Timothy Men's Soccer Defeats Morgan Park to Win Sectional Championship

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Other Press On The Game:

Chicago Sun-Times Daily Herald

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The Timothy Christian High School men's varsity soccer team has won their second ever sectional championship. With a 2-1 victory, the Trojans defeated the Warriors of Morgan Park Academy and advanced to the IHSA's class 1A state semi-finals for the first time in school history.

With an outstanding full-team effort, Timothy beat a Morgan Park team that featured two premier players- Junior Eppokrates Litos and Senior Milan Tica- both of whom played at an extremely high level, but in the end, the Warrior efforts could not top teamwork of the Trojans.

Timothy opened the scoring 9 minutes into the game with an amazing individual effort by senior forward Justin Groenewold. Groenewold dribbled through three Morgan Park defenders, set himself up with a shot in the middle of the goal-box, and ripped a right footed blast past the keeper and into the back of the net for an unassisted goal. Not bad for a natural lefty.

Morgan Park came back with a goal of their own, just 12 minutes later. The goal featured the work of both Litos and Milan, with Litos dishing a through-ball to Milan who sliced through the defense and finished off his chance. The score would remain 1-1 at half-time.

About midway through the second half, senior Justin Groenewold again found some space in the Morgan Park defense, worked to gain a cross that sophomore forward Corey Philip shot. The initial shot was saved, but a rebound found Phillip right back,and the sophomore forward would not miss on what proved to be the game-winning goal.

Despite generating several more scoring opportunities, Timothy could not finish off "an insurance goal." So, for the rest of the second half, it was "hang-on" time for Timothy- and the team did not disappoint- playing an outstanding defensive effort- particularly the work of senior defender Jonathan Voss and sophomore sweeper Mike Pizello for their work shutting down Litos.

With the blow of the final whistle, the Timothy Trojans had advanced to the final four teams in class 1A. The team faces and exciting opportunity in the state semi-finals, taking on the three-time defending state champion Waterloo Gibault Catholic. The game will be played at North Central College in Naperville, IL on Friday, October 31st at 5:30 PM. The winner of this game will advance to the state finals (7:00 PM Saturday) and the loser will play for the 3rd place game (5:30 PM Saturday).