Boys soccer: Wheaton Academy tops St. Charles East

Isaac Anthony and Ty Seager were on target, Anthony with a first-half double, to help give Wheaton Academy a confidence-boosting 4-2 win over St. Charles East Friday night to capture the Class 3A Conant boys soccer regional title at rain-soaked Charles Feutz Field on the campus of Conant High School in Hoffman Estates.

The Warriors (18-3-1) head home on Wednesday for their own sectional and will play the winner of Saturday's Lake Park regional final between No. 1 Schaumburg (18-2-0) and No. 10 Willowbrook (11-6-0), who face off Saturday at 3 p.m.

"This was a very tough regional final, against a coach and program we have a lot of respect for, so to come away with a win tonight is something we are very proud of, and thrilled as well," said Warriors head coach Jeff Brooke, whose club is now 9-0-0 since dropping a 3-0 decision to the Saints in late September.

"That loss ended a tough three-game stretch and losing streak for us, but we learned a lot from that and it really helped push all of us to get better to get us where we are right now," said Seager.

It was apparent from the opening whistle that both clubs came to play as an intense, fast-played, entertaining opening quarter hour featured plenty of soccer from box-to-box, which proved more amazing at how hard the driving rain would fall.

"St. Charles has to be one of the best at playing the counter attack in the state, so we knew we had to be wary of that, plus be as sharp as we could in our transition," said Brooke.

Coach Paul Jennison's Saints were the more dangerous of the two sides during the early exchanges, but it was the Warriors, and in particular, Anthony, who opened the scoring in the 7th minute when he sped clear of his mark at the back post and cracked a superb left-footed half volley into the back of the net.

"Kappy (Jacob Kapitaniuk) gave me a great ball," said the junior, whose technical and tactical 80-minute effort was first-rate all throughout.

The Saints' (14-5-2) faithful thought their heroes had drawn even moments later when Jason Dizdarevic slotted home a Mitch Dorsey helper, but the assistant referee on the near side correctly raised his flag.

Seager found another gear to set himself free down the left side, before the all-state forward doubled the Warriors' lead at 14 minutes.

Evan DiLeonardi would pull one back for the Saints, who showed no desire to fold despite chasing two goals.

"The lads played with a lot of heart and desire, even when we went two goals down, I never felt we couldn't get back in it, but Wheaton Academy is a very well-coached, and fine soccer club," said a gracious Jennison.

Anthony grabbed what proved to be the eventual game-winner in the 32nd minute with a powerful low shot, which had far too much pace as it whisked past keeper Steven Owens, who fearlessly came off his line to cut the shot angle on his rival.

Gustavo Mancera and Mike Lucatero helped create a corner for the No. 3 Saints which would soon lead to Brandon DiOrio thumping in his close range one-timer to draw the Saints closer at the intermission.

Seager restored the two-goal lead when he collected a nice early ball up the left side from Kapitaniuk, cut in with pace, then fired the other way to make it 4-2 in the 48th minute.

The Saints would begin to throw numbers forward in their search for the back of the Wheaton Academy net but stout defense, led by senior Christian Ziesemer and his back line mates, as well as a goal-saving stop by sophomore keeper John David Gunn on DiLeonardi would eventually end the season for East.

"I could not have been more proud of the lads, and their effort tonight," began Jennison. "This has been a very special bunch, one that has come so far from the start of the season, to here and now, where we played about as well as we could, but still fell to the better side tonight."

"We just started to play Paul two years ago because they play the game the way it's supposed to be played, plus he runs a classy program, so it was a big win for us over a team we have a lot of respect for," said Brooke.