Warriors fall short of sectional title but enjoy another fine season

By Curt Herron

Although they put together a season that they'll be able to reflect on positively in the future, there wasn't much satisfaction for Wheaton Academy on Saturday.

That's because the Warriors saw their successful season end earlier than they hoped with a 2-1 defeat to Marmion in the Class 2A Hampshire Sectional championship.

Poor field conditions at Hampshire forced the championship match to be moved to the turf field at Wheaton College, allowing for more fans to attend the title clash.

Ever since the Warriors and Marmion first met on September 21 all signs pointed to a rematch between the two to determine the sectional championship.

And that's exactly how things unfolded as both teams took care of business in the postseason to set up another meeting where much more was at stake.

In the earlier match, the Cadets scored quickly but the Warriors scored late and that proved to be the difference in Wheaton Academy's wild 5-4 victory.

Thanks to that win, coach Jeff Brooke's Warriors finished ahead of the Cadets in the race to capture top honors in the Suburban Christian Conference.

But Marmion had been on a roll since that defeat, rattling off 14 consecutive victories through its come-from-behind sectional semifinal win over Lakes.

All signs seemed to point to another dramatic showdown between the two squads, and that certainly was the case, but not in the same fashion as the earlier match.

The Cadets again quickly grabbed the upper hand, but this time the Warriors weren't able to answer with the equalizer, and Marmion took a 1-0 halftime lead.

Another Cadet score with just over 15 minutes to play put additional pressure on the Warriors, who did manage to cut the deficit in half about four minutes later.

But Marmion was able to hold the Warriors off during the final 10 minutes of the match and as a result won their first sectional championship by a 2-1 score.

Coach Kevin O'Connor's 21-5-1 squad earned a trip to Tuesday's Barrington Super-Sectional, where they'll take on Freeport for the right to advance to the state finals.

Meanwhile, 17-5-2 Wheaton Academy was eliminated in the sectional final for the third year in a row and came up short in its bid to win its first sectional since 2005.

Hear Wheaton Academy coach Jeff Brooke interview

A less than positive tone was in the early going for the Warriors on Saturday when Marmion's Max Rosenfelder scored on a corner kick just 5:30 into the match.

In a sign of potential bad things to come, Rosenfelder's corner bounced off the opposite post and went into the net to give the Cadets the early 1-0 advantage.

Unlike the first meeting, where both squads kept up regular pressure on the opposing nets, there were far fewer good scoring chances in the sectional final.

The Warriors got on goals from Devin Moore and Alex Varga shortly after the first score but then didn't really threaten again until late in the opening half.

That's when Daniels sent in a corner kick which was headed away by a Marmion defender to assure the Cadets of a 1-0 lead at the midway mark.

Daniels also had his team's first shot on goal during the second half, about 17 minutes in, but three minutes later he had to leave the match due to cramps.

At that point of the match, the Warriors really couldn't afford to have a player who had scored 35 goals this season sidelined for nearly eight minutes.

With Daniels off of the field, Marmion capitalized on a foul near the box which resulted in a goal by Sam Duffield off a Rosenfelder free kick with 15:40 left.

About three minutes later Brandon VanderVeen was stopped on a short shot and Daniels finally was able to return with just under 12 minutes remaining.

The Warriors finally connected with 10:33 to go when VanderVeen sent in a corner that Quinn Gorski was able to put in for a score from close range.

In the final minutes, Daniels had a shot deflected away and VanderVeen sent in another corner and a subsequent attempt bounced off of the post.

Despite falling short of its goal to reach state, Wheaton Academy certainly has no reason to be disappointed with its showing this season.

The sectional final appearance was the program's ninth in the last 12 seasons and only six Warrior teams exceeded this year's 17-win total.

Wheaton Academy defeated five Class 3A teams, including a ranked Geneva squad, and of its five losses, four came to teams that played for sectional titles.

The Warriors will have a tough time replacing senior captains Josh Kremers, Varga and VanderVeen and senior starters Babel Daniel, Philip Oster and Gorski.

But the future looks bright with the return of the likes of all-sectional picks Daniels and Stephen Fernandes and starters Josh Urban, Brian McLean and Moore.

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