ROSELLE – Senior Night at Lake Park had plenty of fireworks, of the offensive variety.
The entertaining attack of the Lancers (4-9-4, 3-3-1) topped the three-goal mark for the seventh game this season and in the process endured an improbable offensive accomplishment by visiting Wheaton North (2-14-2, 1-5-1) to emerge with a 4-3 DuKane Conference win Tuesday.
After Lake Park built a 2-0 halftime lead, the second half began at a
video-game pace with a combined four goals in the first 10 minutes of
play. Three of those lightning fast scores came off the foot of
Wheaton North’s Alex Leon, who had entered the night with just one
goal all season.
But the Lancers regrouped after the score quickly became 3-3, retaking
the lead with 24:33 to play on a Luis Rodriguez goal and tightening
the bolts defensively to make that lead stand up.
“This says a lot about the team,” Lake Park senior Danny Chukurov said. “We’ve had a lot of games where we trail or we’re winning at halftime, and teams start coming back.
“We were able to face adversity and keep our heads up. And no one was yelling at each other. We’ve had games where we just drop our heads, people are yelling and nothing is going the right way. But we stuck
together, and we got the win.”
For the first 40 minutes, it seemed Senior Night would be smooth sailing for the Lancers.
Chukurov provided the first highlight, scoring in the 10th minute off a Jakub Nowicki assist to put Lake Park up 1-0.
“I saw (Nowicki), he had the ball right there at the top of the box,” Chukurov said of his seventh goal this fall. “He cut it back (on a pass), and I was just wide open. I tried to place it in the corner, and it managed to fall in.”
Nowicki followed 19 minutes later with his first of two goals on
the night after running down a through-ball from midfielder Zory Schmitt, splitting the defense for a breakaway and making the score 2-0.
“That felt great,” Nowicki said. “It was a long ball (by Schmitt) and
we broke through pressure, got through to the back and I got a 1-v-1
vs. the keeper and finished it.
“They were playing a high defensive line, so through-balls were
killing them. We didn’t profit off each long ball we played, but we
had a lot of chances which led to us scoring four goals.”
Wheaton North had scored just one goal in its last five games, making
the 2-0 margin seem safe. But the Falcons had other
ideas.
An offsides call 35 seconds into the second half denied Luke Hodel’s
great scoring-chance in the box, but lit the fuse on a wild sequence
of soccer.
Less than two minutes later, the Falcons took a page from the Lancers’
game plan with a through-ball leading to a breakaway and scoring breakthrough.
Armando Jarquin’s send from the left side towards the box set up a race between Leon and Lancers goalkeeper Eryk Wolski for the checkered
sphere. Leon narrowly won the race, tipping the ball to open space and
burying an open-net goal to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 37:39 left to
play.
The push continued with a Wolski save on Hodel’s 22-yard shot one-minute later. Then with 33:29 remaining, a Sam Morici through-ball
again sprung Leon on a breakaway. This time a lunging Wolski got a
hand on a 10-yard shot, but the powerful drive still settled inside the upper-left post and the score was even.
In a flash, Leon’s frustrating near misses this season were suddenly
rewarded in duplicate.
“I had one goal: I’ve had a lot of missed chances,” Leon said. “And I
missed two big opportunities in the first half. After the first one, I just wanted to put more in.
“My mind was just finally relaxed, and I was in the zone. I just
wanted to score more.”
Leon wasn’t done, but neither was Lake Park’s top striker.
Just 53 seconds after Leon tied the score 2-2, Nowicki untied it by
attacking the left side off an Ethan Su pass and rocketing a 20-yard shot
inside the lower right post to give the Lancers a 3-2 lead.
The perfect high-impact strike to a perfect spot in a key situation
was a hard combination to beat.
“Obviously you feel so great,” Nowicki said of his ninth goal of 2024.
“I’ve been looking for that shot for multiple games. Some games it
hasn’t worked out, but finally I got the right power behind it.”
But keeping the power of momentum proved hard to hold for the Lancers.
After Wheaton North dodged danger when Rodriguez’s back to the goal
header went just over the net off a 40-yard free kick with 30:50 left,
they were back on the offensive and back in a tie game just 50 seconds
later.
Morici battled for possession in the box and was fouled as he
attempted to pass to Leon in front, producing a penalty kick for
Wheaton North.
Leon’s lower left corner PK liner just eluded a diving Wolski, and the
Falcons senior feasted on a hat-trick that was cooked up faster than a microwave dinner.
“We have nice players,” Wheaton North coach Joe Klingelhoffer said,
“but no one who came into the season saying ‘I’m the finisher, I’m a
striker.’ We have a lot of people playing in those offensive positions
that aren’t playing there on their club teams.
“Alex is one of those who’s been playing there all season. He makes
nice runs, so it’s awesome to see him really explode with some
finishes. He definitely overcame something tonight. That’s why our
guys are happy for him, and we’re happy for him.
“He’s played a lot of good games,” Klingelhofffer added, “and was getting a lot of good opportunities, and that doesn’t always happen for him. It’s awesome to see that.”
“And the kid who got fouled on the PK was a JV callup, Sam Morici, who jumped on that errant pass, stayed brave, stayed in it, got clobbered
and got us that third goal.”
The quick strikes and battles in the box were especially welcome to
see, considering the Falcons’ recent offense.
“We’ve been in a funk finishing and scoring,” Klingelhoffer said. “The
Geneva game (a 5-1 loss) was the last time we scored a goal, so it’s
been five games or so.”
On the Lake Park side, the suddenly high scoring game was nothing new.
Along with impressive offensive efforts vs. current 12-win opponents
Glenbard West (a 4-1 Lancers win) and Class AA power and 13th-ranked Timothy Christian (a 4-4 tie), Lake Park posted an 8-3 win over
Batavia and had a wild 8-6 loss to Geneva.
“We concede too many goals,” Lancers coach Mike Bruckner said. “From up 2-0 to 3-3, we need to tighten things up in the back and we know that.
“We do a lot with film and on the field. But if we get something wrong,
we don’t have the guys with super speed to erase mistakes. We really
do have to do it as a team, so hopefully we can tighten it up.”
Bruckner’s hope became the Lancers’ accomplishment over the final 30
minutes of action Tuesday.
At the same time, Lake Park’s electric offense wasn’t done. A free
kick with 29:10 left was first headed away from the crease by Wheaton
North’s Zayo Farris, with Nowicki’s one-timer rebound lined wide
right.
Falcons goalkeeper Max Henderson was next on the spot two minutes
later, going into the crowd in front to grab Chukurov’s 22-yard free
kick drive.
Then after an Adrian Podosek clear thwarted a Falcons offensive zone
push, Rodriguez made the Lancers’ offensive push pay off.
Sprung on a breakaway right off a Nolan Strejc pass, Rodriguez lasered a 12-yard shot off a lunging Henderson’s hand and into the net for what would be the game-winning score.
“I was checking my shoulder to see if I was covered,” Rodriguez said
with help from teammate Carlos Ramos’ Spanish translation. “When the other forward (Strejc) pressured, he checked to run the diagonal. And that’s when he passed me the ball to open space.”
Rodriguez contributing was welcome sight for his coach.
“Luis has picked up three different injuries throughout the season,”
Bruckner said, “which hasn’t really allowed him to get a good run of games. He came off the bench and definitely added a spark.”
Long passes either via through-balls upfield or diagonal inside midfield passes were key to all of Lake Park’s goals Tuesday.
“We were studying them (the Falcons) the other day, and we saw that they had a high line (defensively),” Nowicki said, “so that (sending through-balls) was our game plan. And it worked out.”
High-impact sophomore Nowicki helped make it work out, sharing Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors along with Wheaton North hat-trick scorer Leon.
“Jakub Nowicki was our standout performer,” Bruckner said. “His hold-up play was excellent, and he created several opportunities with his through-balls and runs in behind the back line.”
Up 4-3, the Lancers continued to push with a low Chukurov shot saved by Henderson (21:15 left), a Denys Klyuchenko one-timer over the net (17:15 to go) and a Podosek right end-line cross off the top of the
crossbar (16:10 remaining).
Another through-ball to the box nearly paid off with 10:50 to go, with Henderson diving to just beat Rodriguez to the send.
And the Lake Park defense was up to the task when needed late. Andrew Nguyen had a nice defensive end steal to repel one Falcons threat, and Wheaton North’s Peter Nitecki nicely won a 50/50 ball but lined his 25-yard shot wide right with 11:45 left.
“In the second half I thought we started off pretty bad,” Chukurov said, “but we kept our heads up. We didn’t give up and kept fighting even though they tied it. We scored another really nice goal, and we just managed to never give up and believe in ourselves.”
While Leon was the star of the Falcons’ comeback, others played quality games Tuesday for Wheaton North.
“Jackson Gailbraith and Zayo Farris at centerback I thought played really nicely,” Klingelhoffer said. “We played a little differently than we usually do, so they were asked to do something different than we have all season.
“Also two freshmen Miguel Maldonado and Armando Jacquin, we pulled them up last week after they were on JV 1 all season, and they were great for us tonight. And Luke Hodel in the middle had an incredible motor.”
As the game reached the final minutes, Lake Park continued to defend. A Morici corner kick with 9:10 left ended with a long shot well wide, and Patrick Swacha’s blocked shot 18 yards out extinguished another Falcons threat 50 seconds later.
With 4:15 to go, Ryder Froebe sprung Leon on a right-side rush that ended with Wolski save on a high shot.
A 28-yard Falcons free kick with 2:30 left brought another chance to tie, but a Swacha initial clear and a later Schmitt shot block prevented any close-in threat.
The final chance came with 35 seconds to go, when Nitecki and Lake Park’s Dominick Nash battled for a 50/50 ball left of the net in a sequence that ended with a Falcons foul – and finally a chance to celebrate a dual accomplishment.
“Of course it felt great to send our seniors off with a win,” Bruckner said, “but our win and Wheaton Warrenville South’s win over St. Charles East allowed us to secure fourth place in the DuKane, which is
a goal we’ve had since the start of the season.
“We said nothing but a win (Tuesday) will do. Let’s send the seniors off right, and see if we can get in the top half of conference. And we did.”
A high-scoring Senior Night to remember was hopefully a prelude to more fun as the Lancers head into regional play.
“This game was really important because it was Senior Night,” Chukurov said. “It meant a lot to me because I’m a senior. And our first playoff game is Friday, so that may be my last game: I don’t know if I’m going to play in college yet.
“Hopefully this win brings us all together, and we can have a run in playoffs.”
Said sophomore Nowicki: “It’s a great program. I look forward to the next two years, but right now I want to focus on the playoffs.”
Wheaton North has its own jolt of added confidence heading into its regional opener.
“I think since we’ve had problems scoring this year,” Leon said, “especially me. This gives us a good push and positive energy for Friday’s game against Glenbard East.”
Leon’s coach was equally impressed by his team’s reaction to adversity Tuesday.
“What I wanted from our group was for us to play a competitive game,” Klingelhoffer said, “where we can feel good about what we’re doing going into that (regional) game Friday. And that’s what we got.
“We dropped another one, but we feel much better than we did after our last few. We needed to get over the no-goals thing. We’ve gone through a few spurts where we don’t score goals, and sometimes no matter how well you play that can really get you down when other teams can finish when they don’t have as much going.
"But we got some confidence and I’m excited for them and what we can do (Friday)."
Starting lineups
Wheaton North
GK: Max Henderson
D: Christopher Nunez
D: Jackson Gailbraith
D: Myles Abante
D: Gabriel Brada
M: Zayo Farris
M: Armando Jarquin
M: Luke Hodel
M: Ryder Froebe
M: Rocco Johnson
F: Peter Nitecki
Lake Park
GK: Eryk Wolski
D: Andrew Nguyen
D: Patrick Swacha
D: Dominick Nash
D: Adrian Podosek
M: Carlos Ramos
M: Ethan Su
M: Danny Chukurov
M: Rodrigo Maceda
F: Jakub Nowicki
F: Nolan Strejc
Chicagoland Soccer Men of the Match: Jakub Nowicki, so., F, Lake Park; Alex Leon, sr., F, Wheaton North
Scoring summary
First half
LP- Danny Chukurov (Jakub Nowicki), 10’
LP- Nowicki (Zory Schmitt), 29’
Second half
WN- Alex Leon (Armando Jarquin), 43’
WN- Leon (Sam Morici), 47’
LP- Nowicki (Ethan Su), 48’
WN- Leon (PK), 50’
LP- Luis Rodriguez (Nolan Strejc), 54’