Wheaton Warrenville South 3, Wheaton Academy 2
How do you annually graduate a rock-solid crop of seniors yet consistently field one of the best girls soccer teams around?
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari needs to explain himself.
"You have to look at (Tigers freshmen coach) Gary Luckey," Callipari said. "I think I can count on one hand how many games he's lost in the last five years.
"Good players continue to come through, and I just run this part of the show."
Another solid Tigers team improved to 11-1-1 with a 3-2 win over Wheaton Academy on Wednesday, coming out with intensity and scoring 3 goals by the game's 21st minute.
The Warriors (10-5-1) got a Jenn Lee goal before halftime and fought hard throughout the second half but couldn't overcome the Tigers' fast start.
"In four of our five losses, we've had a 2-0 deficit by the game's 15th minute," said Warriors coach Dave Underwood. "We battled in the second half, but we can't keep doing that."
A pair of Sarah Langlas throw-ins led to the Tigers' first two goals, the first coming 34 seconds into the game when Taylor Nieling located the ball and sent it out to Lauren Livingston. Livingston's left-footed shot snuck in under the crossbar from 18 yards out.
Bridgette Kragie buried a shot inside the near post from 16 yards out in the 9th minute, and Liz Ciesielski re-directed an Allie Bellmer shot in the box and scored in the 21st minute.
"We were able to cause some concern for their defense. We had numbers forward, we moved the ball around, and we had nice width to our game," Callipari said. "We played very well."
The Warriors scored in the 34th minute when Lee ran down a ball sent over the top in transition by Christi Dithrich and scored from 16 yards out. Lee was prominent throughout the contest, and Becca Long also shined for the Warriors.
"That's probably the best game Jenn Lee has played in a Wheaton Academy uniform," Underwood said. "She was all over the place."
The Warriors' Leah Fortune scored off a Dithrich corner kick in the 65th minute, but the Tigers' attack kept pushing forward and creating chances.
Callipari also applauded the play of Kragie, Nieling, Bridget Shrigley and Leah Johnson, and he singled out sweeper Amy Quintana for another solid effort.
"We put her back there and said we were going to build the defense around her, and she has been stellar since Day One," he said.
This year's Tigers may lack a marquee name, but they've played cohesive team soccer all season.
"Our word is 'together' this year," Quintana said. "Everyone contributes and it's a lot of fun.
"We were kind of an underdog team to begin the year, but I knew we could (win) and I think deep down the team knew we could do it."