Warren's whale of a comeback
drowns Lake Forest Academy
Blue Devils win 3-2 on 3 wicked shots in last 18 minutes
By Gary Larsen
GURNEE -- Seniors on Senior Night shouldn’t be so cruel as to give their parents flowers before the game, only to give them anxiety-fueled high blood pressure during it.
That’s exactly what Warren did to its poor senior parents Thursday. But in a comeback that was difficult to fathom, at least the hosts sent those parents home with smiles on their worry-lined faces with a 3-2 nonconference win over Lake Forest Academy.
Big, toothy smiles.
“It’s just a great way for these guys to end their senior year here,” Warren coach Jason Ahonen said.
Every team scores a ridiculous goal now and then, a crazy strike sent where no keeper saves it. Warren, which is ranked 18th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, produced three of those to earn the victory.
Where does a comeback begin? Well, on Thursday it could be precisely traced to the head of senior Cael Harris. Chasing a 2-0 deficit with 18 minutes remaining in the game, Warren (12-4-4) earned a corner kick on the left side of its attacking third.
Warren senior Alexis Medina — whose right foot was either magic or haunted depending on a fan’s rooting interest — sent the corner kick to the far side of the net.
Harris was there, 15 yards from goal, and the rangy senior left his feet and got up after it. Harris sent a head shot back across the box and dropped it under the bar, where it nestled into the side netting at the far post.
Lake Forest Academy keeper Matthew Kupczyk had no chance to save Harris’ sixth goal of the year, all of which have come on headers.
“(Ahonen) always tells us that when the serve goes deep to always try to hit the ball back in that general direction because the goalie is sliding to the far side. I just angled it, and it went in.”
The comeback's second leg was equally impressive. The game-tying goal from Warren senior Matt Hegge two minutes later was just as unstoppable.
Another Warren corner kick to the far side was sent back toward the top of the 18 at 64 minutes. All Hegge did was pick it out of the air and blister a volley that zipped inside the right-side post despite an acrobatic effort by Kupczyk to stop it.
At that point, momentum had filled the Blue Devils’ sails and sent the Caxys adrift without a paddle. Steady attacking pressure led to multiple Warren set piece chances down the stretch.
Warren’s momentum was also spurred on by a source that Harris, Ahonen, and Medina all lauded afterwards.
“It was our bench tonight, with the way they were engaged and really got into it in the second half,” Ahonen said “and once we scored the first one, we were able to build off of that.”
Medina agreed.
“In the second half, our bench and our players on the field started picking up their energy,” he said. “The bench got louder and louder in the second half and then that first goal really gave us momentum and got us hungry for a second goal.”
Before describing the way Medina’s magically haunted foot broke the 2-2 tie and ultimately decided the game, an early game recap and some history is in order.
Lake Forest Academy (9-8-1) is a small private school that tied for the Independent School League title with small-school power North Shore Country Day this season. The Caxys can play, and coach Paul Makovec likes to put big schools on his nonconference schedule.
He likes his boys' annual battle with a larger school like Warren for one main reason:
“Jason (Ahonen) coaches the right way,” Makovec said. “There are teams in the area that we don’t play because of the way they’re coached and the way they play. But Jason coaches his boys right every year, and we’ll beg them to play us every year.”
The first 65 minutes of soccer that led to a 2-2 tie was fairly evenly-played. The first truly dangerous scoring chance came at nine minutes, when Warren’s Miguel Rodriguez let fly from distance. Kupczyk leapt and tipped Rodriguez’s speeding shot over the bar to keep the slate clean.
Two minutes later, Medina played a ball to the left side to teammate Miguel Garcia, who beat a defender and fired a good scoring chance from 10 yards. Kupczyk made a sprawling save and then pounced on the rebound.
Warren defender Ryan Stanciak broke up a dangerous Lake Forest Academy scoring chance in the Blue Devils’ box on a ball sent in toward charging Caxys forward Giuseppe Maida at 15 minutes.
Maida was targeted all night and was dangerous throughout. Warren’s backline of Harris, Hegge, Stanciak, and Ben Conley stayed acutely aware of where Maida was from start to finish, but a player with Maida’s combination of speed, skill, and smarts can still find a way to bend a game to his will.
And if there’s a better attacking player around, Ahonen hasn’t seen him.
“I thought (Maida) was tremendous,” he said. “He’s the most talented offensive player I’ve seen all year against us. With his speed and touch, he gave us trouble all night long.”
Makovec couldn’t agree more and hopes it’s a matter of time before some major college program sees the light on the senior Maida.
“He’s a stud,” Makovec said. “He tore his ACL in January and he has played all year for us. He broke our school record for goals in a season as a sophomore. He hasn’t gotten as many looks as he needs to, but there’s no way he doesn’t play D-I ball."
The teams continued to battled for the opener when Warren’s Emilio Mancera charged onto a Medina corner kick and bodied it wide at the near post at 19 minutes. A Blue Devils' shot hit the crossbar at 21 minutes. Lake Forest Academy pushed forward next when Maida took on two defenders deep on the left side at 22 minutes, but Warren’s boys won the battle.
Warren keeper George McAtee fled his line and raced 25 yards to kick away a Lake Forest Academy ball sent over the top at 27 minutes. Maida set up a 20-yard rip by teammate Franco Sovero that went just wide of frame at 29 minutes.
The Caxys found a good spurt of attacking pressure during the final 10 minutes of the first half. Kamal Nigmatullin hit a wicked shot that went wide from 25 yards at 36 minutes, and McAtee fielded a long one-hopper sent from Stefan Momcilovic at 39 minutes.
Momcilovic was fouled in the box at 39 minutes to set up the game’s first goal.
Maida’s sent his PK flying inside the left-side post past a diving McAtee to give Lake Forest Academy a 1-0 lead.
Another Warren foul in the box eight minutes into the second half set up a second Lake Forest penalty kick. Maida lined it up and again fired his PK inside the left-side post.
Twenty minutes of back-and-forth soccer ensued before Harris’ perfectly-placed headshot and Hegge’s insane volley tied the game.
As for Medina’s dark-arts-enchanted right foot, he used it to win the game on a free kick taken from nearly 40 yards at 75 minutes.
As he lined up the kick, Medina thought of a similar free kick he took on Sept. 25 against Evanston. He sent that shot wide in a game that ended 2-2.
“It was just like tonight’s (free kick),” Medina said. “I knew I had to shoot it and honestly, the only thing I was thinking was revenge.”
Medina’s shot was ferocious. It sailed under the bar and Kupczyk, yet again, had no chance to save it.
“I was trying to knuckleball it to the left or right side, and it didn’t even spin. It didn’t move in the air,” Medina said. “I was shocked myself.”
Garcia hit a crossbar with a shot at 77 minutes for the game’s final dangerous scoring chance.
The comeback was complete, and Harris liked the way his mates responded to the adversity of a 2-0 deficit.
“It showed what we’re all about as a program — how hard we’ll fight and how hard we’ll work,” Harris said. “Coach (Ahonen) talks about holding the rope, which just means doing the most you can for your teammates, sacrifice yourself and do whatever you can to get the results. We’ll fight until the end and that’s what we showed tonight.”
Notebook
Seniors stepping up
“Matt Hegge and Braden Lechner played on the JV team last year, (McAtee) was a backup in goal, and (Medina) came off the bench,” Ahonen said. “We only returned two starters, plus two field players and a keeper from last year. So this year’s team has grinded. And one thing they’ll do is work their tails off, and defend. When they hold the rope it’s amazing what happens.”
David keeps slinging
“We’re a little school, and we just want to beat a team like this once in a while,” Makovec said of Lake Forest Academy. “It’s a David-Goliath sort of story, and we lose this game a lot 3-2 or 2-1. If it was a 60-minute game we’d win a lot of these games. We knew we’d give (Warren) a run, but we just can’t hang with all the athletes that they have. They can often out-man us towards the end of games. But I’ve told the boys they’ve got to be proud to play teams like this, because they make us better. We had a rough start to the season, and it took a long time to get here but the last few games we’ve played some pretty good soccer.”
Captain’s view
Warren captain Harris was happy to name names when it came to who shined in his side’s win. “(Alexis Medina), obviously, Miguel Garcia, Ben Conley, Ryan Stanciak and George (McAtee) played a hell of a game,” Harris said. “But I’m so proud of everybody, even the guys coming off the bench. Guys like Braden Lechner, Jaris Salinas and Tyler Hughes came in and worked their tails off.”
Starting lineups
Lake Forest Academy
GK: Matthew Kupczyk
D: Pierce Chasely
D: Lazar Matic
D: Jose Onofre
D: Nikola Momcilovic
MF: Richard Ascroft
MF: Stefano Maida
MF: Nicholas Abaev
MF: Ryota Nambara
MF: Franco Sovero
F: Giuseppe Maida
Warren
GK: George McAtee
D: Cael Harris
D: Matt Hegge
D: Ryan Stanciak
D: Ben Conley
MF: Matt Paraskos
MF: Tommy DeSanto
MF: Michael Galvan
MF: Miguel Rodriguez
F: Alexis Medina
F: Miguel Garcia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alexis Medina, sr., F, Warren
Scoring summary
First half
Lake Forest Academy — Maida (PK) 39 minutes
Second half
Lake Forest Academy — Maida (PK) 48 minutes
Warren — Harris (Medina) 62 minutes
Warren — Hegge (UA) 64 minutes
Warren — Medina (FK) 75 minutes
drowns Lake Forest Academy
Blue Devils win 3-2 on 3 wicked shots in last 18 minutes
By Gary Larsen
GURNEE -- Seniors on Senior Night shouldn’t be so cruel as to give their parents flowers before the game, only to give them anxiety-fueled high blood pressure during it.
That’s exactly what Warren did to its poor senior parents Thursday. But in a comeback that was difficult to fathom, at least the hosts sent those parents home with smiles on their worry-lined faces with a 3-2 nonconference win over Lake Forest Academy.
Big, toothy smiles.
“It’s just a great way for these guys to end their senior year here,” Warren coach Jason Ahonen said.
Every team scores a ridiculous goal now and then, a crazy strike sent where no keeper saves it. Warren, which is ranked 18th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, produced three of those to earn the victory.
Where does a comeback begin? Well, on Thursday it could be precisely traced to the head of senior Cael Harris. Chasing a 2-0 deficit with 18 minutes remaining in the game, Warren (12-4-4) earned a corner kick on the left side of its attacking third.
Warren senior Alexis Medina — whose right foot was either magic or haunted depending on a fan’s rooting interest — sent the corner kick to the far side of the net.
Harris was there, 15 yards from goal, and the rangy senior left his feet and got up after it. Harris sent a head shot back across the box and dropped it under the bar, where it nestled into the side netting at the far post.
Lake Forest Academy keeper Matthew Kupczyk had no chance to save Harris’ sixth goal of the year, all of which have come on headers.
“(Ahonen) always tells us that when the serve goes deep to always try to hit the ball back in that general direction because the goalie is sliding to the far side. I just angled it, and it went in.”
The comeback's second leg was equally impressive. The game-tying goal from Warren senior Matt Hegge two minutes later was just as unstoppable.
Another Warren corner kick to the far side was sent back toward the top of the 18 at 64 minutes. All Hegge did was pick it out of the air and blister a volley that zipped inside the right-side post despite an acrobatic effort by Kupczyk to stop it.
At that point, momentum had filled the Blue Devils’ sails and sent the Caxys adrift without a paddle. Steady attacking pressure led to multiple Warren set piece chances down the stretch.
Warren’s momentum was also spurred on by a source that Harris, Ahonen, and Medina all lauded afterwards.
“It was our bench tonight, with the way they were engaged and really got into it in the second half,” Ahonen said “and once we scored the first one, we were able to build off of that.”
Medina agreed.
“In the second half, our bench and our players on the field started picking up their energy,” he said. “The bench got louder and louder in the second half and then that first goal really gave us momentum and got us hungry for a second goal.”
Before describing the way Medina’s magically haunted foot broke the 2-2 tie and ultimately decided the game, an early game recap and some history is in order.
Lake Forest Academy (9-8-1) is a small private school that tied for the Independent School League title with small-school power North Shore Country Day this season. The Caxys can play, and coach Paul Makovec likes to put big schools on his nonconference schedule.
He likes his boys' annual battle with a larger school like Warren for one main reason:
“Jason (Ahonen) coaches the right way,” Makovec said. “There are teams in the area that we don’t play because of the way they’re coached and the way they play. But Jason coaches his boys right every year, and we’ll beg them to play us every year.”
The first 65 minutes of soccer that led to a 2-2 tie was fairly evenly-played. The first truly dangerous scoring chance came at nine minutes, when Warren’s Miguel Rodriguez let fly from distance. Kupczyk leapt and tipped Rodriguez’s speeding shot over the bar to keep the slate clean.
Two minutes later, Medina played a ball to the left side to teammate Miguel Garcia, who beat a defender and fired a good scoring chance from 10 yards. Kupczyk made a sprawling save and then pounced on the rebound.
Warren defender Ryan Stanciak broke up a dangerous Lake Forest Academy scoring chance in the Blue Devils’ box on a ball sent in toward charging Caxys forward Giuseppe Maida at 15 minutes.
Maida was targeted all night and was dangerous throughout. Warren’s backline of Harris, Hegge, Stanciak, and Ben Conley stayed acutely aware of where Maida was from start to finish, but a player with Maida’s combination of speed, skill, and smarts can still find a way to bend a game to his will.
And if there’s a better attacking player around, Ahonen hasn’t seen him.
“I thought (Maida) was tremendous,” he said. “He’s the most talented offensive player I’ve seen all year against us. With his speed and touch, he gave us trouble all night long.”
Makovec couldn’t agree more and hopes it’s a matter of time before some major college program sees the light on the senior Maida.
“He’s a stud,” Makovec said. “He tore his ACL in January and he has played all year for us. He broke our school record for goals in a season as a sophomore. He hasn’t gotten as many looks as he needs to, but there’s no way he doesn’t play D-I ball."
The teams continued to battled for the opener when Warren’s Emilio Mancera charged onto a Medina corner kick and bodied it wide at the near post at 19 minutes. A Blue Devils' shot hit the crossbar at 21 minutes. Lake Forest Academy pushed forward next when Maida took on two defenders deep on the left side at 22 minutes, but Warren’s boys won the battle.
Warren keeper George McAtee fled his line and raced 25 yards to kick away a Lake Forest Academy ball sent over the top at 27 minutes. Maida set up a 20-yard rip by teammate Franco Sovero that went just wide of frame at 29 minutes.
The Caxys found a good spurt of attacking pressure during the final 10 minutes of the first half. Kamal Nigmatullin hit a wicked shot that went wide from 25 yards at 36 minutes, and McAtee fielded a long one-hopper sent from Stefan Momcilovic at 39 minutes.
Momcilovic was fouled in the box at 39 minutes to set up the game’s first goal.
Maida’s sent his PK flying inside the left-side post past a diving McAtee to give Lake Forest Academy a 1-0 lead.
Another Warren foul in the box eight minutes into the second half set up a second Lake Forest penalty kick. Maida lined it up and again fired his PK inside the left-side post.
Twenty minutes of back-and-forth soccer ensued before Harris’ perfectly-placed headshot and Hegge’s insane volley tied the game.
As for Medina’s dark-arts-enchanted right foot, he used it to win the game on a free kick taken from nearly 40 yards at 75 minutes.
As he lined up the kick, Medina thought of a similar free kick he took on Sept. 25 against Evanston. He sent that shot wide in a game that ended 2-2.
“It was just like tonight’s (free kick),” Medina said. “I knew I had to shoot it and honestly, the only thing I was thinking was revenge.”
Medina’s shot was ferocious. It sailed under the bar and Kupczyk, yet again, had no chance to save it.
“I was trying to knuckleball it to the left or right side, and it didn’t even spin. It didn’t move in the air,” Medina said. “I was shocked myself.”
Garcia hit a crossbar with a shot at 77 minutes for the game’s final dangerous scoring chance.
The comeback was complete, and Harris liked the way his mates responded to the adversity of a 2-0 deficit.
“It showed what we’re all about as a program — how hard we’ll fight and how hard we’ll work,” Harris said. “Coach (Ahonen) talks about holding the rope, which just means doing the most you can for your teammates, sacrifice yourself and do whatever you can to get the results. We’ll fight until the end and that’s what we showed tonight.”
Notebook
Seniors stepping up
“Matt Hegge and Braden Lechner played on the JV team last year, (McAtee) was a backup in goal, and (Medina) came off the bench,” Ahonen said. “We only returned two starters, plus two field players and a keeper from last year. So this year’s team has grinded. And one thing they’ll do is work their tails off, and defend. When they hold the rope it’s amazing what happens.”
David keeps slinging
“We’re a little school, and we just want to beat a team like this once in a while,” Makovec said of Lake Forest Academy. “It’s a David-Goliath sort of story, and we lose this game a lot 3-2 or 2-1. If it was a 60-minute game we’d win a lot of these games. We knew we’d give (Warren) a run, but we just can’t hang with all the athletes that they have. They can often out-man us towards the end of games. But I’ve told the boys they’ve got to be proud to play teams like this, because they make us better. We had a rough start to the season, and it took a long time to get here but the last few games we’ve played some pretty good soccer.”
Captain’s view
Warren captain Harris was happy to name names when it came to who shined in his side’s win. “(Alexis Medina), obviously, Miguel Garcia, Ben Conley, Ryan Stanciak and George (McAtee) played a hell of a game,” Harris said. “But I’m so proud of everybody, even the guys coming off the bench. Guys like Braden Lechner, Jaris Salinas and Tyler Hughes came in and worked their tails off.”
Starting lineups
Lake Forest Academy
GK: Matthew Kupczyk
D: Pierce Chasely
D: Lazar Matic
D: Jose Onofre
D: Nikola Momcilovic
MF: Richard Ascroft
MF: Stefano Maida
MF: Nicholas Abaev
MF: Ryota Nambara
MF: Franco Sovero
F: Giuseppe Maida
Warren
GK: George McAtee
D: Cael Harris
D: Matt Hegge
D: Ryan Stanciak
D: Ben Conley
MF: Matt Paraskos
MF: Tommy DeSanto
MF: Michael Galvan
MF: Miguel Rodriguez
F: Alexis Medina
F: Miguel Garcia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alexis Medina, sr., F, Warren
Scoring summary
First half
Lake Forest Academy — Maida (PK) 39 minutes
Second half
Lake Forest Academy — Maida (PK) 48 minutes
Warren — Harris (Medina) 62 minutes
Warren — Hegge (UA) 64 minutes
Warren — Medina (FK) 75 minutes