RIVER FOREST – It’s been an unusual season at Fenwick.

Coming into Thursday’s finale, the host Friars were winless, with eight of their 12 losses coming by one goal. 

When the team took the field on Senior Day at their Priory campus, it was the last chance the four Class of 2025 members could take a victorious walk off their home pitch.

And make an impact they did, the senior contingent led the way to Fenwick’s first win of the year. Sam Allaire’s penalty kick with nine minutes, 16 seconds remaining set off a celebration between players and fans after a 1-0 nonconference.

“It definitely feels good to do it today,” Allaire said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games, a lot of close losses, so finally getting over the hump and getting the first one, our performances have gotten better over the last month.

“It was coming.”

“It’s been a struggle for sure,” Fenwick senior Jack Kupiec said. “I think we have the capability, but it’s been a case of the other team scoring the go-ahead goal, and we can’t recover. 

“We’ve progressed a lot, and I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.”

“Getting to tonight is really indicative of these guys and how far they’ve come,” Fenwick manager Craig Blazer said. “They’ve really worked really hard for a night like this.”

Both teams came out on a mission. 

In the first 10 minutes of the match, the combatants combined for two corners, two free kicks and two shots.

“When you’re under pressure emotionally, it’s harder to play, but we stuck together,” Blazer said. “We see that it was tough, but we made good plays early and kept through it.”

"I thought we battled throughout and created a couple of opportunities in the first half," St. Francis manager Jim Winslow said. "We need to be more proactive in getting numbers when we can."

The Fenwick senior class is a small one, but it has had success. 

Santiago Dooley, Sam Martino and Kupiec (two-year varsity members) and Allaire (three years) were on last season’s regional championship squad. Allaire was on the squad that fell in dramatic fashion in the regional final the year prior.

Being a part of the Friars has been an important aspect of their high school experience.

“It’s really meant a lot to me to be a part of this program,” Allaire said. “It’s really crazy how fast these four years have gone. We’ve got a couple weeks left, and we’re just trying to get some more wins.”

“This has truly been amazing. There’s been nothing better,” Kupiec said. “I really think there isn’t a school better than us, there’s nothing better than being a Friar.”

“These seniors are four very unique kids that have grown into young men,” Blazer said. “They’ve been through a lot together, both on and off the field, are super intelligent, hardworking and we’re very proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Both teams continued to test the keepers in the second half, forcing the two to make a combined seven saves in the first half of the final half.

“Their goalkeeper (Nathan Magnuszewski) made some great saves. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Blazer said. “Dominik (Ballarin) made some big saves for us too. He was really stellar in goal today.”

 

"Nathan has been performing at a pretty high level all season," Winslow said. "The saves he made today are something we see in practice regularly."

The game changed when Allaire drew a foul in the left side of the box as he drove toward the goal and was awarded a penalty kick.

He drilled it into the left side of the net.

“I was just trying to stay composed,” he said. “The ref made me wait a while as everyone got lined up, so I just tried to stay focused. I knew where I wanted it to go, so I was just trying to picture it going in.

“There ended up being a lot of fouls throughout the game, but we just tried to stay focused on what we can control.”

The Friars (1-12-3) were given the 12th-seed in the Class AA St. Laurence Sectional, where they’ll face Latin in a St. Ignatius Regional semifinal. 

Blazer and his players know that they’re better than their record indicates, and that they’re starting to click at the right time. 

The close losses are something they’ve learned to build on as the season has gone along and can help propel them to success in the playoffs. 

“The guys truly enjoy coming to training every day and understand the process,” Blazer said. “We’ve played some really good teams and played them tough. The boys know they can put it together.”

“This is definitely the best night we could have won,” Kupiec said. “I think we can pull off some sneaky wins in the playoffs. Teams that have beat us already, I think we’re better than now. We’ve progressed that much.”

The soccer season has also been a different one for St. Francis (4-10-0).

According to manager Jim Winslow, he hasn’t had the ability to play his entire anticipated starting lineup together for most of the season due to players being out for injuries or illnesses. But as the season is coming down the regular-season homestretch, that’s changing. 

Thursday’s game was one of the few where he’s had the lineup playing together that he envisioned in August .

"Some semblance of normalcy would help, but at full strength, we have to rehash playing together again," he said about getting more of his players back. "Our top kids have to perform at a high level more consistently. Hopefully with everyone back to their normal spots they can -- just being more consistent and taking advantage of our scoring opportunities when we get them."

The seventh-seeded Spartans meet no. 2-seed Benet in a Class AA Timothy Regional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 22.


 
Starting lineups

St. Francis
GK: Nathan Magnuszewski
D: Jonathan Yarusso
D: Ryan Callender
D: Luke Pounders
MF: Brody Jochum
MF: Junior Diaz
MF: Peter Williams
MF: Luke Argamasilla
F: John Coco
F: Nicolas Tisljar
F: Brady Hamman

Fenwick
GK: Dominik Ballarin
D: Santiago Dooley
D: Sam Martino
D: Truman Sabatino
D: Conrad Sperry
MF: Jack Kupiec
MF: Beckett Javell
MF: Matthew Simon
MF: Luke Menacho
MF: Sam Allaire
F: Nate Sabatino

Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Sam Allaire, sr., MF, Fenwick

Scoring summary

First half
No scoring

Second half
F: Sam Allaire (Penalty kick), 72nd minute