Boys Soccer: Stagg keeps rolling; Marist’s Danny Olsen scores four in draw with Marian Catholic

By Steve Millar 
Correspondent

Kacper Dziubek has some extra motivation to lead Stagg soccer deep into the postseason this season.

The junior midfielder wants bragging rights over his older brother, Sebastian, who starred for the Chargers until graduating in 2019.

“He never won a regional title here, so that’s something I’m trying to do — go far in the playoffs,” Dziubek said. “I think we have probably the best team we’ve had here, so I don’t want there to be any what-ifs. I want to be the best team to ever play for this school and make it to state, if possible.”

Dziubek scored two goals Sept. 29 as Stagg opened SouthWest Suburban Red play at home with a 4-1 win over Andrew.

Senior forward Abdallah Omar also scored twice for the Chargers.

They followed that victory with a 2-0 win at Bradley-Bourbonnais Oct. 1 to improve to 16-2-1 and 2-0 in conference.

Kamil Bak and Piotr Zawislan scored in that game, while Jose Flores made three saves for the shutout.

“We wanted to get a good start in conference,” Dziubek said. “So far, so good.”

In the win over Andrew, Omar got Stagg on the board less than two minutes into the game, corralling the ball in front of the net off Bart Jaskowski’s free kick and putting it in.

Dziubek made it 2-0 in the ninth minute, collecting a loose ball and quickly ripping in a shot from 30 yards out.

“We scored quick and it just built up from there,” Dziubek said. “I’m trying to be team first, that’s most important. If the goals come, they come. I try to make my opportunities count when I get them.”

Dziubek got another one in the 26^th minute, scoring off another Jaskowski free kick.

Dziubek, who also assisted on Omar’s second goal in the 14^th minute, said he grew up watching his older brother play for Stagg and always wanted to follow in his footsteps.

“He gave me someone to look up to,” Dziubek said. “I try to one-up him.”

Andrew held the Chargers off the scoreboard in the second half and got on board with Armani Vazquez’s late goal, but Stagg was able to get many of its reserves some valuable playing time.

“Coaching against [Andrew coach Loren Zolk], who’s a very good friend of mine, I don’t feel comfortable until the game is over,” Stagg coach Mike Kealy said. “It was good to get some other guys some playing time. This is game 18 and it’s good to get our starters some breaks.”

Omar believes the Chargers are capable of big things if they don’t get ahead of themselves.

“It’s step by step,” Omar said. “Great teams are made of great teammates. That’s why we’re a great team.”

Quartet helps Marist tie Marian
Senior midfielder Danny Olsen never had a hat trick before last week.

Not only did he get his first one, but he one-upped that by pouring in four goals as the RedHawks tied Marian Catholic 5-5 in a wild East Suburban Catholic game on Sept. 28.

Prior to the game, Olsen had scored four goals all season.

“It’s kind of been a dry season for me,” he said. “I haven’t scored that often. I had four goals for the season before this, so to equal that in one game kind of shocked me. I don’t believe it.”

Olsen had a hat trick before the first half was even over. In the 19th minute, he broke in toward the net and chipped a shot over Marian goalkeeper Parker Knueppel.

Seven minutes later, he scored off a pass from Christian Chavez.

In the 26^th minute, Chavez drew a foul in the box to earn a penalty kick.

Olsen converted it to give Marist a 3-1 lead.

Marian Catholic stormed back to tie it 3-3 in the second half before Olsen struck again off a corner kick with 22:26 to go.

The Spartans fought back again and took a 5-4 lead before Marist’s Cayden Hanlon scored with 8:40 left to make it a 5-5 tie.

“It was a fun game,” Olsen said. “It was pretty crazy. It kept going back and forth.”

The season has been a struggle for the RedHawks (1-12-3, 1-3-2), but Olsen is proud of the way they continue to battle.

“This team has such good morale,” Olsen said. “Even if we lose like 5-1, it doesn’t matter. We’re all good kids. Our captains always bring us up. I love the team.”

The RedHawks have been competitive against some good teams while playing a tough schedule. That gives them hope they could make a run in the playoffs in Class 2A.

Marist was given the No. 11 seed in the Brother Rice Sectional and will open the playoffs with a rematch against seventh-seeded Marian Catholic in a Marist Regional semifinal.

Before that, Marist coach Sean Maxwell hopes his team can limit the costly mistakes it’s been making throughout the season.

“There’s some inexperience,” Maxwell said. “As the season has gone on, we’ve fixed some things. There are still little technical things we need to work on and just missed judgement at times that good teams are going to punish you when you make those mistakes.”

Spartans bounce back
After a 12-1-1 start, Oak Lawn lost back-to-back games, falling 1-0 to Bremen on Sept. 27 and 5-4 to Eisenhower on Sept. 29.

The Spartans (13-3-1, 5-2-1 South Suburban Red entering this week) got back on the right track Oct. 1 with a 2-0 win over Oak Forest (9-3-2, 5-2-1 South Suburban Blue).

Tristan Kramarz and Yusuf Abdelazeez scored goals for Oak Lawn, while Giovanni Gonzalez recorded the shutout with help from defenders Abdelazeez, Abram Ramos, Imad Amra, Simon Komperda and Moises Del Toro.