York uses last-minute goal
to tie Lake Park, hold on for 3rd-straight title
Dukes' score with 34 seconds left for 2-2 result
By Curt Herron
ROSELLE -- When a team sees an upset victory slip away in the final minute and as a result loses the chance of winning its own tournament, it's understandable if those players would be really disappointed about the sudden turn of events.
Then add in that the last-minute drama came not only against one of the state's top teams but also the defending state champion and that makes it even more likely that the team that held the late lead would just as soon forget about its close call.
But that certainly wasn't the case on Saturday in Lake Park's 31st-annual Norm Hillner Classic championship match at Krupke Memorial Field. The host Lancers weren't that disheartened after settling for a 2-2 draw against defending Class 3A champion York, who entered the match ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 and was off to a 4-0-0 start after dispatching its opponents by a composite 22-3 margin.
Instead, coach Sean Crosby's 3-1-1 Lancers preferred to look at the draw as a statement that they could compete against the state's best squads, which is a big deal for a team that moved into the rankings to claim the 25th spot this week and features 10 returning players who were on a squad that only won five matches a year ago.
Lake Park suffered its lone loss this season on Thursday when it fell 3-2 to Wheaton North in tournament play.
Junior Alexander Menolascina scored on a header with 34 seconds remaining following an assist from junior Manteusz Janowski to assure the Dukes of a third-straight title at the Norm Hillner Classic. The Lancers had put themselves in a position to win their first title in the event since 2018 when junior Anthony Juarez scored following an assist from senior Nick Gironda in the 71st minute.
"It was awfully close," Crosby said. "We thought that we still had it. With 30 seconds left we didn't really have defenders back there. But when the ball moved out of the box, we thought we had enough up to call that player offsides, but it ended up not being the call. It was a tough one to go down with given how well we played.
“But as far as out effort, we're 100 percent satisfied as a coaching staff. It was great to see some of our freshmen and underclassmen step up and make huge plays in the game.
"We're definitely optimistic. Our games continue to be tough, … but this one was a great barometer for us to see where we stack with the best in the state. We wanted this one on our schedule, and we're very happy that they participate in our tournament every year. That keeps the competition level super high.”
The Lancers coach pointed to several key performers who helped to put his team in a position to win the match. They included freshman Andrew Donato, who scored the Lancers first goal (22nd minute) and senior Shane Donnelly, who was a disruptive force in a new role on defense. Senior keeper Andrew Swacha came up with several big stops; and senior Rodrigo Diaz was a force in the midfield both on the attack as well as on defense.
"Our game plan was to try to get one early. But they got one on us, so we were playing from behind," Crosby said. " Andrew Donato is not typically a starter for us, but he's got a lot of minutes in and has been playing very well. With Devin Czeremuga out, Andrew had to step up in a starting role today and we asked him to just play hard, defend like crazy, make it difficult on them and try to make the most of his chances. And boy, did he outshoot our expectations. My goodness, we couldn't be more proud of the way he performed, not just the goal but his work-rate, hustle, quickness and pace of play. Wow, what a goal, that's one that he'll remember his whole career. That was beautiful.
"Shane Donnelly played a different role, too. We typically have him in the center of the field, but we had to play him in the back to support our defensive shape. We knew that they had a lot of talent running through, and he locked down a lot defensively for us. And Andrew Swacha, our goalie, was peppered all game long. He made the most out of one-on-one chances and good positional saves.
And Rodrigo Diaz in our midfield had to play a different type of game than he's used to. He had to work up to attack on our chances, because he's a great creative player for us. He also had to defend like crazy in the back, and he had his hands full with the midfielders that they had. Today was a heart game for him, and we're very proud of his efforts."
While understandably pleased at adding to their Hillner Classic titles from 2021 and 2019 and avoiding their first loss of the season, York wasn't happy about not being able to create more good scoring chances during earlier stretches of the match. They had won 12 in a row dating back to last season and will now have to be content with a 13-match unbeaten streak as they prepare for their big West Suburban Conference Silver Division showdown against second-ranked Oak Park and River Forest at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in Oak Park Stadium.
"They played a great game, and they totally deserved it," Dukes coach Jordan Stopka said of Lake Park. "They had their first adversity on Thursday and had to bounce back, and they showed that they're up to the test. Now we just got our first little bout of adversity. We were a little bit lackadaisical coming into this game and looking at our previous results and just getting ahead of ourselves.
“I don't think they were looking ahead to another game, but maybe they thought they had this in the bag. We tried to keep them focused, and we even told them that this was a trap game. I don't want to diminish the credit that is due to Lake Park; they played a great game and were all over us in the first 20 minutes.
"I think we did a good job of coming back and playing our game but just the quality in the final third and finishing wasn't there. If we could have put a couple of those away, maybe we would have gotten our heads into it, and it would have been over. But that's the game of soccer. I'm just glad that we were resilient and didn't put our heads down. It would have been easy in the last five minutes to just kind of throw in the towel, but we didn't.
“We had some really good chances at the end and finally that last header by Xander went in. I'm very happy for him. He's been getting spot starts on defense and out on the wing. We thought he played well, and he didn't give the ball away."
After both sides had plenty of good scoring chances during the final half, the Lancers finally broke the 1-1 tie that had been in place since just past the midpoint of the opening half. Juarez got free in front following a pass from Gironda, and he connected from about 10 yards with 9:30 remaining.
After Swacha sent in a long free kick that was cleared by a York defender, senior Alessandro Scalera also tried to add to the hosts' lead with a corner kick but nothing developed. After senior Jose Herrera created a corner kick for York, junior Gustavo Herrera lined the subsequent restart to the Lancers keeper.
With less than two minutes remaining, Lake Park junior Jakub Tourillott cleared a loose ball in front of the net. Then York senior Ryder Kohl sent in a corner kick that was headed away by Donnelly. That set the table for the dramatic score in the final minute which was put in by Menolascina, who is one of the 15 players on the 23-man who were not members of last year's state championship squad.
"We're going to play a lot of tough matches this season, so this is just the beginning," Menolascina said. "We came out strong in the last 10 minutes because we really wanted it. We didn't put our heads down and kept looking forward. We wanted the win, but we'll come out with a tie.
“Our attackers are all really good. We all stay positive during the game. We don't talk negative, and that's a big part of it, staying positive and not putting our heads down."
York had a lot of good chances early in the final half as Swacha had to make stops on attempts by Gustavo Herrera, junior Michael Greco, senior Joe Hernandez and senior Soren Moore.
Donnelly, normally a midfielder but moved to defense to try to combat the Dukes' many threats, was happy to be able to contribute in a different and key way for the Lancers.
"We knew we were going against the state champs so it was going to be a hard game," Donnelly said. "So we kind of focused on defensive organization more than anything and taking them 1-1 into the second half was good enough for us. We have a lot of talent this year. This was my first game going back to center back. It was a different look for the game, and I definitely liked it.
"Our keeper saved us multiple times, and the last-minute goal was unlucky. There's nothing that you can do about that. This was a great team to play against, and it definitely shows a lot of promise if we can work off of this in our remaining games. We know we have the caliber of team that can compete with a state champ. We were ahead of them with 30 seconds left, and last year in this tournament we finished dead last."
After Lake Park got good attempts from Donato and Gironda in the opening minutes of the match, the Dukes grabbed their only lead in the eighth minute when senior Kevin O'Connor sent a pass to Hernandez, who connected from about 15 yards.
Following shots by Gironda and Juarez that were deflected, York countered with good attempts from Gustavo Herrera and O'Connor. Lake Park finally connected in the 22nd minute when freshman Donato fired in a liner from about 30 yards for his first high school goal.
Lake Park tried to add to its lead with headers from Juarez and Donnelly, but they were stopped by Ochoa. York countered with several threats: Jose Herrera had a shot cleared by Tourillott: Kohl was thwarted on a corner kick that was cleared by Moore; and senior Frank Rofrano got free in front but was denied on a kick save by Swacha.
"We had a tough loss, and it wasn't our best game but we struck back pretty fast against the state champions from last year," Donato said. "It came down to the wire, and we fought to the end. It was a good cross that was unlucky for us. I think that everyone from the bottom to the top fought to the last minute.
"We're ready to go far this year. No matter if we're down or if we're up or if we lost the game before, we always strike back. This team is high intensity with positive energy. We don't break down on each other ever, and we keep it up until the last minute."
The Lancers face another tough opponent in their next match when they play at St. Charles East, which was ranked 11th, on Tuesday to kick off DuKane Conference play.
The Norm Hillner Classic is named in honor of the Lancers coach who led the program for 28 years and was a 2007 Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Famer inductee. He served on the IHSSCA executive board member since 1986, and previously served as its president before recently retiring. Amont his national honors was the 2022 Robert W. Robinson High School Long-Term Service Award from the United Soccer Coaches.
Starting lineups
York
GK: Diego Ochoa
D: Ryder Kohl
D: Manteusz Janowski
D: Soren Moore
D: Stefan Rebic
MF: Michael Greco
MF: Gustavo Herrera
MF: Frank Rofrano
MF: Joe Hernandez
F: Jose Herrera
F: Kevin O'Connor
Lake Park
GK: Andrew Swacha
D: Jakub Tourillott
D: Oscar Sagan
D: Shane Donnelly
D: Lucas Boebel
MF: Nick Gironda
MF: Rodrigo Diaz
MF: Francesco Cardone
MF: Andrew Donato
F: Anthony Juarez
F: Alessandro Scalera
Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match:
Joe Hernandez, sr., MF, York;
Andrew Swacha, sr., GK, Lake Park
Scoring summary
First half
York: Joe Hernandez (Kevin O'Connor), 8'
Lake Park: Andrew Donato, 22'
Second half
Lake Park: Anthony Juarez (Nick Gironda), 71'
York: Alexander Menolascina (Manteusz Janowski), 80'
to tie Lake Park, hold on for 3rd-straight title
Dukes' score with 34 seconds left for 2-2 result
By Curt Herron
ROSELLE -- When a team sees an upset victory slip away in the final minute and as a result loses the chance of winning its own tournament, it's understandable if those players would be really disappointed about the sudden turn of events.
Then add in that the last-minute drama came not only against one of the state's top teams but also the defending state champion and that makes it even more likely that the team that held the late lead would just as soon forget about its close call.
But that certainly wasn't the case on Saturday in Lake Park's 31st-annual Norm Hillner Classic championship match at Krupke Memorial Field. The host Lancers weren't that disheartened after settling for a 2-2 draw against defending Class 3A champion York, who entered the match ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 and was off to a 4-0-0 start after dispatching its opponents by a composite 22-3 margin.
Instead, coach Sean Crosby's 3-1-1 Lancers preferred to look at the draw as a statement that they could compete against the state's best squads, which is a big deal for a team that moved into the rankings to claim the 25th spot this week and features 10 returning players who were on a squad that only won five matches a year ago.
Lake Park suffered its lone loss this season on Thursday when it fell 3-2 to Wheaton North in tournament play.
Junior Alexander Menolascina scored on a header with 34 seconds remaining following an assist from junior Manteusz Janowski to assure the Dukes of a third-straight title at the Norm Hillner Classic. The Lancers had put themselves in a position to win their first title in the event since 2018 when junior Anthony Juarez scored following an assist from senior Nick Gironda in the 71st minute.
"It was awfully close," Crosby said. "We thought that we still had it. With 30 seconds left we didn't really have defenders back there. But when the ball moved out of the box, we thought we had enough up to call that player offsides, but it ended up not being the call. It was a tough one to go down with given how well we played.
“But as far as out effort, we're 100 percent satisfied as a coaching staff. It was great to see some of our freshmen and underclassmen step up and make huge plays in the game.
"We're definitely optimistic. Our games continue to be tough, … but this one was a great barometer for us to see where we stack with the best in the state. We wanted this one on our schedule, and we're very happy that they participate in our tournament every year. That keeps the competition level super high.”
The Lancers coach pointed to several key performers who helped to put his team in a position to win the match. They included freshman Andrew Donato, who scored the Lancers first goal (22nd minute) and senior Shane Donnelly, who was a disruptive force in a new role on defense. Senior keeper Andrew Swacha came up with several big stops; and senior Rodrigo Diaz was a force in the midfield both on the attack as well as on defense.
"Our game plan was to try to get one early. But they got one on us, so we were playing from behind," Crosby said. " Andrew Donato is not typically a starter for us, but he's got a lot of minutes in and has been playing very well. With Devin Czeremuga out, Andrew had to step up in a starting role today and we asked him to just play hard, defend like crazy, make it difficult on them and try to make the most of his chances. And boy, did he outshoot our expectations. My goodness, we couldn't be more proud of the way he performed, not just the goal but his work-rate, hustle, quickness and pace of play. Wow, what a goal, that's one that he'll remember his whole career. That was beautiful.
"Shane Donnelly played a different role, too. We typically have him in the center of the field, but we had to play him in the back to support our defensive shape. We knew that they had a lot of talent running through, and he locked down a lot defensively for us. And Andrew Swacha, our goalie, was peppered all game long. He made the most out of one-on-one chances and good positional saves.
And Rodrigo Diaz in our midfield had to play a different type of game than he's used to. He had to work up to attack on our chances, because he's a great creative player for us. He also had to defend like crazy in the back, and he had his hands full with the midfielders that they had. Today was a heart game for him, and we're very proud of his efforts."
While understandably pleased at adding to their Hillner Classic titles from 2021 and 2019 and avoiding their first loss of the season, York wasn't happy about not being able to create more good scoring chances during earlier stretches of the match. They had won 12 in a row dating back to last season and will now have to be content with a 13-match unbeaten streak as they prepare for their big West Suburban Conference Silver Division showdown against second-ranked Oak Park and River Forest at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in Oak Park Stadium.
"They played a great game, and they totally deserved it," Dukes coach Jordan Stopka said of Lake Park. "They had their first adversity on Thursday and had to bounce back, and they showed that they're up to the test. Now we just got our first little bout of adversity. We were a little bit lackadaisical coming into this game and looking at our previous results and just getting ahead of ourselves.
“I don't think they were looking ahead to another game, but maybe they thought they had this in the bag. We tried to keep them focused, and we even told them that this was a trap game. I don't want to diminish the credit that is due to Lake Park; they played a great game and were all over us in the first 20 minutes.
"I think we did a good job of coming back and playing our game but just the quality in the final third and finishing wasn't there. If we could have put a couple of those away, maybe we would have gotten our heads into it, and it would have been over. But that's the game of soccer. I'm just glad that we were resilient and didn't put our heads down. It would have been easy in the last five minutes to just kind of throw in the towel, but we didn't.
“We had some really good chances at the end and finally that last header by Xander went in. I'm very happy for him. He's been getting spot starts on defense and out on the wing. We thought he played well, and he didn't give the ball away."
After both sides had plenty of good scoring chances during the final half, the Lancers finally broke the 1-1 tie that had been in place since just past the midpoint of the opening half. Juarez got free in front following a pass from Gironda, and he connected from about 10 yards with 9:30 remaining.
After Swacha sent in a long free kick that was cleared by a York defender, senior Alessandro Scalera also tried to add to the hosts' lead with a corner kick but nothing developed. After senior Jose Herrera created a corner kick for York, junior Gustavo Herrera lined the subsequent restart to the Lancers keeper.
With less than two minutes remaining, Lake Park junior Jakub Tourillott cleared a loose ball in front of the net. Then York senior Ryder Kohl sent in a corner kick that was headed away by Donnelly. That set the table for the dramatic score in the final minute which was put in by Menolascina, who is one of the 15 players on the 23-man who were not members of last year's state championship squad.
"We're going to play a lot of tough matches this season, so this is just the beginning," Menolascina said. "We came out strong in the last 10 minutes because we really wanted it. We didn't put our heads down and kept looking forward. We wanted the win, but we'll come out with a tie.
“Our attackers are all really good. We all stay positive during the game. We don't talk negative, and that's a big part of it, staying positive and not putting our heads down."
York had a lot of good chances early in the final half as Swacha had to make stops on attempts by Gustavo Herrera, junior Michael Greco, senior Joe Hernandez and senior Soren Moore.
Donnelly, normally a midfielder but moved to defense to try to combat the Dukes' many threats, was happy to be able to contribute in a different and key way for the Lancers.
"We knew we were going against the state champs so it was going to be a hard game," Donnelly said. "So we kind of focused on defensive organization more than anything and taking them 1-1 into the second half was good enough for us. We have a lot of talent this year. This was my first game going back to center back. It was a different look for the game, and I definitely liked it.
"Our keeper saved us multiple times, and the last-minute goal was unlucky. There's nothing that you can do about that. This was a great team to play against, and it definitely shows a lot of promise if we can work off of this in our remaining games. We know we have the caliber of team that can compete with a state champ. We were ahead of them with 30 seconds left, and last year in this tournament we finished dead last."
After Lake Park got good attempts from Donato and Gironda in the opening minutes of the match, the Dukes grabbed their only lead in the eighth minute when senior Kevin O'Connor sent a pass to Hernandez, who connected from about 15 yards.
Following shots by Gironda and Juarez that were deflected, York countered with good attempts from Gustavo Herrera and O'Connor. Lake Park finally connected in the 22nd minute when freshman Donato fired in a liner from about 30 yards for his first high school goal.
Lake Park tried to add to its lead with headers from Juarez and Donnelly, but they were stopped by Ochoa. York countered with several threats: Jose Herrera had a shot cleared by Tourillott: Kohl was thwarted on a corner kick that was cleared by Moore; and senior Frank Rofrano got free in front but was denied on a kick save by Swacha.
"We had a tough loss, and it wasn't our best game but we struck back pretty fast against the state champions from last year," Donato said. "It came down to the wire, and we fought to the end. It was a good cross that was unlucky for us. I think that everyone from the bottom to the top fought to the last minute.
"We're ready to go far this year. No matter if we're down or if we're up or if we lost the game before, we always strike back. This team is high intensity with positive energy. We don't break down on each other ever, and we keep it up until the last minute."
The Lancers face another tough opponent in their next match when they play at St. Charles East, which was ranked 11th, on Tuesday to kick off DuKane Conference play.
The Norm Hillner Classic is named in honor of the Lancers coach who led the program for 28 years and was a 2007 Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Famer inductee. He served on the IHSSCA executive board member since 1986, and previously served as its president before recently retiring. Amont his national honors was the 2022 Robert W. Robinson High School Long-Term Service Award from the United Soccer Coaches.
Starting lineups
York
GK: Diego Ochoa
D: Ryder Kohl
D: Manteusz Janowski
D: Soren Moore
D: Stefan Rebic
MF: Michael Greco
MF: Gustavo Herrera
MF: Frank Rofrano
MF: Joe Hernandez
F: Jose Herrera
F: Kevin O'Connor
Lake Park
GK: Andrew Swacha
D: Jakub Tourillott
D: Oscar Sagan
D: Shane Donnelly
D: Lucas Boebel
MF: Nick Gironda
MF: Rodrigo Diaz
MF: Francesco Cardone
MF: Andrew Donato
F: Anthony Juarez
F: Alessandro Scalera
Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match:
Joe Hernandez, sr., MF, York;
Andrew Swacha, sr., GK, Lake Park
Scoring summary
First half
York: Joe Hernandez (Kevin O'Connor), 8'
Lake Park: Andrew Donato, 22'
Second half
Lake Park: Anthony Juarez (Nick Gironda), 71'
York: Alexander Menolascina (Manteusz Janowski), 80'