Boys soccer: Scouting the MSL Cup / Wheeling vs. Fremd
43rd MSL Soccer Cup
Wheeling (10-4-3) at Fremd 10-1-4)Where: Hildebrandt Field, Fremd High School
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Who to watch, Wheeling: Luis Aviles (Sr, MF, 10a), Pablo Herrera (D), Jason Rivas (Sr, MF, 16g), Ricardo Rosales (F, 6g), Elio Santana (Jr, GK, 4.0 shutouts), Leo Tule (Jr, D).
Who to watch, Fremd: Russell Beaupre (Sr, MF, 5a), Josh Bennett (Sr, F, 3g), Kael Conway (Sr, D), John Kading (Sr, D-MF), Eli Schoffstall (So, MF, 9g), Jake Schoffstall (Sr, D, 11g).
History lesson: This will be a league-best 15th appearance for the Vikings, who last season lost to Buffalo Grove 2-0, which had not appeared in the championship match since lifting the trophy in 1988 when-then junior and future star Brian McBride led the Bison to victory.
All-in-all, the Vikings have won the trophy seven times in program history, the last coming in 2014 when they beat Wheeling 1-0. The Wildcats are back for the first time since 2016, when they scored a 3-2 victory over Barrington.
Two years earlier, the 'Cats advanced and won their first MSL title, the same year they finished second at the Class 3A state tournament.
Scouting Wheeling: After stumbling out of the gate at the Glenbrook South Titan Invite, the Wildcats would slowly come around, battling their way up the table of the MSL, and finishing with a flourish to capture the MSL East crown.
Within 48 hours, coach Kevin Lennon's team beat Barrington (1-0) then Buffalo Grove (2-1) to finish 4 points clear of the reigning league champion Bison.
"This have been a pretty resilient group of players this year. We had to overcome a dreadful start of the season that left me wondering just exactly where we might be at the end," said Lennon.
The 'Cats coach and two of the best in the MSL, Luis Aviles and Jason Rivas, each point to a 5-2 victory on the final day of the Titan Invite as the turning point of the season.
"We went down 2-0 to Stevenson, but came back to score five after the break including three in the last five minutes. It was then I knew we had a chance because we showed a lot of character and the ability to fight back after being down," said Aviles, who bagged the game-winner in the Buffalo Grove game.
"We lost a lot of talent from a year ago but even at the start of the new season you always feel like your team can be even better," said Rivas, who turned in a masterful 80-minute performance against BG. "We were not very good but that Stevenson comeback win was exactly what we needed to turn things around and we've been getting better with every game."
Lennon points to improvement along the back as the big reason for his club's success during the last few weeks.
"We knew the return of Pablo Herrera would provide us with a leader in the back but after that, we didn't know who we would surround him with," said Lennon. "Leo (Tule) had been a midfielder/forward, but we felt he could slide in back there so we spent a lot of time training him during the summer and he's been great. Josh Martinez and Luis Elias have been very good of late at the outside back spots and we really have not conceded many goals of late."
Wheeling would fall 2-1 in overtime the first time it met Fremd, to which Lennon had this to say: "It was a fair result in my opinion, and although it was just our second league game of the season, the energy and intensity felt as if it were a playoff game.
"Fremd is big, fast and skilled, and dangerous on its dead-ball chances, so we'll need to defend them the best we can, and come out ready to apply 80 minutes of pressure. "It should be an exciting, intense final."
Scouting Fremd: The Vikings are back in the championship game after holding on to the top spot in the MSL West from start to finish despite consecutive overtime draws with Rolling Meadows and Barrington.
Following their 0-0 draw with Barrington, the Vikings went clean through their next six games in league play to finish atop the MSL table.
"That 1-1 game with Rolling Meadows might have been the low point in our season, because we just didn't play very well," said senior John Kating, who coach Steve Keller will deploy in almost any spot in his first 11.
"But that 2-1 win over Palatine in OT to keep the Kinsella Cup was so big because it's against our crosstown rival and it always means so much to all of us and this year it basically closed out Barrington in our division."
Kating says since the Vikings game with Barrington the back line, which is led by the 2018 all-state central defender Jake Schoffstall, along with Kaelon Conway and Cole Jackson, have been at their best which is illustrated by the four shutouts recorded in the last seven league games.
"Conway, Kating and Jake have been our most consistent players during the last two weeks, and during that time our resilience to stay the course when things are not going our way has been impressive," said Keller.
Not a club that will dazzle with its attacking firepower, the Vikings have bagged 36 goals on the season, with Jake Schoffstall, and his sophomore brother Eli accounting for 20 between them.
Seniors Russell Beaupre and Josh Bennett are the ever-present figures in the Vikings' attack, with Beaupre providing the distribution to help start things going forward.
"We have the players with the ability to be much better in our attack but sometimes I think we try to do too much instead of playing simple and being sharper in the final third," Kating said.
Keller expects the Wildcats to be technically sound and to play at a high level.
"(They) outplayed us in that first meeting with a high intensity, smart and technical performance so we'll need to match that and be at our best if we want to win," Keller said.