Heaton heads Benet past Geneva

Andrew Heaton is excited to be playing in the attacking portion of the soccer field after spending the majority of the season in the left back.

His Benet Academy teammates are equally as happy.

Heaton, a senior midfielder, notched the game-winning goal on a header off a set-piece feed from Connor Mote with 9:53 remaining to lift the third-seeded Redwings (15-4-2) to a 2-1 Class 3A regional championship victory over 11th-seeded Geneva Saturday afternoon at Burgess Field.

"I saw him (Mote) looking to play the early ball in and I knew if I ran in front of the defender he wouldn't be able to see me coming," said Heaton. "Right place, right time. It ended well."

Heaton's third goal of the season propelled the Redwings to their third consecutive regional title.

"I didn't know what to think and then I scored one to win the regional championship," said Heaton. "It's one of the best feelings in the world."

"For Andrew to get that second one - which is just effort and determination - it was fitting that he gets the game-winner in a match like this," said Benet coach Sean Wesley.

Geneva peppered Benet goalkeepers Konrad Bayer and Nick Senak with 10 first-half shots, including quality chances from Matt Waldoch, Calen Colbert and Drew Klaus as the teams played to a scoreless deadlock.

"They did have more control of the ball in the first half," admitted Benet senior Kyle Kenagy.

Wesley felt his team lacked rhythm during a foul-plagued opening half.

"We're a fast team," said Wesley. "All those fouls and stoppages in play definitely took the flow of the out of the game for us. We were not hitting on all cylinders in the first half."

Kenagy, the Yale-bound all-state forward, netted the game's first goal - his 22nd of the season - on a rebound of a shot from teammate Omar Kashow with 26:23 remaining.

"It took a moment of brilliance from Kyle to turn that corner," said Wesley.

"He (Geneva defender) played me in the corner and I got around him," said Kenagy. "I played it to Omar. He shot one off the goalie and I just touched it in."

Nearly 9 minutes later, the Vikings got the equalizer on a picturesque up-and-over shot by Waldoch.

"That was a pretty goal," said Geneva assistant coach Brad Jerdee, who answered postgame questions after head coach Ryan Estabrook departed to attend a wedding following the match.

Less than 3 minutes later, Waldoch nearly gave the Vikings their first lead as he beat 2 defenders and launched a shot that caromed off the crossbar.

"We talked about how goals could change the momentum of the game," said Jerdee. "We could tell that once we scored everyone got uplifted but it has been a struggle for us to score all year.

"Waldoch was our target and I think Benet realized that and had two or three guys on him most of the time after that. Benet did a good job in the back - a lot stronger than we had anticipated - and we didn't capitalize as much as we wanted to."

The loss marked the end of the line for 9 Geneva seniors, including Calen Colbert, Matt D'Onofrio, Jason Lagger, Matt Luetzen and Ryan Ulin.

However, plenty of talent will return in 2015.

"We have a lot of potential moving forward," said Jerdee.

As does Benet, which advances to Wednesday's Bolingbrook sectional semifinals.

"This is a super talented group," said Wesley. "It's also the youngest unit we've ever put on the field. I don't know if we knew what we had at the beginning of the year. It's nice to see the boys come together and put together a good victory against a great team."