Spartans can't stop Warrior set pieces in loss

By Paul LaTour
Photo courtesy of Chris Konchel

If scoring a goal seems a pretty obvious way to lift a team's spirit, then it stands to reason scoring a goal from a header would be even more inspiring.

After all, as the degree of difficulty goes up, so does the potential for motivation.

Consider Wheaton Academy sufficiently inspired for a long time to come.

Senior Stephen Fernandes scored three goals on headers to lead the Warriors to a surprising 6-2 Suburban Christian Conference victory at St. Francis on Tuesday night.

"It was just being in the right position and the boys sending me good crosses," said Fernandes, who entered with three goals in the Warriors' first seven games, only one of which coming from a header.

"I'm one of the taller guys on the team (6-foot, 1-inch), so it's fairly normal for me (to score on headers), I guess."

Fernandes scored goals in the third, 54th and 56th minutes as the Warriors (5-3, 2-0) built an insurmountable 6-0 lead. The Warriors' first four goals came from set pieces.

His first goal came off a free kick by William West, who lofted the ball from near midfield into a crowd in front of Spartans goalkeeper Ryan Suerte (6 saves).

Fernandes rose above everyone and flicked the ball with his head past Suerte for the early lead.

The goal – and the way it was scored – seemed to inspire the other Warriors.

"Getting a goal in a scrum in front of the net like that – the hunger (he showed) transfers to all of us," said senior Josh Urban, who had a goal and two assists. "It just carries our momentum."

Six minutes later, the Warriors scored on another restart with a nice series of passes.

It started when three Warriors stood near the ball on a free kick just outside the Spartans' penalty area. Urban ran past the ball and continued down the right side.

Blake McNamara laid a soft pass off to Urban, who quickly crossed the ball to the far post where Brian McLean put it into the net.

"We've been able to have some success off of set pieces in the past," Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said.

"This is kind of a breakthrough game for us in regards to using it as a major part of our attack. Hopefully we can keep building on that because we have some players who are good in the air."

They weren't done proving that against St. Francis. In the 15th minute, Gareth Flynn added an unassisted goal after a corner kick was mishandled in front, leaving Flynn a chance to tap in the loose ball.

Fernandes picked up his hat trick -- or maybe "head trick" given the circumstances -- in the second half as the Warriors put the game away.

After making it 4-0 on the Warriors' final set-piece goal, Fernandes scored on a header during the flow of play, taking a cross from Mark Rougas.

Urban finished the Warriors' scoring with a goal in the 60th minute. He took a long through pass from Devin Moore and sent a smooth left-footed shot into the right upper 90.

"We knew we were going to have to work hard to get this win," Urban said. "Everybody came ready to work. We were supportive of each other and Stephen Fernandes came up huge for us."

The Spartans (4-4, 3-1 SCC) were able to find success in the final 20 minutes, getting goals from Drew Mascari and Mitch McShane 10 minutes apart.

Mascari broke the shutout bid from Jesse Carmody in the 66th minute. Carmody (3 saves) mishandled a free kick by Nick Konchel, and Mascari was there to clean it up.

The Spartans scored again in the 76th minute, thanks to another free kick that led to a scramble in front of Carmody.

McShane kicked a waist-high shot inside the right post before Carmody and the Warriors defense could recover.

But the goals did little to erase what had happened in the game's first 60 minutes.

"It was just an absolute mess," Spartans coach Kristin Keigley said. "We couldn't go up for a 50-50 ball to save our lives. Headers? What are those?

"It was very frustrating, but the headers were the big thing because they used them for very quick transitions and caught us waiting back for them."

At times the Spartans were able to control the game's flow and mount an attack. But they didn't do it often enough, and when they did it was only after falling behind 3-0.

"The exact same thing happened to us during the Glenbard South game (in a 4-2 loss August 24)," Keigley said.

"Our nerves were fried. We got scored on a couple times and then all of a sudden reality came to us and then we started playing a little better.

"But we can't let that happen every game. We're a team that if we get scored on, we have a hard time coming back. So we have to limit their goals and be the first to score otherwise it's hard for us."

The Spartans, who had their four-game winning streak snapped, almost did get that first goal.

They pushed the ball quickly up field in the opening minute when Andres Pena slid a pass through to Konchel.

But Konchel's left-footer from 23 yards sailed just high of the goal. Fifteen minutes later the Spartans were in a 3-0 hole.