Chicagoland Soccer

Warriors reach the Elite Eight with win over St. Francis

By Gary Larsen

The first time they played this year, St. Francis brought its ‘A’ game and Wheaton Academy played less than its best. The game ended in a shootout, won by Wheaton Academy.

The roles were reversed on Friday, but there was no need for a shootout the second time around. The defending Class 2A state champion Warriors won 4-0 over St. Francis in a sectional title game in Elmwood Park.

“We were all flat that day,” Wheaton Academy senior Meghan Grant said of the teams’ May 13 meeting. “Today we just really brought it. We were a lot more united today.”

“We were really preparing for this game for a long time and we were really excited to come out and play.”

The Spartans played solidly through the game’s first 10 minutes but from there they struggled to maintain the level of play needed against the Warriors.

“(Wheaton Academy) played well, they came ready to play, and unfortunately we came about half,” St. Francis coach Meg Boler said. “You can’t come half-ready to play against the defending state champs.

I don’t know if it was the pressure for them of playing Wheaton Academy in a sectional final game. I don’t know if they didn’t get sleep the night before. I don’t know what it was.”

Friday’s win sent Wheaton Academy into a super-sectional game on Tuesday at Benedictine College, against Saturday’s winner between Nazareth and University High. The Warriors looked primed throughout to make another strong run at a downstate berth.

“It’s how we expected to perform today,” Wheaton Academy coach Scott Marksberry said. “We came out and did exactly what we wanted to do. We drew up a pretty simple but defined game plan yesterday and we stuck to it and carried it out.”

The Warriors got a pair of goals from Ally Witt, one each from Kristen Wittmuss and Grant, and held a 3-0 lead by halftime.

Witt ran onto a Thomas through-ball and scored in the 13th minute and Wheaton Academy scored twice in the five-minute span before halftime. Thomas found Witt again with a free kick taken deep in the final third in the 35th minute, and Wittmuss struck two minutes later.

Defensively, Wheaton Academy’s Lindsey Burke and Kerrin Clancy hounded the Spartans’ Andi Matichak and Sydney Fox, keeper Emily Mulder made a few sporadic saves, and central defender Christi Dithrich kept things clean in limiting the Spartans’ chances.

“It’s the outside backs that did most of it,” Dithrich said. “Man-marking is new for them but they did great. I tried to pick up the slack back there but mostly it was the outside backs.”

Marksberry tipped his hat to the job that Burke did in chasing the dangerous Matichak around all day.

“Lindsey Burke got out there and did exactly what we asked her to do,” he said. “We knew how we wanted to defend around Andi, too, and we centered our defensive efforts around her. Lindsey did the job perfectly. And whenever (Matichak) saw the ball, she never saw it facing the goal. She only got it with her back to the goal, which is exactly what we wanted to do.”

Friday’s shutout was the 11th this season for the Warriors (18-3-1), and marked only the second game all season that St. Francis (15-9-1) was kept out of net.

“We have an incredible back line, especially with Christi (Dithrich) fighting through injuries,” Grant said. “I trust every single one of those girls with anything. It’s so awesome to know that you have that strong of a back line and they’ve been incredible this entire season.”

Grant’s second-half goal from roughly 6 yards out was typical of the goals the senior has scored this year, as she sent a slow-roller over the goal line in the 49th minute.

It was a very slow-roller, after a flick on by Witt. “All of my goals have been like that,” Grant laughed. “It takes a while for them to get there. I’m kind of known for that.”

Senior Alexa Sharkey showed her versatility yet again for the Warriors, when she filled in as a central defender after Dithrich left the game due to injury in the second half. Sharkey spent last season in the final third but has embraced whatever role Marksberry has thrown at her all season.

“She slid back, which is so opposite of everything she did for us last year,” Marksberry said. “But she was so good back there. She was awesome today. And (Sydney Sharkey) plays that way every game.”

The sophomore Sharkey made dangerous runs from her outside mid spot throughout the contest.

“We subbed her out finally and we said we need to put a GPS on her in the next game, to see how far she’s running over the course of a game. She’s getting seven miles in,” Marksberry said. “She just goes and goes, and she does it so quickly. She seems like she’s at full speed but then she goes to the next gear.”

Where last year’s state champion team featured an all-everything attacking player in Leah Fortune – who is now playing for the Brazilian national team -- this year’s Warriors don’t feature a marquee player at her level that opponents aim to mark out of a game.

And that sits just fine with Marksberry.

“That’s what’s so fun about the team that we’ve got right now,” he said. “It’s a team and it’s hard to pinpoint anyone. We’ve got three or four players that are right about the same in goals (scored), and three or four more that are in the same range just below them. Our goals can come from anywhere.”

“Rachael Nasralla has scored maybe three goals or four goals on the season, but it’s against Benet, Stevenson – really top level teams. So if you don’t pay attention to her, she’s another one of our players that can hurt you.”

For St. Francis, the 2010 season figures to be a preview of even better things to come.

The Spartans say goodbye to seniors Yasmeen Mahmud, Diana Matusiak, Meagan Gitchell, Kim Gianos, Lauren Kaminky, Molly Coyle, Sarah Wagner, Lindsey Fox, and Claire Stark, but return a solid core of players and are expecting a strong freshmen class to contribute next season.

Boler applauded the season her girls’ had, and only wished Friday’s game had played out differently.

“They talked about it all the time, how big this game was, and maybe that was why. Maybe there was too much pressure,” Boler said. “It tried to make it about us, and not how big the game was. But we had like four shots on goal and that really doesn’t win a game.”