Senior captains Joe Scanlon, Kyle Gruszka, Ryan Kupiec and Liam White have stressed unity for a relatively inexperienced Fenwick boys soccer roster.
“I would just say the friendship (is a strength). We’re all really tight and just having fun playing soccer well,” Kupiec said. “We meet up afterschool in groups. We do homework together in the library. We meet up in the locker room. A lot of group meetings and talking.”
The Friars also already have determination.
With three straight 1-0 victories on three winning goals in the last minute of play, the Friars are in the championship of the PepsiCo Showdown for the first time.
Fenwick (6-2) meets Lockport at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology in the first of four championship matchups for the respective groupings.
In Thursday’s semifinals (Sept. 15) at the Priory, the Friars beat Prosser 1-0 on junior Mike Cerceo’s goal with 25.7 seconds left in regulation.
The Friars defeated Shepard in the Sept. 13 quarterfinals on junior Tommy Reardon’s golden goal assisted by junior Joe Babbo with 39.9 seconds left in the first of two five-minute sudden-death overtimes. Fenwick edged Steinmetz Sept. 10 on another Cerceo goal assisted by Scanlon.
“Considering that this is the semis, I would say this (Prosser victory) would be the most dramatic,” Scanlon said. “Considering that we’d never been to the semis before, I’d say that Shepard was, considering it was in overtime.”
The success has come after starting 0-2. The Friars graduated 12 seniors, including 2015 IHSSCA all-state midfielder Matt Benko and all six All-Chicago Catholic League players from a 9-8 team that was CCL North co-champions and a Class 2A regional finalist.
The Friars began the winning streak 2-1 over Thornton Fractional United with the winning goal by Cerceo, followed by victories over CCL foes DePaul Prep 7-0 and Providence 8-3.
“We’re resilient and to be that in the first 20 percent of our season is outstanding,” Fenwick coach Robert Watson said. “We’re deep. We’re playing all 19 guys on the roster. We’re trying to be deep, be versatile, trying to run teams a bit. When we get to the last 10 minutes, I don’t want to have any team in better shape than us.”
Scanlon, a fourth-year varsity player, and Kupiec were all-sectional in 2015. Scanlon already has five goals and three assists and has scored the winner in victories over St. Ignatius to earn CCL North co-titles last year and in 2013. Kupiec returns at central defender for a back line with White, goalie Gruszka, senior Adrian Duarte and junior Teagan White.
Cerceo has four goals and three assists after 26 goals on the sophomore level last year. Senior Quinn Shaughnessy has two goals and two assists. Reardon and junior Taras Shkibara have scored twice.
Other key contributors Thursday included seniors Luke Jachim and Zach Pacer and juniors Kyle Arquette, Dennis McCann, David Medina, Mariano Mollo and Alex Sanchez.
Cerceo scored with a Shaughnessy assist after Reardon’s cross was kept alive by Scanlon and Medina.
“Not the prettiest of goals in really any of the (Showdown) games,” Watson said. “After a few weeks of training, we’ve settled in a little bit. Now we’re starting to put the foot to the gas. I like where we’re at.”