Warren sails past Carmel into regional final

Warren's boys soccer team has hits its stride over the last few weeks, and the Blue Devils provided more evidence of that fact on Wednesday night.

Warren is unbeaten in its last 11 games at 8-0-3 after stopping Carmel 3-0 in Stevenson regional semifinal play.

“We've been playing much better since the seed meeting (a few weeks back),” Warren coach Jason Ahonen said. “We're playing well and getting healthier. Things are looking up for us.”

Warren (13-5-5) next faces top-seeded Libertyvile (16-3-2) in the regional final round at 6 p.m. Friday at Stevenson. The winner earns a berth in the Libertyville sectional semifinals.

“If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best,” Warren coach Jason Ahonen said. “The game will probably come down to one mistake here or one mistake there. Whatever team capitalizes on the other teams' mistakes will win.”

The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute. Andrew Piotrowski scored from close range off a Sean Kirwan touch pass, which was set up by a Daniel Szczepanek corner kick.

“I saw the ball coming to the near post,” said Piotrowski, who notched his second goal. “I just made the run, spun off and the ball was there to finish.”

Warren's Brandon Brown added an unassisted goal in the 38th minute and Szczepanek scored the other off a Ryan Foster throw-in in the 74th minute.

Brady Walsh made 9 stops and secured his seventh shutout this season for the Blue Devils.

“We like to play a defensive counter-attacking style,” said Carmel coach John Halloran, whose team finished the season at 12-9. “Giving up the early goal, we were struggling. And going against the wind, we couldn't get good clearance. You can't do that against a good team and (Warren) punished us for it.”