Wheaton A. tops St. Patrick for 3rd in AA
3 goals in last 6 minutes cap 5-1 win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES -- Gloomy 44-degree, rainy weather greeted players Saturday morning in what is already often a hard game to play in the first place: a state third place match.
But for Wheaton Academy, the day after seeing its Class AA state title hopes dashed in a semifinal loss was seen as a chance for a final showcase in a great 2017 season.
The Warriors (24-5-0) broke open a 1-1 halftime tie with St. Patrick (23-6-2) by scoring four unanswered second half goals, three in the final 5:15 of play, to close with a deceiving but nonetheless impressive 5-1 win.
“This is my third team in this game, and we had lost the two times before,” Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said. “It’s a tough game to get up for.
“I told them ‘You’re going to wake up (Saturday), it’ll be a little dark out there and a little wet. You’re going to have a decision to make when you hear the alarm go off.’ And I was proud of the way they responded.
“I told them it took a lot of maturity and leadership,” Brooke added. “We had a couple of guys raise the standard for how we were going to play. And everyone fed off of that and raced all the way through the 80 minutes. And obviously played really strong at the end to get a few goals and seal the third place trophy.”
Despite losses in the final two games of 2017, St. Patrick had its own reasons for swelling pride. The Shamrocks wrapped up the best soccer season in school history on the state’s biggest stage.
“We came into yesterday with 14 wins in a row,” Shamrocks coach Kyle McClure said. “Yesterday (a 1-0 loss to eventual Class AA champion Solorio) was a game that could have gone either way. The guys were obviously upset, and I wasn’t sure how we’d respond.
“The first half told the story. We wanted to play soccer the way we’re able to play, and I think we showed that in the first half and into the second half until we needed a goal to equalize it and pushed guys up (in the final six minutes).
“I was proud of how we played today,” McClure added. “I thought the first half today we played better than yesterday. The fact we came off a tough loss says a lot about our team. They didn’t want to throw their season away.”
The miserable weather could have been happily trashed, but both teams came out looking impervious to the conditions.
Just 50 seconds in, a header by Wheaton Academy’s Luke Holwerda’s off a Quinn Partain corner kick was tipped just over the crossbar by leaping Shamrocks goalkeeper Chris Troyke.
The counterpunches on that play epitomized a 32-second sequence midway through the half.
After fending off early Warriors chances, St. Patrick grabbed a 1-0 lead 20:55 before halftime. Standout striker Chris Modrzejewski muscled past a Wheaton Academy defender on the dribble and found Luis Saucedo free on the left side. Saucedo’s 10-yard liner inside the right post put the Shamrocks up 1-0.
“We knew if we just played our game, that everything would happen on its own,” Saucedo said. “And that’s basically what happened on that goal. It was a great team play.”
But it took Wheaton Academy a virtual instant to respond.
Grayson Harris burst in on right wing towards the end line and snuck a tough-angle drive inside the far corner of the net for a 1-1 tie 20:23 before the half.
“It (the St. Patrick goal) was a little bit against the flow of play, so there was some frustration with it,” Brooke said. “But the guys responded great. Grayson comes back and slots one low and hard on the quick surface. I thought that was a really good leadership play by him to find the net and kind of take control.”
Said Wheaton Academy’s Luke Holwerda: “Grayson, as soon as they scored the goal, he was like ‘We can get another one.’ He took it upon himself to go, and had a goal. He put the team on his shoulders for a few minutes and gave us some confidence.
“Coming in here we had confidence,” Holwerda added. “We’ve come back ... before in the season, so we knew we could do it.”
But after that sudden burst of back-to-back salvos, the next momentum-building goal would be elusive for the next 31-plus minutes of play.
The teams traded chances off corner kicks early in the second half. For Wheaton Academy, an Owen Setran header over frame with 33:50 left, then a Warriors save of an Aaron Moreno-Lopez free kick at 32:20.
Then with 30:48 to go, a great combination pass play initiated by Holwerda broke through the ice (or in this case, a cold mist).
After receiving a Holwerda pass to the middle, Harris hit Setran on the left wing. Drawing defenders, Setran sent a perfect cross to Seamus Kilgallon back post for an open net putaway and a 2-1 Warriors lead.
Defender Setran had no goals and two assists in 28 matches entering Saturday. He would match that total in 28 minutes of second-half action.
“Setran’s a really dynamic outside back, so we’ve been trying to keep getting him forward,” Brooke said. “And today he was clean on the final pass. I was very impressed with him.
“And I thought Owen Hardy provided a lot of leadership at holding mid. He’s one of the guys that got us going and refused to end on a loss. He’s been a workhorse for us. He doesn’t get the stats, but I thought he really drove us a lot today.”
A veteran Warriors core looking for a memorable finish to state weekend was another driving force.
“For seven of us seniors out there, we knew it was going to be our last time at Wheaton Academy,” Holwerda said. “It’s another day to represent Wheaton Academy. It was like, ‘Let’s go get the trophy.’
“It was gut wrenching to lose the way we did yesterday (2-1 to eventual second place finisher Gibault). There were some gut-wrenching calls. But we put it behind us and said, ‘Let’s give it 100 percent one last time.’”
Senior Hardy and the Warriors’ defenders faced a big challenge in explosive St. Patrick and met it.
“We wanted to put pressure on the ball right away and didn’t want their center mids to get any space because we knew they were crafty,” Hardy said. “We just tried to sit in and then release the ball to our wings because that’s when we were dangerous.”
St. Patrick’s hopes to produce their own big late push took a huge hit with 26:35 left, when star sophomore defender Jonathan Rodriguez was helped off the field with an injury and never returned.
“He’s had a groin issue he’s played through the whole season,” McClure said. “You can see how dominant he is in the air, so sometimes he gets undercut and takes some abuse.
“He’s been fighting through that (injury), and I think his foot just got caught on another kid’s foot and he pulled the groin again. He’ll be fine in a couple of weeks. He’s only a sophomore, and he’s quite an athlete. He’ll be back.”
Not having Rodriguez in back late in Saturday’s match made a comeback difficult. But the Shamrocks pushed on and nearly drew even.
With 15:10 left, Chris Modrzejewski (33 goals this season) took a Saucedo cross and rocketed a 15-yard liner towards the lower left corner. But Warriors goalkeeper J.D. Gunn made a great flying swat of the shot wide of the net to save his team’s 2-1 edge.
Then with the same score and 7:25 to go, an even closer call for the Shamrocks was denied by a post made of aluminum.
A Finn Elsmo 35-yard free kick from the right side was deflected at the back post into the crease where a Warriors would-be clearing attempt of the slick ball rattled across the crease, off the right post and out.
“We were down 2-1, and we had a couple balls right on the goal line where we almost tied the game,” McClure said. “The final score obviously wasn’t indicative of the game. We had pulled up one of our defenders and they got a goal off that. We were playing for the tie.”
Despite those two narrowly missed bids to tie, the Shamrocks saw that chance quickly slip away.
After a Gunn save on a Saucedo shot with 5:40 left, the Warriors answered St. Patrick’s aggressive push upfield with a counterattack finish.
With 5:15 to go, Holwerda burst in on goal and powered home a huge insurance goal to put his team up 3-1.
Then just 31 seconds later, Setran drove the left side and crossed to Holwerda in front for a point-blank putaway. Less than a minute after Saucedo’s bid to tie the game at 2-2, Wheaton Academy was in command up 4-1.
For Man of the Match Holwerda (34 goals, 15 assists this season), it was a game-clinching capper to his incredible senior-season emergence.
“Luke grew so much,” Brooke said. “We started him at left wing, then slid him into the target role a few games in. He just gobbled up tons of goals and set other people up. For someone to jump from just one or two goals junior year to 34 -- I’ve never had that.”
The Warriors had one last celebration before claiming their third place medals. With just 27.4 seconds left, Partain made a left wing run and lined a 10-yard shot inside the left post for a late capper to the 5-1 win.
“Our guys have provided more of an explosive attack than people expected of us this year,” Brooke said. “We graduated a lot of goals and assists, so we had a lot of guys step up in some pretty fun ways. To find the net four times in the second half was pretty exciting, and fitting for this particular group.”
Speaking of exceptional groups, St. Patrick’s rags-to-riches story over the last few years added an incredible chapter.
“When Chris (Modrzejewski) was a freshman this team won two games, went 2-22-0 I think,” McClure said. “It’s been a lot of hard work over three years to go from one of the worst teams in the state to one of the best. Chris and our four other seniors were there for the whole ride. I think it’s been really rewarding for those guys.”
And even a tough final 30 minutes in miserable cold and rain Saturday won’t diminish that reward.
“Our players haven’t realized how special this season was,” McClure said. “I think they will in a week or two when they look back.
“It’s tough to end with two losses, but what they did was incredible. You compare this season to any other sports season in our school history, and it’s one of the best in the 156-year history of the school. It’s something to be really proud of.”
Chris Modrzejewski already appears far along in keeping perspective as he takes a wealth of great memories from his St. Patrick career.
“It was just playing hard and confident,” he said. “It’s all the team and all the coaches. Everything played out perfectly. It’s not first place, but it happened for a reason. Fourth place is almost as good.
“From the coaches to players to parents, everyone’s there in spirit. It doesn’t matter how it ends up. It’s what we have in our hearts. And we gave it all up on the field.”
And this could be just the first step for McClure’s rapidly rising program.
“We lose Chris and some good seniors, but over half our team are underclassmen,” McClure said. “You don’t see that from many other teams that make it to state. These seniors set the bar, and now we hope to be back here next year. But it’s going to take a lot of work.”
A 25-goal scorer this year as a sophomore, Saucedo also sees great times to come.
“I think the confidence (for next year) is great,” he said. “We’re a young team. We know how far we can get with our hard work, and if we work harder, better things will come.
“It was a really great experience (at state), but not what we wanted (fourth place). But we know if we can and will put in that work, we can get even further than this year. This was great, but everybody now is hungry for more.”
Wheaton Academy’s seven all-time trips to the state tournament included the Class AA title in 2014, their last state visit before this year.
For a strong senior group, returning the Warriors to familiar heights was a great sendoff.
“Mentally we were really strong wanting to finish the season with a win,” Hardy said. “We didn’t want to finish fourth.
“It was a great season. Obviously we wanted to be in the championship game but things didn’t go our way. But the season went great. We really surprised a lot of people, the seniors especially. We really worked hard to make this team what it was.”
Said Holwerda: “Fantastic season. We won a couple tournaments, and won I think 17 of our last 18 games. It’s been a great season overall for all of our seniors. Hopefully it carries on next year.”
That goal of adding to the Warriors’ rich tradition in 2018 is the next prize.
“Our hope is that the culture is strong and guys step into roles,” Brooke said. “I’m proud of sophomores and juniors who logged a lot of minutes and those on the bench. I think they’re getting better. And honestly I felt we had a group where everyone was locked in this year, pulling for each other even if their name wasn’t called. It was the quality of the team that was a strong attribute for us.
“They never overlooked anybody all year and don’t walk with an air of arrogance. Just ‘What’s our job today?’ They took that approach and got the third place trophy.”
Starting lineups
St. Patrick
GK Chris Troyke
D Sebastian Modrzejewski
D Jonathan Rodriguez
D Nate Anderson
D Finn Elsmo
M Aaron Moreno-Lopez
M Angel Adame
M Richie Hernandez
M Joshua Torres
F Chris Modrzejewski
F Luis Saucedo
Wheaton Academy
GK J.D. Gunn
D Luke Sezonov
D Max Dominguez
D Matthew Oster
D Elijah Lebo
M Owen Hardy
M Jack Kilgallon
M Grayson Harris
M Seamus Kilgallon
F Luke Holwerda
F Quinn Partain
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Luke Holwerda, sr. F, Wheaton Academy
Officials: M Scott Lichtfuss, AR1 John Martelin, AR2 Doug Curtner, 4th Hanah Shehaiber
Scoring summary
First half
St. Patrick, Luis Saucedo (Chris Modrzejewski), 19:04
Wheaton Academy, Grayson Harris, 19:31
Second half
Wheaton Academy, Seamus Kilgallon, 49:12
Wheaton Academy, Luke Holwerda, 74:45
Wheaton Academy, Luke Holwerda, 75:16
Wheaton Academy, Quinn Partain, 79:33
3 goals in last 6 minutes cap 5-1 win
By Dave Owen
HOFFMAN ESTATES -- Gloomy 44-degree, rainy weather greeted players Saturday morning in what is already often a hard game to play in the first place: a state third place match.
But for Wheaton Academy, the day after seeing its Class AA state title hopes dashed in a semifinal loss was seen as a chance for a final showcase in a great 2017 season.
The Warriors (24-5-0) broke open a 1-1 halftime tie with St. Patrick (23-6-2) by scoring four unanswered second half goals, three in the final 5:15 of play, to close with a deceiving but nonetheless impressive 5-1 win.
“This is my third team in this game, and we had lost the two times before,” Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said. “It’s a tough game to get up for.
“I told them ‘You’re going to wake up (Saturday), it’ll be a little dark out there and a little wet. You’re going to have a decision to make when you hear the alarm go off.’ And I was proud of the way they responded.
“I told them it took a lot of maturity and leadership,” Brooke added. “We had a couple of guys raise the standard for how we were going to play. And everyone fed off of that and raced all the way through the 80 minutes. And obviously played really strong at the end to get a few goals and seal the third place trophy.”
Despite losses in the final two games of 2017, St. Patrick had its own reasons for swelling pride. The Shamrocks wrapped up the best soccer season in school history on the state’s biggest stage.
“We came into yesterday with 14 wins in a row,” Shamrocks coach Kyle McClure said. “Yesterday (a 1-0 loss to eventual Class AA champion Solorio) was a game that could have gone either way. The guys were obviously upset, and I wasn’t sure how we’d respond.
“The first half told the story. We wanted to play soccer the way we’re able to play, and I think we showed that in the first half and into the second half until we needed a goal to equalize it and pushed guys up (in the final six minutes).
“I was proud of how we played today,” McClure added. “I thought the first half today we played better than yesterday. The fact we came off a tough loss says a lot about our team. They didn’t want to throw their season away.”
The miserable weather could have been happily trashed, but both teams came out looking impervious to the conditions.
Just 50 seconds in, a header by Wheaton Academy’s Luke Holwerda’s off a Quinn Partain corner kick was tipped just over the crossbar by leaping Shamrocks goalkeeper Chris Troyke.
The counterpunches on that play epitomized a 32-second sequence midway through the half.
After fending off early Warriors chances, St. Patrick grabbed a 1-0 lead 20:55 before halftime. Standout striker Chris Modrzejewski muscled past a Wheaton Academy defender on the dribble and found Luis Saucedo free on the left side. Saucedo’s 10-yard liner inside the right post put the Shamrocks up 1-0.
“We knew if we just played our game, that everything would happen on its own,” Saucedo said. “And that’s basically what happened on that goal. It was a great team play.”
But it took Wheaton Academy a virtual instant to respond.
Grayson Harris burst in on right wing towards the end line and snuck a tough-angle drive inside the far corner of the net for a 1-1 tie 20:23 before the half.
“It (the St. Patrick goal) was a little bit against the flow of play, so there was some frustration with it,” Brooke said. “But the guys responded great. Grayson comes back and slots one low and hard on the quick surface. I thought that was a really good leadership play by him to find the net and kind of take control.”
Said Wheaton Academy’s Luke Holwerda: “Grayson, as soon as they scored the goal, he was like ‘We can get another one.’ He took it upon himself to go, and had a goal. He put the team on his shoulders for a few minutes and gave us some confidence.
“Coming in here we had confidence,” Holwerda added. “We’ve come back ... before in the season, so we knew we could do it.”
But after that sudden burst of back-to-back salvos, the next momentum-building goal would be elusive for the next 31-plus minutes of play.
The teams traded chances off corner kicks early in the second half. For Wheaton Academy, an Owen Setran header over frame with 33:50 left, then a Warriors save of an Aaron Moreno-Lopez free kick at 32:20.
Then with 30:48 to go, a great combination pass play initiated by Holwerda broke through the ice (or in this case, a cold mist).
After receiving a Holwerda pass to the middle, Harris hit Setran on the left wing. Drawing defenders, Setran sent a perfect cross to Seamus Kilgallon back post for an open net putaway and a 2-1 Warriors lead.
Defender Setran had no goals and two assists in 28 matches entering Saturday. He would match that total in 28 minutes of second-half action.
“Setran’s a really dynamic outside back, so we’ve been trying to keep getting him forward,” Brooke said. “And today he was clean on the final pass. I was very impressed with him.
“And I thought Owen Hardy provided a lot of leadership at holding mid. He’s one of the guys that got us going and refused to end on a loss. He’s been a workhorse for us. He doesn’t get the stats, but I thought he really drove us a lot today.”
A veteran Warriors core looking for a memorable finish to state weekend was another driving force.
“For seven of us seniors out there, we knew it was going to be our last time at Wheaton Academy,” Holwerda said. “It’s another day to represent Wheaton Academy. It was like, ‘Let’s go get the trophy.’
“It was gut wrenching to lose the way we did yesterday (2-1 to eventual second place finisher Gibault). There were some gut-wrenching calls. But we put it behind us and said, ‘Let’s give it 100 percent one last time.’”
Senior Hardy and the Warriors’ defenders faced a big challenge in explosive St. Patrick and met it.
“We wanted to put pressure on the ball right away and didn’t want their center mids to get any space because we knew they were crafty,” Hardy said. “We just tried to sit in and then release the ball to our wings because that’s when we were dangerous.”
St. Patrick’s hopes to produce their own big late push took a huge hit with 26:35 left, when star sophomore defender Jonathan Rodriguez was helped off the field with an injury and never returned.
“He’s had a groin issue he’s played through the whole season,” McClure said. “You can see how dominant he is in the air, so sometimes he gets undercut and takes some abuse.
“He’s been fighting through that (injury), and I think his foot just got caught on another kid’s foot and he pulled the groin again. He’ll be fine in a couple of weeks. He’s only a sophomore, and he’s quite an athlete. He’ll be back.”
Not having Rodriguez in back late in Saturday’s match made a comeback difficult. But the Shamrocks pushed on and nearly drew even.
With 15:10 left, Chris Modrzejewski (33 goals this season) took a Saucedo cross and rocketed a 15-yard liner towards the lower left corner. But Warriors goalkeeper J.D. Gunn made a great flying swat of the shot wide of the net to save his team’s 2-1 edge.
Then with the same score and 7:25 to go, an even closer call for the Shamrocks was denied by a post made of aluminum.
A Finn Elsmo 35-yard free kick from the right side was deflected at the back post into the crease where a Warriors would-be clearing attempt of the slick ball rattled across the crease, off the right post and out.
“We were down 2-1, and we had a couple balls right on the goal line where we almost tied the game,” McClure said. “The final score obviously wasn’t indicative of the game. We had pulled up one of our defenders and they got a goal off that. We were playing for the tie.”
Despite those two narrowly missed bids to tie, the Shamrocks saw that chance quickly slip away.
After a Gunn save on a Saucedo shot with 5:40 left, the Warriors answered St. Patrick’s aggressive push upfield with a counterattack finish.
With 5:15 to go, Holwerda burst in on goal and powered home a huge insurance goal to put his team up 3-1.
Then just 31 seconds later, Setran drove the left side and crossed to Holwerda in front for a point-blank putaway. Less than a minute after Saucedo’s bid to tie the game at 2-2, Wheaton Academy was in command up 4-1.
For Man of the Match Holwerda (34 goals, 15 assists this season), it was a game-clinching capper to his incredible senior-season emergence.
“Luke grew so much,” Brooke said. “We started him at left wing, then slid him into the target role a few games in. He just gobbled up tons of goals and set other people up. For someone to jump from just one or two goals junior year to 34 -- I’ve never had that.”
The Warriors had one last celebration before claiming their third place medals. With just 27.4 seconds left, Partain made a left wing run and lined a 10-yard shot inside the left post for a late capper to the 5-1 win.
“Our guys have provided more of an explosive attack than people expected of us this year,” Brooke said. “We graduated a lot of goals and assists, so we had a lot of guys step up in some pretty fun ways. To find the net four times in the second half was pretty exciting, and fitting for this particular group.”
Speaking of exceptional groups, St. Patrick’s rags-to-riches story over the last few years added an incredible chapter.
“When Chris (Modrzejewski) was a freshman this team won two games, went 2-22-0 I think,” McClure said. “It’s been a lot of hard work over three years to go from one of the worst teams in the state to one of the best. Chris and our four other seniors were there for the whole ride. I think it’s been really rewarding for those guys.”
And even a tough final 30 minutes in miserable cold and rain Saturday won’t diminish that reward.
“Our players haven’t realized how special this season was,” McClure said. “I think they will in a week or two when they look back.
“It’s tough to end with two losses, but what they did was incredible. You compare this season to any other sports season in our school history, and it’s one of the best in the 156-year history of the school. It’s something to be really proud of.”
Chris Modrzejewski already appears far along in keeping perspective as he takes a wealth of great memories from his St. Patrick career.
“It was just playing hard and confident,” he said. “It’s all the team and all the coaches. Everything played out perfectly. It’s not first place, but it happened for a reason. Fourth place is almost as good.
“From the coaches to players to parents, everyone’s there in spirit. It doesn’t matter how it ends up. It’s what we have in our hearts. And we gave it all up on the field.”
And this could be just the first step for McClure’s rapidly rising program.
“We lose Chris and some good seniors, but over half our team are underclassmen,” McClure said. “You don’t see that from many other teams that make it to state. These seniors set the bar, and now we hope to be back here next year. But it’s going to take a lot of work.”
A 25-goal scorer this year as a sophomore, Saucedo also sees great times to come.
“I think the confidence (for next year) is great,” he said. “We’re a young team. We know how far we can get with our hard work, and if we work harder, better things will come.
“It was a really great experience (at state), but not what we wanted (fourth place). But we know if we can and will put in that work, we can get even further than this year. This was great, but everybody now is hungry for more.”
Wheaton Academy’s seven all-time trips to the state tournament included the Class AA title in 2014, their last state visit before this year.
For a strong senior group, returning the Warriors to familiar heights was a great sendoff.
“Mentally we were really strong wanting to finish the season with a win,” Hardy said. “We didn’t want to finish fourth.
“It was a great season. Obviously we wanted to be in the championship game but things didn’t go our way. But the season went great. We really surprised a lot of people, the seniors especially. We really worked hard to make this team what it was.”
Said Holwerda: “Fantastic season. We won a couple tournaments, and won I think 17 of our last 18 games. It’s been a great season overall for all of our seniors. Hopefully it carries on next year.”
That goal of adding to the Warriors’ rich tradition in 2018 is the next prize.
“Our hope is that the culture is strong and guys step into roles,” Brooke said. “I’m proud of sophomores and juniors who logged a lot of minutes and those on the bench. I think they’re getting better. And honestly I felt we had a group where everyone was locked in this year, pulling for each other even if their name wasn’t called. It was the quality of the team that was a strong attribute for us.
“They never overlooked anybody all year and don’t walk with an air of arrogance. Just ‘What’s our job today?’ They took that approach and got the third place trophy.”
Starting lineups
St. Patrick
GK Chris Troyke
D Sebastian Modrzejewski
D Jonathan Rodriguez
D Nate Anderson
D Finn Elsmo
M Aaron Moreno-Lopez
M Angel Adame
M Richie Hernandez
M Joshua Torres
F Chris Modrzejewski
F Luis Saucedo
Wheaton Academy
GK J.D. Gunn
D Luke Sezonov
D Max Dominguez
D Matthew Oster
D Elijah Lebo
M Owen Hardy
M Jack Kilgallon
M Grayson Harris
M Seamus Kilgallon
F Luke Holwerda
F Quinn Partain
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Luke Holwerda, sr. F, Wheaton Academy
Officials: M Scott Lichtfuss, AR1 John Martelin, AR2 Doug Curtner, 4th Hanah Shehaiber
Scoring summary
First half
St. Patrick, Luis Saucedo (Chris Modrzejewski), 19:04
Wheaton Academy, Grayson Harris, 19:31
Second half
Wheaton Academy, Seamus Kilgallon, 49:12
Wheaton Academy, Luke Holwerda, 74:45
Wheaton Academy, Luke Holwerda, 75:16
Wheaton Academy, Quinn Partain, 79:33