Glenbard South blanks St. Joe's

Forgive Michael Pyle and his Glenbard South teammates if they want to move all their games to Wheaton Academy's soccer field.

Pyle ran his scoring streak to 7 consecutive goals with a hat trick to open the Raiders' 4-0 Class 2A Wheaton Academy sectional final victory against St. Joseph on Saturday night. Pyle scored all four of the Raiders' goals Thursday in a 4-1 win over the host school.

“He's unstoppable right now. He's just a great player,” Raiders senior Conrad Olszewski said.

The Raiders had to weather some St. Joseph pressure early, with Pyle scoring his first goal a little bit against the run of play at the seven-minute mark, beating the St. Joseph goalkeeper to a Matt Traynor header.

St. Joseph (18-2-2) had a chance to tie the game in the 16th minute when the Raiders were called for a hand ball in their penalty area. But Raiders senior goalkeeper Eric Good dove hard to his left to make the save.

“That probably changed the tempo of the game,” Chargers coach Stan Niemiec said. “You're looking at a 1-1 tie. That turns the tide. They had some nice goals, though. Had we gotten the first goal of the game it might have been a little bit different. But they kept rolling downhill and they held up to our pressure.”

Pyle made it 2-0 at the 21-minute mark off the first of Damien Sampson's three assists, then made a tight game appear to be a rout when he finished a Sampson centering pass in the 36th minute for his 20th goal.

Meanwhile, the Raiders defense frustrated the Chargers.

“Our defense was awesome. Everyone played extremely well. They were aggressive. Everyone was really organized in the back, and Eric was great in goal,” Olszewski added.

Olszewski broke Pyle's goal-scoring streak at 7 when he headed in a Sampson corner kick at the 76-minute mark, his fourth goal of the season.

“It was a well-fought game, but I thought we played very well and we continue to peak at the right times,” first-year Raiders coach Melissa Pero said. “The team's chemistry is on, and they have one thing set in their minds, and that's to win state. And they're driven and they're determined, and as long as they're going to do that and keep playing like this, hopefully we'll have good fortune.”

The sectional championship is the first for Glenbard South's boys soccer program, which heads to Tuesday's supersectional against Metro Suburban Conference foe Ridgewood at Benedictine University in Lisle. The Raiders (20-1-1) defeated Ridgewood twice during the regular season.

“We'll enjoy playing them again,” Pero said.