NAPERVILLE – Benet junior forward Sergio Polanco will always remember how he scored his first varsity goal.

“I just ran into space. I was screaming for the ball,” he said. “I took the opportunity.”

Polanco’s chance didn't come on a pass. He scored after  sophomore midfielder Mark Ndrio raced into the left side of the South Elgin penalty area and fired a hard shot that Storm goalkeeper Ethan Messer blocked but couldn’t corral.

The rebound went to Polanco, who buried it to give Benet a 1-0 lead at the 34:43 mark of the first half. That was the opening salvo in what turned out to be a 4-1 Benet victory Tuesday night on the opening day of the Best of the West Tournament at Naperville North.

“It feels great, just to get my confidence up, to get the team spirit up,” Polanco said. “It makes everyone happy.”

It gave the Redwings (1-1-0) the ability to relax a little bit. They were shut out 2-0 by West Chicago in their season-opener, so denting the back of the net, especially early, was a boost.

“It’s always good to start off with an early goal,” Benet senior defender Jack Kuelthau said. “I’m excited for it.

“I’m happy for (Polanco). He always works hard.”

So does Kuelthau. The imposing co-captain made two great defensive plays in the early going, including one just 90 seconds after Polanco scored.

South Elgin sophomore striker Matthew Lipp got loose up in the middle momentarily and was poised to go one-on-one with Benet goalkeeper Matthew Beaudoin. But Kuelthau stopped that by swooping in from the left side and slide-tackling the ball away.

“I guess there wasn’t enough cover on the right side, so the ball went over my head. Then I guess the striker took a bad touch, or he would have scored,” Kuelthau said.

The Redwings playing without starting defenders, senior Danny Sterba. That left the team in scramble mode initially.

“For this game we switched to a three-back instead of a 4-3-3,” Kuelthau said. “We’re going to play a 3-5-2 regardless (of personnel).  It’s a lot more running for the backs.”

Yet they handled it well, allowing the Storm (1-3-0) only three shots in the first half while building a commanding 3-0 lead.

“We were missing Danny Sterba tonight,” Benet coach Matt Klosterman said. “He came down sick at the last minute, so the defenders had a little bit more work to do, but I thought they did a nice job

“It’s always nice when you get an early one, because it takes a little pressure off and makes it a little easier.”

This wasn’t the first time South Elgin has been on the wrong end of this scenario.

“It’s kind of been our M.O. so far this season to start slow and react late,” South Elgin coach Jerzy Skowron said. “Unfortunately, Benet is a good enough team where if we get behind, then it’s running uphill in quicksand.”

The Redwings, meanwhile, were flowing downhill. Sophomore Jack Wesley scored on a rebound to make it 2-0 at the 30:09 mark and William Khazen followed suit with 3:27 left in the half.

Benet boosted the lead to 4-0 just 5:06 after intermission when Polanco set up Brendan Bergnach’s goal and the rout was on.

What was the cause of Benet’s offensive efficiency?

“I feel like we played quicker,” Polanco said. “We played 1-2 touches.

“Last game we were playing too slow. It was more of the (good) decision-making this game.”

South Elgin tried its best to rally, and the play was much more even over the final 30 minutes. Lipp averted the shutout when he scored off an assist from Quentin Albert with 18:24 left in the match.

“Like it was the last two games for us, it was a tale of two halves,” Skowron said. “We controlled a lot of the game in that second half. Whether that was them kind of laying their foot off the gas or not, it looked like we were the better, more productive, hungrier team a little bit.

“But unfortunately, not a lot of opportunities for us to put the ball in the back of the net.”

The Storm did have one good crack at slicing into the deficit a bit more when junior Ben Krueger rattled the crossbar with a 30-yard rocket with 9:30 remaining. If that shot had been a couple inches lower it would have made things a little more interesting the rest of the way.

“I think the crossbar is still shaking,” Skowron said. “He’s one of our best ball-strikers, so being able to get him on those sorts of opportunities is a huge benefit for us.

“We started a new formation today 4-3-3 just to kind of see what it would do. I think there’s a lot of good stuff about it.

“But we kind of let Benet dictate how this game was going to be. They’re too good of a team for us to do that and expect them to let us back in the game.”

So what will be the key to eliminating the slow starts?

“Honestly, communicating. As soon as you get on the field, have your mindset ready and be ready to play and give 100 percent,” Lipp said. “I feel that’s something we can do and then we won’t have these sloppy starts.”
While the final score may appear one-sided, Lipp was actually encouraged by the Storm’s finish.

“I’m 100 percent happy with our second half performance,” Lipp said. “I felt like the first half we weren’t awake, and they were just taking advantage of it. Once we turned our minds on you could obviously see it.

“The scoreboard doesn’t say it, but I feel like we stayed in the game pretty well. We had our chances but we just need to finish them.”

 
Starting lineups
Benet
GK: Matthew Beaudoin
D: Julian Mehra
D: Jackson Mares
D: Jack Kuelthau
M: Mathew Donaghey
M: Jack Wesley
M: Mateo Picha
M: Ruslan Holubec
M: Mark Ndrio
F: Sergio Polanco
F: Brendan Bergnach
 
South Elgin
GK: Ethan Messer
D: Quentin Albert
D: Pablo Correa
D: Jair Garcia
D: Isaac Marquez
D: Noah Dihel
M: Justin Defensor
M: Rodrigo Gonzalez
M: Eduardo Lopez
F: Jack Schmidtke
F: Matthew Lipp
 
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sergio Polanco, jr., F, Benet
 

Scoring summary

First half
Benet: Sergio Polanco (Mark Ndrio) 6’
Benet: Jack Wesley (Brendan Bergnach), 10’
Benet: Will Khazen (Uareme Edeki), 37’
 
Second half
Benet: Bergnach (Polanco), 46’
South Elgin: Matthew Lipp, (Quentin Albert), 62’