Wheaton Warrenville South holds off New Trier
Soccer fans received plenty for their entertainment dollar Saturday evening from the championship match at the 21st Barrington Classic.
Wheaton Warrenville South and New Trier were both at full throttle for 80 minutes, with the Tigers capturing the trophy after outscoring the defending state champs 3-2 in a match which provided plenty of drama to complete the weeklong tournament.
"Well that wasn't very easy tonight, was it?" asked Tigers coach Guy Callipari with a sigh of relief after his club held off a furious Trevians (2-3-1) club.
New Trier pushed forward in search of a tying goal for nearly 20 minutes after senior Ricky Munguia struck the go-ahead goal, his second of the night, which sparked plenty of discussion by officials before the goal was put up on the scoreboard.
"There was a little bit of everything tonight, including seeing a 2-goal lead disappear, which I thought we responded to very well ... which will help us out as the season goes on," said Callipari
With ramped-up attack, the action was fast and furious, and the traffic was all one-way for the Tigers and leading scorer Drew Bellmer, who nearly had his seventh goal of the week when he blasted a missile off the near post following a Trevians turnover.
"We had a terrific start to get that 2-goal lead, but we gave it away just as fast," said Bellmer. "But we battled back really well as a team, which really says alot about this team."
"Defensively, we were really having a lot of problems early on, but once we settled down and figured things out (along) the back we were able to make a game of it tonight," said Trevians coach Craig Fairburn, who lost 13 seniors from a club which went 22-1-1 last season.
The Tigers looked certain to score after the Bellmer blast, and at eight minutes Munguia did so with a superb finish which saw the senior shed his mark to receive a Bellmer ball from the over the top. Manguia shielded that same Trevian defender before finding the far inside netting at 10 yards.
Senior Andy Guerero made it 2-0 near the half-hour when he might have surprised John Secaras by unloading a drive from the right side which came out of a crowd and past the Trevians' keeper.
With intermission approaching, Alex Johnson-Bice carried down the endline from the far post, and from a tough angle found the back of the net to help set-up a wild 40 minutes of soccer.
"We didn't defend well on that play, and at the break we had to remind our players that (New Trier) was playing a 4-5-1 and we had to attack that formation with a little more intelligence because they had nine people behind the ball most of the time," said Callipari.
A brilliant piece of individual work in a 1-on-1 situation allowed Ben Beaver to draw the Trevians even at 51 minutes.
A reaction save by Secaras on a point-blank attempt from Bellmer, and another when the captain sent sophomore Jared Jakobowski kept it 2-2 before Trevians defender Nick Rekenthaler took a ball off the endline when he retreated to turn a sure goal away from Joseph Bianucci
New Trier argued long and hard that Munguia was offside when he slotted under Secaras at 76 minutes, but a short conversation between the center official, his assistant, and later with Fairburn ended the Trevians' dispute.
"This tournament was tough all week long against some very good opponents, and should get us battle tested and ready when we begin to play the likes of Neuqua Valley, Naperville North and Central," Bellmer said.