Wheaton Academy struggles against Wheaton North

By Gary Larsen

Through its first 13 games, Wheaton Academy had only been kept out of net once – a 2-0 loss on September 8 to Plainfield Central.

Wheaton North managed to shut down the Warriors on Monday, winning 4-0 in Wheaton and putting a halt to Wheaton Academy’s 7-game winning streak.

“We just couldn’t get in a rhythm,” Warriors senior Alex Varga. “We never got into playing our style. We came out a little bit flat, and we didn’t play our style of soccer.”

A spirited Wheaton North (4-4-4) team came out hard and stuck two goals in net by the game’s 16th minute against the Warriors (10-3-1).

“They came out with a good amount of energy,” Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke said.

“The beat us in terms of intensity and work rate, and you saw it in the way the won balls in the middle of the field. They won balls in the box, won fifty-fifties – you can’t win games against Wheaton North if you allow them to do those things.”

The Warriors played without a key defender in Stephen Fernandes, who suffered a concussion in last week’s game against Marmion.

Brooke slid Josh Kremers to the back line in the second half, and the subtraction of Kremers from any midfield is never a good thing.

“But that’s no excuse. Take nothing away from Wheaton North,” Brooke said. “We’re figuring some things out, and we’ll try to learn from this.”

The last time the Warriors gave up four goals in a game was one week ago, in a 5-4 win over Suburban Christian Conference rival Marmion. The Warriors were able to apply better attacking pressure in the second half but couldn’t finish on a goal.

“It’s disappointing. We love to come here and play Wheaton North,” Brooke said. “It’s a good rivalry, so it’s tough to come here and suffer a 4-0 loss like that.”

 “We learned about some areas where we need to improve, and where we need to direct our coaching. That’s helpful, even though you hope it doesn’t come in a somewhat embarrassing performance. But we’ll try to take away what we can from it.”

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