Rising to the task

Serve it up high and let the big boys go get it.

Wheaton Academy beat a scrappy St. Francis team 5-0 in boys' soccer on Monday, with 3 of those goals scored on head shots -- two of which came off the noggins of 6-foot-6 Charles West and 6-foot-5 Lucas Young.

Young scored his goal in a crowd at the far post on a Scott Painter cross, rising up where nobody else could reach it and heading it home.

"We had two guys there and couldn't stop it," said Spartans coach Tim Dailey. "I mean, what are you going to do?"

The Spartans brought the attacking heat at the game's outset in West Chicago, pressuring well through 15 minutes of play.

"They came out with a lot of energy, and I was really concerned early on," said Warriors coach Dave Underwood.

That concern lessened when Wheaton Academy (8-3-4) scored on an Andrew Knighten goal, off an assist by Young, and then again on Young's header before halftime.

Knighten scored five minutes into the second half, and the Warriors got goals from West and Tommy Fuller to put things out of reach, but the game never seemed as lop-sided as a 5-0 score suggests.

"It's going to sound silly, but we played hard tonight. We were not dissatisfied," Dailey said. "Had we played like this all season, we'd have a much different (record).

"They're just a better team."

The Spartans (9-8-3) went above the .500 mark over the weekend, and forwards Brian McMahon, Sean Hamman, and midfielder Brad Gorecki have been "outstanding" Dailey said, leaving the Warriors' back line to keep them out of net.

Mission accomplished, courtesy of some excellent defending by BB Taylor, John Clancy, Danny Torres, and central defender West.

"It's just communication with your teammates," Taylor said. "And Charles helps us a lot. The marking backs are chasing, and he's winning all the balls in the air."

"Generally we like to play zonally in back, but we thought (McMahon and Hamman) were dangerous enough that we wanted to mark them up," Underwood said.

Monday's game also featured a pair of exceptional individual plays -- Spartans' keeper Justin Reisenbeck punching a laser beam off the foot of Luke Partain over the crossbar, and Knighten's second-half goal.

From 18 yards out and with his back to the goal, Knighten scored his 15th goal by spinning to his right and ripping a ball left-footed that tore under the crossbar at the post.

"I got a little lucky there," Knighten said. "I knew where the goal was. I just turned and hit it."