendan Yarusso
MF: Michael Fasana
Man of the Match: Seamus Kilgallon, Wheaton Academy, sr., MF
Scoring summary
First half
Wheaton Academy – Seamus Kilgallon (Jack Kilgallon), 32:59
Wheaton Academy - Jack Kilgallon (Seamus Kilgallon), 15:36
Second Half
Wheaton Academy – Owen Setran (Seamus Kilgallon), 39:48
St. Francis – Sean Conley (Frank Marsico), 36:32