St. Charles East falls in invite championship

A very busy week ended in disappointing fashion for the St. Charles East boys soccer team on Saturday.

The Saints clipped St. Francis and Marmion 2-1 earlier in the week, and lost a tough 2-1 match to Plainfield South on Wednesday, but earned the chance to face Plainfield Central in the St. Charles East Tournament championship.

The Saints and Wildcats ended regulation tied at 1-all. Neither team could score the game-winner in two overtimes so penalty kicks were the difference and the Wildcats were successful on all five of their attempts to secure the invitational trophy.

"It was a well played game by both teams," Plainfield Central coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "Both teams played real hard but you could tell that everyone was pretty exhausted."

It was apparent that this was the fourth game of the week for both squads.

St. Charles East (7-5-1) struck first when junior forward Ethan Jendrzejczyk put one past Plainfield Central goalkeeper Tyler Badertscher.

Plainfield Central (13-2-0), pulled even at 1-1 later in the opening half on a goal by John Hurley which eluded Saints goalkeeper Eric Meesenburg.

The game would remain that way until it had to be decided by penalty kicks.

"It's unfortunate because we should've won," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "We had plenty of opportunities, especially in the first 25 minutes and just couldn't breakthrough."

The Wildcats, playing with a few players in the 6-foot-4 range, certainly created some matchup difficulties for the Saints, but Jennison felt his team was still able to defend and put itself in position to win.

"I'm very happy with how we're creating chances, but disappointed that we couldn't find that finishing touch," he said. "We knew about their size and their style of play but I was happy with the soccer we played. But it's (tough) to enjoy it when you play games that you feel you should've won."

The Saints missed their first penalty kick and the Wildcats took advantage as Josh Rosenbaum, Tyler Gill, Jon Rosenbaum, Jon Iniguez and Jesse Rodriguez all connected on their kicks to secure the victory for Plainfield Central.

"We're happy to come away with the victory," Fitzgerald said, "(St. Charles East) is a very good team. They're well coached and they have a lot of speed and skill."