Warriors in finals
10.24.07 :: Boys Soccer :: Posted at 9:18 PM (Chicago Tribune)
The big guys are starting to wish Wheaton Academy was still in Class A. The Warriors advanced to the finals of their own sectional with a 1-0 win over St. Charles North Tuesday night.
All the West Chicago school, in only its second year of Class AA competition, needed was a Lucas Young goal followed by a strong defensive effort to win the semifinal.
Andrew Knighten started the goal with a perfect free kick from middle distance. The ball found Young, who made a low, running lunge after altering his far post move in the 18th minute.
"We've been working on set pieces in practice and me and Andrew play club together. I just said put it up there and let me go get it," said Young. "Somehow I got around the kid to head it in. I didn't plan that at all. I was going to go around him (the defender), but then I saw the ball was a little short. So I came back around and sort of dived for and hit it. I was going to hit it near post to J.P. (Justin Potesta), but then it just went in. The seniors, we just want to go as far as we can in AA. Going this far is incredible."
Junior keeper Ryan Seager stopped two shots for Wheaton (15-3-5) and stopped numerous other chances in the box to earn his sixth shutout. He was assisted by a defense that featured four starters at 6-foot-3 or taller and was able to effectively stall St. Charles North (17-5-2).
"They have some pretty big guys in the middle of the field. Their transition defense was very good, but it was compact in the middle," said St. Charles North coach Eric Willson. "It was important for us to get it wide and find feet and we didn't do that. That's a major factor to why we lost tonight. Part of that is the intelligent defending that they had. The other part is us not executing.
"We got a goal on a free kick against them in the first game, our free kicks were downright awful tonight. They defensively outplayed us tonight. They deserved to win the game, there's no doubt about that. "