Warriors aiming to regroup in the face of losing Daniels

By Darryl Mellema

Perhaps the best news in Saturday's Geneva-Wheaton Academy game – from a Wheaton Academy perspective – is that the Warriors look very capable of doing well despite the recent loss of star senior forward Tim Daniels.

That doesn't mean the Warriors don't miss Daniels in their 2-0 loss to the Vikings. Daniels suffered a season-ending broken ankle in Tuesday's season-opener at West Chicago. The senior faces surgery this week and then weeks of rest, recovery and rehab.

“It's devastating because he's such a good player,” Wheaton Academy senior midfielder Stephen Fernandes said. “But at the same time, we're not using it as an excuse. We're not saying 'Tim's out.' We want to come back and play as hard as we can.”

Daniels was in the Burgess Field stands on Saturday, his ankle and leg wrapped in bandages, crutches by his side. And what he and the other spectators saw was Wheaton Academy (1-1) tearing into the Vikings (1-0-1) from the opening whistle and coming close to scoring a number of times in the opening 20 minutes.

In the very first minute, Josh Urban forced Geneva goalie Stephen Soderstrom to make a sharp save. Stephen Fernandes and Frank DellaTorre also had efforts saved as the Warriors pressed the Vikings all over the field.

“We have a lot of guys with a good talent level and it's just a matter of piecing it together in a different way,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said. “I told him after playing (Geneva), which has players who will play Division I and Division III ball, that we created some nice chances. We've paved the way to a bright season. I think everyone was wondering how we would play without Timmy. I think we've got a nice season in place.”

But after having one penalty kick claim waved away, Geneva did get a penalty kick awarded after a handball in the penalty area with 21:02 left in the opening half. Brady Wahl scored that spot kick to give the host Vikings the lead.

“We have players who have an attacking mindset who can step into the attacking role that Timmy has left,” Brooke said. “It's just a matter of seeing who's going to do that. It's a character thing for people to step up where they didn't think they would be this year.”

Wheaton Academy struggled in the middle portion of the match to make an impact. Still, Devin Moore put a free header in the penalty area over the crossbar and DellaTorre muscled his way to the ball and shot low to force Soderstrom to make another of his many saves in the match.

The opening stages of the second half were Geneva's most dominant of the match and included another goal. Carlos Hernandez rolled the ball into the net after a right wing cross by Josh Poythress following a good lead pass from Brady Wahl.

“Especially in the second half, they were moving the ball and worked harder than us,” Fernandes said. “They were moving the ball around us. I think we did all right in the first half.”

Geneva's forwards presented some challenges to Wheaton Academy's back line, which had to adjust throughout the match.

“They had some major threats,” Fernandes said. “(Wahl and Seamus Kaminski – whenever they had the ball, they could do dangerous stuff with it. It was a lot different than our last game (2-0 win over West Chicago.)”

Late in the match, the Warriors had another attacking flurry. DellaTorre sent a flicked header over the bar, Urban worked free and shot wide and DellaTorre moved one-on-one with Soderstrom, who made the point blank save.

Despite allowing the two goals, Wheaton Academy goalie Jesse Carmody had a strong game.

“We like how he's been playing,” Brooke said. “We like how he's developed in the past year. He was a backup last year as a sophomore. He learned a lot and he's taken a leadership role in the back.”