Warren clears regional hurdle

After falling short two years in a row, top-seeded Warren captured a boys soccer Class 3A regional title by beating Round Lake 3-0 at Grant on Friday night.

“This is the first time that we are playing as the higher seed,” said Warren coach Jason Ahonen, who won his first regional championship in his four years at Warren. “This goes out to our seniors, guys who aren’t playing collegiate soccer next year that came out to support us. This goes out to (the team) because coaches can only coach — (players) have to play the game, and they played extremely well tonight and I am looking forward to Wednesday’s game.”

Warren (19-3-3) will play the winner of today’s game between Lake Zurich-Cary Grove in the Barrington sectional semifinals.

Warren goalkeeper Brady Walsh played outstanding with 9 saves, including a beauty against Round Lake’s Abraham Valadez. He’d dribbled the ball from midfield and shot a bullet right at Walsh, who was able go hang on to the ball.

“Brady was excellent,” Ahonen said. “He is one of the best goalkeepers in the state, hands down. He is Divison I-caliber and everything he does, he does it well. There is not one flaw in Brady’s game. He’s been here in the four years that I have been here, and he and I are not done yet.”

Late the second half, Junior Martinez shot a free kick from 20 yards out, but Walsh was able to dive for the ball to preserve the shutout.

The Round Lake keeper tandem of Jose Martinez and Ivan Gomez finished with 7 saves

Junior midfielder Dan Szczepanek put the Blue Devils on top with the only goal of the first half as he put the ball in from the right side about 20 yards out in the 17th minute.

“If I see the defender facing his own goal, I am going to take the ball to the turn,” Szczepanek said. “I kicked the ball and the defender kicked it right back at my chest and it bounced in front of me, and I just put in the goal.”

This victory feels great, “ Szczepanek said. “We lost in my freshman and sophomore years, so this third one was a charm.”

Forward Dan Wilkerson scored the second goal. He drilled the ball on an assist from Sean Kirwin just past Gomez with 15:47 left in the second half, and Ryan Freind finished the scoring on an assist from Ryan Foster with less than 10:00 left.

Round Lake (17-3-3) was short-handed late in the second half, with four players being sent off with card violations.

“First of all, Warren is a great team,” Round Lake coach Hugo Tellez said. “However, there were some bad calls made, and we have to deal with it.”