Boys soccer: St. Edward, St. Charles North claim PepsiCo titles

Mondays usually mean practice time for the St. Edward boys soccer team.

But there was a perfectly good excuse why head coach Tim Brieger gave the Green Wave Monday off, and it was well-deserved after the week they had.

St. Edward capped off a 6-0 week with a 3-0 win Sunday over Lincoln-Way Central to win the PepsiCo Showdown LUNGevity bracket championship at Triton College in River Grove.

The win was the sixth in 7 nights for the Wave, including 4 straight from Thursday to Sunday. Amazingly as the competition got harder by the day, St. Edward improved its record to 18-0 overall. Yet the boys were the complete opposite of basketball legend Allen Iverson.

"The funny thing is some of the boys said, 'Hey coach, we got a game on Tuesday!'" as Brieger talked about practice. "'We got Chicago Christian on Tuesday!' I said 'Guys, you need a day off.'"

There's nothing silly about that. With its last off day coming last Wednesday, the Green Wave made it through the gauntlet of IC Catholic, Christian Liberty and Rockford Christian and battled through heavy fatigue against the Knights, a 3A school with an enrollment of 2,157, nearly 7 times the size of St. Edward.

Will Gaston broke through in the 13th minute on an assist from Josh Johansen, his 27th of the year. In the second half, AJ Franklin scored his 44th and 45th goals of the season as Gaston and Jackson Godfrey provided assists to get the Wave home with first place hardware.

But as much as the offensive highlight reels have been scorching hot for St. Edward all season, the Wave's defense saved the day. Outside back Emilio Martinez made 2 huge goal line saves, including one off his chest while keeper Evan Sajtar made 6 saves in goal for his eighth shutout.

"I think our defense has been a little overshadowed, I think the four guys in back are overlooked," Brieger said. "Emilio, Eric Puquirre, Carson Scarnegie and Adam Davis, you saw an absolute, crazy effort."

And that's been the St. Edward season. Overlooked, opponents stronger as they go along and yet they continue to prove they belong just as they did on Sunday.

"Each opponent got stronger. Each day it got hotter," Brieger added. "And then we got thrown onto a college pitch in the heat, and the funny thing was each game they played better."

Monkey off their backs: The "Joy of Pepsi" finally became a reality for the St. Charles North boys soccer team Sunday. The North Starts edged Waukegan 5-4 in penalty kicks to get a 2-1 win and the championship of the TOPSoccer bracket.

It's hardware that's alluded head coach Eric Willson and the team since the showdown's inception, which includes last year's loss to Morton in the final. "I think they were pretty happy to leave a little bit of a legacy for themselves to be that first team to win it for us," Willson said. "I gave them a massive thanks for their hard work because I've been going after it since 2004, as long as I been coaching. I was very thankful for the effort they put in."

And what an effort it was. The savvy North Stars (9-1-3) knew the overtime policy and had spent weeks preparing for it just in case. Practice made perfect as Jake Persencio started the shootout on the right foot while Bernard Elegbede, Matt Blue, and Jameson D'Amico all followed with successful conversions.

Sandwiched in-between was keeper Piercarlo Ricossa's save, which helped it go to sudden death kicks tied at 4. In sudden death, Gabriel D'Amico converted his boot while Ricossa stepped up and saved a low-driven ball into the corner for the dramatic victory.

"To make that save and hold onto the ball, it was pretty awesome," added Willson, who was part of the girls PepsiCo championship win in the spring as an assistant. "We got two banners in our school that say 2017 PepsiCo champions, I think we're all pretty excited about that."

Elegbede also added a first half goal as well, scoring off a cross from Jake Persenico early in the first half, which was equaled in the 40th minute by Waukegan (9-2-1). But the focus was a big thing for the North Stars after having homecoming the night before.

"Originally that final was supposed to be last Saturday - they moved it to Sunday and when I looked over our schedule Saturday night was homecoming," Willson said. "The boys had the homecoming dance the night before the championship game and I credit to them. They all enjoyed their experience at homecoming but made pretty good decisions and got the right amount of rest so they could be at their very best. Certainly all those little things go into it but the level of the competition is what makes it so difficult to win."