Boys soccer: Wheaton Academy rolls to sectional championship

The Wheaton Academy Warriors ran away from the Genoa-Kingston Cogs in the second half Saturday for a 6-0 victory and a Class 1A sectional championship at Hinckley-Big Rock.

Already up 2-0 at the half, the Warriors scored three goals in four minutes to put the Cogs away.

"At halftime we thought we were in it still," Cogs coach Randy Tate said. "Then it just kind of broke down and they jumped on us pretty good there in the second half."

The Warriors will play Cristo Rey St. Martin in the Class 1A Wheaton Academy supersectional at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Haetham Nasr smashed a shot into the back of the net in the 51st minute to put the Warriors up 3-0.

"It's an incredible feeling," Nasr said. "What I love is that I wouldn't be getting those chances without my teammates doing the work off the ball. So credit to my teammates for getting me the ball."

For Nasr, it was his third goal of the game. He opened the scoring by hitting on a long shot from the top left of the box that just squeaked under the crossbar to open the scoring less than three minutes into the game. Later in the first half, he rifled in a penalty kick with just over five minutes remaining.

The Warriors' offensive avalanche continued with Evan Eckert who added a goal in the 54th minute.

The Cogs barely had time to regroup before Giovanni Nicoski scored another goal less than a minute later to put the game out of reach.

"They were just beating us to most of the balls," Cogs senior defenseman Ben Younker said. "They were getting there first."

Nicoski added another goal in the 62nd minute to round out the scoring.

The Cogs' high-powered offense never got clicking during the game, with the Warriors keeping the defense keyed on Eagan Reams and Junior Leon. Leon and Reams didn't have a shot on goal until late in the game when the Warriors were already up big.

"The key was to keep the ball, for starters," Warriors coach Cody Snouffer said. "The key was really just to know where those two guys were the whole time."

This was the first game of the season that neither Reams or Leon found the back of the net.

"They were a good team," Reams said. "They possessed the ball well. They played good team defense and they possessed the ball really well."

For the Cogs, their historic season comes to an end in the sectional final. The Cogs set records this season for wins with 20 and shutouts with 13. They also had two players reach 100 goals in their career and won their first regional title in 9 years.