Warriors go 2-1 at Mid-State Classic
By Gary Larsen

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The scoring legs over at Wheaton Academy are getting loosened up.

The Warriors capped a three-game, 11-goal weekend on Saturday with a 6-0 win over Springfield Sacred Heart, in the third place game of this year’s Mid-State Soccer Tournament in Palatine.

The Warriors (12-6-0) got a pair of goals from Gareth Flynn and one apiece from Grant Stoneman, Andrew Luetkehans, Kevin Esposito, and Jacob Fernandes in the win.

Flynn got the Warriors out of the gate fast when he chipped the Cyclones’ keeper just five minutes into play. Stoneman hammered in the second goal on a play set up by a free kick, and Luetkehans converted a penalty kick before halftime for a 3-0 Warriors lead.

The Warriors gained early control and never relinquished it. “It’s always good getting the first goal, because then you can play the game at your pace,” Flynn said.

Flynn’s second-half  goal was a beauty. Teammate Sam Hardy sent a ball over and Flynn took a shot from the left side with the outside of his right foot, 16 yards out, and the ball sailed to the inside netting of the far post.

If he took ten of those shots, how many might Flynn bury?  “Probably not too many,” Flynn said. “That was a sweet goal.”

“Flynn’s been fantastic,” Brooke said. “When he gets in front of the goal, he just does good things. When I saw it hit side netting, nothing but applause there.

 “He’s always up top in some fashion, whether or not we isolate him with outside backs or keep him on their center backs. He scored a goal from the center part of the field against Viator this morning, and this afternoon he plays wide and gets two.”

The Warriors opened tournament play with a 3-0 win over Quincy Notre Dame on Friday, at Celtic Park in Palatine, getting a pair of goals from Grant Stoneman and one from Hardy. Friday's win sent Wheaton Academy into a semifinal game against tournament host Saint Viator on Saturday morning.

Viator struck first but the Warriors scored twice to grab a 2-1 lead, before giving up two more goals to the eventual tournament champion Lions in a 3-2 loss.

“Viator is a good team but we came out of that game frustrated,” Flynn said. “We felt like we should have won that game. We went up 2-1 and kind of sat back, and they came back at us. They’re a good side and that was an unfortunate result for us, but we’ll chalk that one up to experience.”

Warriors coach Jeff Brooke now sees an attack that is settling into a comfort zone, and a backline in front of Saturday’s starting keeper Spencer Graf that is also starting to gel. The win marked the Warriors’ eighth shutout of the season.

With Graf aggressively leaving his line in pursuit of all long serves to the goalmouth, Daniel Bergquist, Marshall West, Zeb Lewis, and Luetkehans kept danger from Sacred Heart to a minimum throughout.

“Our back four is coming along. I don’t know that yesterday and today were the defining moment, because we’re always looking to improve, but we’re moving in the right direction,” Brooke said.

With Adam Hunt, Hardy, and Stoneman spearheading the attack in the middle of the field, the Warriors were able to keep constant pressure on Sacred Heart’s backline.

“Those three have done a nice job in the middle,” Brooke said. “We kind of had three guys working as a triangle, and now there’s a little more specific and intentional instruction of what we want them to do, and they’ve embraced it. They were searching for that, and after they worked through a couple games together, we’ve seen them play a little more intentional.

“Grant Stoneman and Adam Hunt really played well over these three games. They give us a lot of control in the middle. They’ve got great size, they’ve got great athleticism, first touch, second touch, and then obviously their decision-making. They really did a fantastic job in this tournament.”

Now with 11 goals on the year, Flynn also enjoyed this year’s Mid-State Tournament.

“This is a great tournament and the people at Viator do a great job,” Flynn said. “The value of this tournament is that you get to play some quality sides, and some schools in your class. We never know if we’ll play some of these teams during the state tournament.”

The Class 2A Warriors are the No. 1 seed of the Wheaton Academy Sectional this year, followed by No. 2 St. Joseph and No. 3 Riverside-Brookfield.  Nazareth received the No. 4 seed and lurking at No. 5 is a defending sectional champion and a heated rival in St. Francis.

The Warriors have three games ahead in the coming week, against Montini, Wheaton North, and Suburban Christian Conference foe St. Francis, which beat Wheaton Academy in a regional title game last year.

Wednesday's game between the Warriors and the Spartans figures to be a doozy.

“We definitely owe them one, after last year’s regional final,” Flynn said.  “We’re already pumped for that game. “

“They’ve done a nice job of building their program and that will be a good game,” Brooke said. “St. Francis, us, and Marmion are all undefeated in the conference, so we’ll fight it out over the next few weeks.”