Grass is greener for Spartans in home opener

By Casey Callanan
Photos courtesy of Chris Konchel

This fall marks the first time St. Francis football will be playing home games at College of DuPage and those reaping the benefits of the move aren’t just the ones in shoulder pads.

On the rugged but drastically improved grass field at St. Francis High School Tuesday night, the Spartans’ soccer team won their second straight game in a 5-1 victory over Chicago Christian. 

Without the stress of Spartan football games, the notoriously muddy and dirt covered field played fast enough for St. Francis (2-3) to bolt out to a 3-0 lead before halftime.

“Last year both sidelines were all mud because of the tarps they lay down for football. It was a mud pit,” said St. Francis senior Wes Dorman.

Parts of the field are still predominately dirt, but Dorman insists the field is in as good of shape as he has ever seen.

Despite the St. Francis offense being in control of the ball for nearly the entire first twenty minutes of the game, Chicago Christian goalie Dan VanGroningen kept the Spartans scoreless.

VanGroningen’s shutout came to an end when Spartan forward Nick Konchel passed the ball across the box to the waiting foot of Dorman. With 12:52 left in the first half, Dorman was able to get just enough of the pass to give St. Francis a 1-0 lead.

“I had the height advantage on the defender and I was hoping Nick would see me,” Dorman said.

One minute and thirty seconds later, Konchel rolled with the momentum and scored a goal of his own. Konchel’s first of his two eventual goals it made it 2-0.

“Once we calmed down and took better shots things went our way,” Konchel said. “Eventually we got around (VanGroningen).”

The Spartans connected one more time after junior midfielder Keegan Miulli scored and took a commanding three score lead to halftime.

In the opening minutes of the second half Chicago Christian scored its only goal after junior Sean Stepien drove the ball down the sideline and drilled it home. The Knights’ celebration turned out to be very brief as Konchel scored 45 seconds later to make it 4-1.

The final Spartan’s goal came with a 23 minutes remaining in the game when Dorman made it 5-1.

The win marks St. Francis’ first winning streak of the season as they are coming off a 6-1 victory against Yorkville. The Spartans opened their season with a 3-0 loss  to DeKalb and then dropped a 2-0 loss to South Elgin.

“We’re increasing the level of our play every game and it’s only going to go up from here,” Konchel said.

The Spartans hope to ensure the rest of the season goes a lot smoother than previous years in regards to the quality of their field.

“Last year for sure we had at least one game cancelled because the field was too muddy to play on,” Dorman said.

First year head coach Kristin Keigley is already seeing signs the field will be able to stand the test of an entire season of cleat marks and slide tackles.

“The field looks a lot better today, but above all we have to deal with what we have,” Keigley said. “The sidelines won’t be as torn up and things will be better for the middle of the field without football.”

The Spartans are gearing up for a tough stretch of games as they travel to play Montini on Thursday. According to Keigley, next week will be one of the most challenging of the season.

“Next week we play Wheaton and Marmion back to back and we are expecting both teams to be some of our toughest competition of the season,” Keigley said.