Class 3A semifinal: York vs. Romeoville
By Curt Herron
Jordan Stopka made a perfect coaching debut in IHSA state tournament competition when he led York to the Class 3A championship in the school's first trip to the finals last fall.
The title made him the fourth individual to pull off that impressive feat.
This weekend, the third-season coach looks to become the first person in state history to win titles in their first two postseasons (his first season was the playoff-less, COVID-caused 2020 spring mini-campaign).
Edwardsville's Mark Heiderscheid came close to going 2-for-2 to open his head coaching career. The Tigers won it all in the two-class system over Lincoln-Way in 2000 and then finished second to Sandburg in 2001. Others who won titles in their initial seasons were Mather's Branko Cvijovic in Class AA in 2011 and Timothy's Stephen Fernandes in Class A in 2015.
The Dukes (20-0-3) face Romeoville (27-1-1) at 5 p.m. Friday in the first large-school semifinal at Hoffman Estates High School. The winner advances to the championship match Saturday against the victor of the match between Naperville Central (24-3-1) and Stevenson (21-0-3).
"Being back at state is a dream come true for the boys and something they have been working on since the beginning of summer," Stopka said. "There are very strong bonds on this team. Some of these kids have been playing together for over 10 years.
"To accomplish a feat like this with some of your best friends is such a wonderful feeling. Their commitment to one another has pushed them over the top."
The Dukes enters the game on a 14-match win streak. Including their 8-0-0 run to cap off their historic 2021 season, the program is unbeaten in its last 31 matches. The three draws came against Lake Park, Elgin and St. Charles East during their first nine matches of the season.
During the current win run, York outscored opponents by a 46-8 margin, which includes eight wins by shutout. It defeated Conant 3-2 to win the St. Charles East Sectional title before beating Elgin 4-2 in PKs after a 2-2 draw after 100 minutes in Tuesday's Streamwood Supersectional.
The Dukes, the champions of the rugged West Suburban Conference Silver Division, were second in the final Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, but beat the top-ranked Maroons in Streamwood.
Romeoville, which was listed eighth in the poll, suffered its only loss in a 4-0 defeat in its regular-season finale against third-ranked Naperville Central.
Throw in fifth-ranked Stevenson and the finals appear to be a wide-open competition.
Nine players from York’s championship team are back for a second go; seven are seniors. The defending state champions have 18 seniors on their roster with underclassmen support from five juniors and two sophomores.
The returning seniors are forwards Jose Herrera, Kevin O'Connor and Frank Rofrano, midfielders Cole Dochoff and Joe Hernandez and defenders Cameron Oder, Drew Ebner and Ryder Kohl. The junior returnee is midfielder Gustavo Herrera. Three of the seniors -- Herrera, Hernandez and Kohl -- are the team captains.
Jose Herrera is the top goal-scorer at 14. Junior forward Jayden Waski and Rofrano both have 11 goals. Hernandez has 10; and Kohl has scored eight.
Kohl leads the squad with 12 assists. Waski has nine, Gustavo Herrera has eight, Jose Herrera and Hernandez have six apiece and Rofrano has five.
Sophomore goalkeeper Diego Ochoa has played in all 23 of his team's matches and has allowed 15 of the 16 goals that have been allowed by the squad, which is good for an 0.65 GAA. He has recorded 102 saves.
The Dukes have relied on a defense featuring seniors Soren Moore, Stefan Rebic and Kohl and junior Mateusz Janowski to help them assemble a notable stretch of 14 matches where they allowed only five goals and recorded 10 shutouts for a 12-0-2 record.
Stopka's path to becoming head coach of a state title team so quickly is obviously unusual. He competed at Lyons and graduated in 2005. After finishing college, he volunteered to coach for the Lions' girls program under Bill Lanspeary and Andy Newcomb for two years.
He started coaching the LaGrange Celtics club team before going to Saint Patrick, where he was freshman coach for four years and varsity assistant for a year under coaches Kyle McClure and Melchor Castro. He took over the Dukes' program in the spring of 2020.
Stopka is the second York coach to win two trophies in a bracketed tournament and the first to do that in his first two seasons. Andy Laux won trophies in boys volleyball in 1995 and 1997.
Just three Dukes coaches have won two or more state titles: legendary Joe Newton (28 in boys cross country and one in boys track and field), Clarence East (two in boys track and field) and Stan Reddel (two in boys track and field).
Only five programs have won two or more consecutive soccer titles in the one-class system or in the big-school class of the IHSA tournament.
They are Granite City South (1976-80)/Granite City (1989-90) under coach Gene Baker, Collinsville (1991-92) under coach Ron Rowden, St. Charles (1995-96) under coach Paul Keenan, Carl Sandburg (2001-02 in AA) under coach Jack Ferraro and Naperville North (2016-18 in 3A) under coach Jim Konrad.
Romeoville enters the game as a history-making team. The program makes its first state appearance and will bring home the 60-year-old school’s first state trophy in
a bracketed tournament.
As a result of their 4-1 victory over Edwardsville in the Bloomington Supersectional, coach Nick Cirrincione's Spartans became the second program at the school to win a state trophy in any sport.
Coach Scott Harper's boys track and field team brought home third place hardware in 2000.
The only other times that Romeoville was among the top-four teams in the state were when it was a semifinalist for coach Bill Wienke in football in 1995 and finished fourth in wrestling in 1975 for coach Jim Mackey, just 1.5 points behind champions Bloom and Richards.
Romeoville won its first nine matches of the season before a 2-2 draw with West Aurora. Then it claimed 13-straight wins before the loss to Naperville Central.
The Spartans outscored their playoff opponents 19-3 in the playoffs. The closest matches were one-goal decisions in the Lockport Sectional against Stagg in the semifinals and Bloom in the final.
Leading the way for the Southwest Prairie Conference champion is Player of the Year Joseph Duarte, who has 41 goals and 11 assists so far.
He is far from the only scoring threat on the Spartans. Junior defender Imanol Casillas has a team-high 23 assists and contributed eight goals. Senior midfielder Demain Martinez (14 goals, 10 assists), senior forward Luis Orizaba (11, 14), senior midfielder Christian Agyekum (10, eight) and junior defender Isaiah Pina (nine, nine) have accounted for a combined 41.6 percent of the goals. The team's captains are Duarte and Martinez.
The Spartans have recorded 15 shutouts while allowing just one goal in nine other matches. Romeoville has scored 125 goals while allowing just 21 tallies and has collected two or more goals in all but four of its matches.
Cirrincione is 158-107-19 in his 13th season at the school. The Spartans reached the sectional finals a year ago where they fell to eventual third place finisher, Lockport.
The Spartans coach played soccer and wrestled at Glenbard North. In his senior season (1998-99), his Panthers lost in the soccer sectional finals to eventual Class AA champion Naperville North. In the winter, he placed fourth in the state at 135 pounds in Class AA. He was recruited to compete in both sports at Eastern Illinois University, but chose to focus on wrestling.
"The Spartans are looking to get their first state title in school history," Cirrincione said. "The Spartans are excited to be in the state series and are ready to go compete against York, the returning champs."
By Curt Herron
Jordan Stopka made a perfect coaching debut in IHSA state tournament competition when he led York to the Class 3A championship in the school's first trip to the finals last fall.
The title made him the fourth individual to pull off that impressive feat.
This weekend, the third-season coach looks to become the first person in state history to win titles in their first two postseasons (his first season was the playoff-less, COVID-caused 2020 spring mini-campaign).
Edwardsville's Mark Heiderscheid came close to going 2-for-2 to open his head coaching career. The Tigers won it all in the two-class system over Lincoln-Way in 2000 and then finished second to Sandburg in 2001. Others who won titles in their initial seasons were Mather's Branko Cvijovic in Class AA in 2011 and Timothy's Stephen Fernandes in Class A in 2015.
The Dukes (20-0-3) face Romeoville (27-1-1) at 5 p.m. Friday in the first large-school semifinal at Hoffman Estates High School. The winner advances to the championship match Saturday against the victor of the match between Naperville Central (24-3-1) and Stevenson (21-0-3).
"Being back at state is a dream come true for the boys and something they have been working on since the beginning of summer," Stopka said. "There are very strong bonds on this team. Some of these kids have been playing together for over 10 years.
"To accomplish a feat like this with some of your best friends is such a wonderful feeling. Their commitment to one another has pushed them over the top."
The Dukes enters the game on a 14-match win streak. Including their 8-0-0 run to cap off their historic 2021 season, the program is unbeaten in its last 31 matches. The three draws came against Lake Park, Elgin and St. Charles East during their first nine matches of the season.
During the current win run, York outscored opponents by a 46-8 margin, which includes eight wins by shutout. It defeated Conant 3-2 to win the St. Charles East Sectional title before beating Elgin 4-2 in PKs after a 2-2 draw after 100 minutes in Tuesday's Streamwood Supersectional.
The Dukes, the champions of the rugged West Suburban Conference Silver Division, were second in the final Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, but beat the top-ranked Maroons in Streamwood.
Romeoville, which was listed eighth in the poll, suffered its only loss in a 4-0 defeat in its regular-season finale against third-ranked Naperville Central.
Throw in fifth-ranked Stevenson and the finals appear to be a wide-open competition.
Nine players from York’s championship team are back for a second go; seven are seniors. The defending state champions have 18 seniors on their roster with underclassmen support from five juniors and two sophomores.
The returning seniors are forwards Jose Herrera, Kevin O'Connor and Frank Rofrano, midfielders Cole Dochoff and Joe Hernandez and defenders Cameron Oder, Drew Ebner and Ryder Kohl. The junior returnee is midfielder Gustavo Herrera. Three of the seniors -- Herrera, Hernandez and Kohl -- are the team captains.
Jose Herrera is the top goal-scorer at 14. Junior forward Jayden Waski and Rofrano both have 11 goals. Hernandez has 10; and Kohl has scored eight.
Kohl leads the squad with 12 assists. Waski has nine, Gustavo Herrera has eight, Jose Herrera and Hernandez have six apiece and Rofrano has five.
Sophomore goalkeeper Diego Ochoa has played in all 23 of his team's matches and has allowed 15 of the 16 goals that have been allowed by the squad, which is good for an 0.65 GAA. He has recorded 102 saves.
The Dukes have relied on a defense featuring seniors Soren Moore, Stefan Rebic and Kohl and junior Mateusz Janowski to help them assemble a notable stretch of 14 matches where they allowed only five goals and recorded 10 shutouts for a 12-0-2 record.
Stopka's path to becoming head coach of a state title team so quickly is obviously unusual. He competed at Lyons and graduated in 2005. After finishing college, he volunteered to coach for the Lions' girls program under Bill Lanspeary and Andy Newcomb for two years.
He started coaching the LaGrange Celtics club team before going to Saint Patrick, where he was freshman coach for four years and varsity assistant for a year under coaches Kyle McClure and Melchor Castro. He took over the Dukes' program in the spring of 2020.
Stopka is the second York coach to win two trophies in a bracketed tournament and the first to do that in his first two seasons. Andy Laux won trophies in boys volleyball in 1995 and 1997.
Just three Dukes coaches have won two or more state titles: legendary Joe Newton (28 in boys cross country and one in boys track and field), Clarence East (two in boys track and field) and Stan Reddel (two in boys track and field).
Only five programs have won two or more consecutive soccer titles in the one-class system or in the big-school class of the IHSA tournament.
They are Granite City South (1976-80)/Granite City (1989-90) under coach Gene Baker, Collinsville (1991-92) under coach Ron Rowden, St. Charles (1995-96) under coach Paul Keenan, Carl Sandburg (2001-02 in AA) under coach Jack Ferraro and Naperville North (2016-18 in 3A) under coach Jim Konrad.
Romeoville enters the game as a history-making team. The program makes its first state appearance and will bring home the 60-year-old school’s first state trophy in
a bracketed tournament.
As a result of their 4-1 victory over Edwardsville in the Bloomington Supersectional, coach Nick Cirrincione's Spartans became the second program at the school to win a state trophy in any sport.
Coach Scott Harper's boys track and field team brought home third place hardware in 2000.
The only other times that Romeoville was among the top-four teams in the state were when it was a semifinalist for coach Bill Wienke in football in 1995 and finished fourth in wrestling in 1975 for coach Jim Mackey, just 1.5 points behind champions Bloom and Richards.
Romeoville won its first nine matches of the season before a 2-2 draw with West Aurora. Then it claimed 13-straight wins before the loss to Naperville Central.
The Spartans outscored their playoff opponents 19-3 in the playoffs. The closest matches were one-goal decisions in the Lockport Sectional against Stagg in the semifinals and Bloom in the final.
Leading the way for the Southwest Prairie Conference champion is Player of the Year Joseph Duarte, who has 41 goals and 11 assists so far.
He is far from the only scoring threat on the Spartans. Junior defender Imanol Casillas has a team-high 23 assists and contributed eight goals. Senior midfielder Demain Martinez (14 goals, 10 assists), senior forward Luis Orizaba (11, 14), senior midfielder Christian Agyekum (10, eight) and junior defender Isaiah Pina (nine, nine) have accounted for a combined 41.6 percent of the goals. The team's captains are Duarte and Martinez.
The Spartans have recorded 15 shutouts while allowing just one goal in nine other matches. Romeoville has scored 125 goals while allowing just 21 tallies and has collected two or more goals in all but four of its matches.
Cirrincione is 158-107-19 in his 13th season at the school. The Spartans reached the sectional finals a year ago where they fell to eventual third place finisher, Lockport.
The Spartans coach played soccer and wrestled at Glenbard North. In his senior season (1998-99), his Panthers lost in the soccer sectional finals to eventual Class AA champion Naperville North. In the winter, he placed fourth in the state at 135 pounds in Class AA. He was recruited to compete in both sports at Eastern Illinois University, but chose to focus on wrestling.
"The Spartans are looking to get their first state title in school history," Cirrincione said. "The Spartans are excited to be in the state series and are ready to go compete against York, the returning champs."