Warriors edging closer, top Geneva
By Darryl Mellema

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Little by little, Wheaton Academy is sorting things out this season and just might be in good shape when the IHSA tournament starts in a few weeks.

The Warriors edged Geneva 1-0 thanks to a Grant Stoneman goal 10 minutes into the second half on Saturday, taking their record to 8-5 for the season.

“Our central mids are starting to understand what we want from them in terms of where we want them to position themselves,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said. “I thought they played great today in the middle against some good central mids for Geneva.”

Stoneman's goal decided a match in which visiting Wheaton Academy dominated though mostly failed to turn possession and chances into goals. Still, the Warriors carved a number of openings with their passing and subsequent movement.

“Since (Geneva) played a 3-5-2, it's easier to get around the corner play it forward, play it back and get to the goal,” Stoneman said. “I got there most of the time. I've just got to finish more.”

Stoneman worked left-to-right across the face of Geneva's goal before hitting the shot back to the left and into the net.

“We practice that a lot,” Stoneman said. “I play an attacking mid now and it was nice to play on a nice turf field too.”

Stoneman had other chances denied in the match, but he was still the dominant player on the field through the 80 minutes.

“He got through in the first half and I know he'd like to have that one back,” Brooke said. “But then he gets a second chance and he earned it with a series of moves to get past the center back and then to slot it far post.”

While Stoneman's goal was critical in deciding the match, his efforts throughout the game to nullify Geneva attacks and then to pressure the Vikings' defense with counter attacks was nearly as important.

“He controlled things for us in the middle, but I like him getting forward,” Brooke said.

The Warriors had a number of players have strong games on Saturday. One was Zeb Lewis.

“Zeb played great,” Brooke said. “We moved him to an outside defender and he distributes well. All our back four played well today”

While the Warriors struggled earlier in the season to keep their goals-against numbers manageable, performances like Saturday's show the improvement the team has made.

“The first thing that we clapped for at the end of the game was the shutout,” Brooke said. “One of the things we've been working toward is really cutting down our goals-against. Obviously to get a shutout was huge. (Lewis) played great but so did Marshall (West), Danny Bergquist and Danny Luetkehans brought a lot today.”

Another player who excelled in his minutes on the field was freshman midfielder Jacob Kapitanuik.

“He's finding the pace,” Brooke said. “He's got the technical ability. We're trying to get a lot of pictures in his mind so he can play a little faster. He played a little more today and played better today and I told him when he came off the field today that this was the best game that he's had. He's a great thing for the future but the more that he can help us now, the better.”

Geneva (2-5-2) saw its inconsistent season continue. The Vikings entered Saturday's match on the heels of a 4-1 victory over Batavia.

“I didn't feel we had any energy out here,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “This was a major letdown. We didn't have any of the excitement we had out here against Batavia on Thursday night.”

If Wheaton Academy's pass-and-move style was working well, Geneva's ball movement struggled.

“Part of that goes to Wheaton Academy pressuring us all over the place,” Estabrook said. “We didn't get into any kind of a rhythm.”

The Vikings went through the first half and didn't have a serious push toward the goal until inside the final 5 minutes of the match.

“It was a helter skelter game,” Estabrook said. “It wasn't fun to watch and I'm sure it wasn't much fun to play either. A number of things out there made it unenjoyable.”

That lack of ball movement, especially on the new artificial surface at Burgess Field, was frustrating for Estabrook.

“We should have had better touches than what we had,” Estabrook said. “We had some poor decisions and we didn't respond to their best player. (Stoneman) was outstanding. He was causing us problems from the beginning of the match. We talked about the danger that he possessed at halftime and we still let him get a couple of chances in the second half.”

Wheaton Academy still has nine games left in its schedule, starting with Tuesday's match at Marian Central.

“We paused two or three games ago and said 'we're halfway,'” Brooke said. “Now let's set some new goals, now that we know each other and know what our strengths or weaknesses are. I felt it was a great point of refocusing for these guys. We only have three or four seniors in the starting lineup. So we have some younger guys going through an emotional up and down in the Pepsi Showdown. Today's a great game for us.”

Geneva has a half-dozen matches to play, starting with a match with rival St. Charles East on Tuesday.

“We still haven't figured the recipe for winning games on a consistent basis,” Estabrook said. “We'll see what the guys are made of when we play East on Tuesday. That's a real quality side and it's a rivalry game, so I'm sure we'll be more excited to play them than our opponent today.”