Fighting Pirates Deal Warrenton District Loss

Since Sept. 27, not much has gone right for the St. Charles boys soccer team. On Saturday, facing Warrenton to open the Class 2 District 7 tournament, the Pirates could do little wrong.

St. Charles entered play having lost 12 of its previous 14 games including a stinging 5-2 loss to Warrenton on Oct. 21.

But those shortcomings were forgotten Saturday at Steve Stahl Stadium, as the fifth-seeded Pirates scored a 3-1 victory over No. 4 Warrenton and advanced to play St. Dominic at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at St. Charles West.

"Our coach kept telling us to keep fighting because this would be a tough stretch," said St. Charles junior Drew Haber, who logged the clinching goal and an assist in the win. "But we kept our heads up and knew we could beat this team."

Warrenton, the highest-scoring team in the Gateway Athletic Conference North, struck first 10 minutes into the contest off a throw-in from senior Chris Hertel. The ball went untouched through the St. Charles penalty area and found the foot of teammate Luke Hawley, who scored to put the Warriors ahead 1-0.

Despite facing an early deficit, St. Charles coach Rodney Orrick saw plenty of fight left in his team.

"You can usually tell when you see that first sign of adversity how your team is going to pan out," he said. "They responded like a team that wants to keep moving up."

The game began swinging in St. Charles' favor with 10 minutes, 40 seconds left in the first half. The Pirates were awarded a penalty kick, and senior David Rowland seized the opportunity by scoring his team-leading 11th goal of the year and tying the game at 1.

"Very frustrating," Warrenton coach John Schulte said. "Their kid has the ball in the box, we're trying to play tough defense on him and I guess the ref thought he got too much of him and gave him the penalty kick."

Haber, a defensemen who entered the game with just one goal all year, provided St. Charles its next big lift. With 3:20 left in the half, Haber was left unmarked, settled a pass and sent a shot past Warrenton goalie Jakob Junker.

"We really work hard as a unit on getting our defenders forward when possible," Orrick said. "Ask any coach, any player; the hardest marks are those backfield players who come in late. We teach that on set pieces and long possessions to send players forward occasionally and try to sneak in the box and try to get to that weak side, because more often than not you'll be open when you do."

Haber's goal was a crucial one for the Pirates, especially considering how they were beaten in their previous meeting with Warrenton, which outscored St. Charles 3-0 after halftime to provide that game's final margin of victory.

But on this sunny October afternoon, St. Charles (9-17) was the only team able to provide second-half fireworks, and again it was Haber who lit the fuse. At the 20:21 mark he booted a line-drive free kick to teammate Anthony Farmer, who sent an arching header over the goalie's reach for the game's final tally.

Pirates goalie Oswald Lopez kept Warrenton off the board the rest of the way, assuring St. Charles of a semifinal game against the top-seeded Crusaders.

"This was a culmination of getting to the end of a season playing through some injuries with a tough strength of schedule," Orrick said. "Eventually you get used to playing at that level. Then you come in and you're not flat. For us, it probably paid off. Maybe taking those lumps made a big difference for us."

Warrenton, which averaged a conference-leading 3.2 goals scored per game despite its conference-worst 3.6 goals against, ends its season 12-13.

"It was one of those games where everything that could go wrong did go wrong," Schulte said. "We talked about working through different issues we've had throughout the season: our defenders marking, about making good passes up top, not trying to do too much and keeping it simple. And today we just didn't do that."