Chicagoland Soccer

Spartans win a watershed game vs. Wheaton Academy
By Gary Larsen

Two years ago, St. Francis lost a regular-season game in a shootout to Wheaton Academy but later lost 4-0 to the Warriors in the postseason. Last year, the Spartans lost 2-1 and 2-0 in the teams’ two meetings, and for the 11th consecutive season were unable to notch a win against the two-time Class 2A state champions.

This season, St. Francis dominated play but lost yet again to Wheaton Academy on May 2, 2-1 in West Chicago. After that game, Spartans senior Sydney Fox was more determined than ever that her team’s day against the Warriors would come.

“It’s on,” she said after the loss. “It’s going to happen.”

It finally happened for the Spartans (21-3) on Friday, as they met their obligation as the top seed of the Elmwood Park Class 2A Sectional, winning 2-0 over third-seeded Wheat Academy (15-9-1) in a sectional final.

Wheaton Academy won two state titles (in 2004 and 2009) during the rise of St. Francis, but it was only in the past three seasons that an influx of talent had the Spartans slowly begin to believe they could compete with the state power.

“We’ve gone up and down with it,” St. Francis junior Anna Vonderhaar said. “We’d lose a close game to them and then lose by a lot in the (sectional) finals. Last year we started believing that we could beat them, and this year especially we felt like we were right there with them.”

Clean looks on net were hard to come by for both teams on Friday, but a Taylor Bucaro penalty kick conversion and a beautiful connection between Amanda Gaggioli and Taylor Van Thornout provided St. Francis with all of the day’s scoring.

Wheaton Academy stars Crystal Thomas and Ally Witt each scored in the Warriors’ 2-1 win over the Spartans, in a game that St. Francis largely controlled from start to finish. The Spartans didn’t control the rematch nearly as much, but the Warriors couldn’t locate a goal.

“I thought we played better. They didn’t dominate us the way they did the first time we played them,” Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood said. “But we could not keep the ball at our feet today. We couldn’t get anything out of the back. We were too careless with playing the ball out of the back and when you can’t keep possession of the ball, you can’t build anything.

“Everyone knows one of the easiest things to defend – even with players like Crystal and Ally – are long balls, where you just keep trying to go to one player. But one or two on four is tough to do. That has worked for us some this year and we’ve been riding our two special players all year long, but we didn’t keep the ball at our feet enough today to build anything or create anything offensively.”

A relatively uneventful first half saw the Spartans earn five corner kicks and the Warriors flirt with a few dangerous free kicks in a scoreless draw through 40 minutes.

Warriors keeper Kristen Morency and Spartans keeper Jenna DiTusa each handled everything sent towards them through 40 minutes, and St. Francis coach Jim Winslow was happy to see his keeper playing active and aggressive.

“In the first game, Jenna never saw the ball and never really got into the game. This game was more up and down the field in the first fifteen or twenty minutes, and that got her into it,” Winslow said. “She didn’t have to make many saves – they never got a clean, easy shot on goal – but that said, she was in it and in command of what was going on in back, and that made all the difference in the world. The couple (saves) she needed to make, she was focused and ready for them.

“And unlike the first game, we didn’t have a ton of great opportunities today. But we took advantage of what we needed to.”

The game’s first goal was set up by a handball call against Wheaton Academy, early in the second half. Bucaro calmly buried it for the 1-0 lead.

“Certainly you can’t say that the penalty kick cost us the game,” Underwood said. “I will say it was one of the lamest PKs I’ve ever seen, but that wasn’t the game-decider.”

Gaggioli made a few penetrating runs in the first half to no avail but the senior made one count in the second half when she split two defenders and headed for the endline on the left side.

“I just saw the space, the defenders were moving, so I just attacked the space and kept going until I got to the endline,” Gaggioli said. “I looked up and saw (Van Thournout) and just crossed it in.”

Van Thournout volleyed in the cross from eight yards out and the day’s scoring was over. The Spartans refused to allow Thomas or Witt to beat them the way they’d done in Game One this year.

“With Crystal we focused on not diving in, because she can kill you if you dive in,” Vonderhaar said. “We also tried to make her play to her left more because we know she’s deadly with her right. My goal personally was, if she couldn’t get the ball, she couldn’t score. For Witt, we have a pretty quick defense so we just had to use our heads and keep it up.

“The second half we played as a team and got it done. The first half was very evenly matched but in the second half we started playing our game and passing it around.”

The Warriors fought hard during the last 20 minutes of play but never solved DiTusa and the Spartans’ backline of Meghan Wagner, Katherine Roback, Taylor Bucaro, and Alyssa Mastroianni.

“All the kids did a nice job. They all did,” Winslow said. “I thought Meghan Wagner probably played her best game. Anna did a phenomenal job on (Thomas) in the first game and did a great job today. She was physical with her and she did get a yellow card but she didn’t stop playing. Katie Ramsey in the midfield did a nice job, and we found Amanda a bunch of times in the first half but didn’t take advantage of it. And (Mastroianni) and (Bucaro) on the outside are just so solid.

“It’s been a long time and I’m just happy for them.”

St. Francis moves on to play Benet in a supersectional game on Tuesday at Benedictine University in Lisle, and a chance at the state’s Final Four. Vonderhaar doesn’t believe the Friday’s emotional win will be followed by a letdown.

“We’re on top of the world right now and I think we know that if we play together, we can accomplish great things,” she said. “If we play our game and play our best, if we lose, we lose, but we want to make sure we did our best and left everything on the field.”

Wheaton Academy will bid farewell to six rostered seniors, led by the Notre Dame-bound Thomas, Wheaton College-bound Witt, and John Brown Univesity-bound Morency, along with Blythe Todd, Tobi Ballantine, and Sara Tonne.

“Crystal and Ally are special, and so is Morency,” Winslow said. Underwood agrees.

“Are you kidding me? They’re phenomenal,” Underwood said. “They carried us through to a darn good season. I don’t think most people would have given us a chance to win fifteen games this year, but with Kristen in goal – and I thought she had another great performance today. Her two best two games of the season were against St. Francis – Crystal is just out of this world good, and Witt as well.
“The thing that’s great beyond their play is the leadership they provide. We’ve got a lot of young kids so the nice thing is that they now know how to lead, because they’ve seen the way our best players were leaders this year. They see the level they have to work at to become the kind of players these seniors are.”

Thomas likes what she sees ahead for the underclassmen she and this year’s seniors are handing the program over to.

“I’m so excited about the players we have and what they’re going to do next year,” Thomas said. “The offseason will be a great time for us to get better technically, and be more efficient when we have the ball, to have possession and create chances, so I’m very excited about what’s going to come here.

“And I’m so thankful for the opportunity to play for Wheaton Academy, and for the lord, my god and king, and have fun with my friends. Now I’m ready for a new chapter in life. I want to go and dominate at Notre Dame.”