Boys Lacrosse: Wheaton Academy handles Glenbard West, earns third straight state appearance

By the time the final horn sounded in its 12-3 win over Glenbard West Tuesday in the Schaumburg boys lacrosse supersectional, Wheaton Academy — who had taken ownership of the contest in the early going — also took possession of a rectangular-sized championship plaque.

The Warriors will take that back to their West Chicago campus earning their third straight trip to the Final Four where it finished third and fourth the past two seasons.

Wheaton Academy (21-1) will face Benet in Thursday’s first semifinal at Benedictine.

“I can’t speak enough about our guys,” Wheaton Academy coach Geof Weisenborn said. “From early faceoffs, winning possessions, getting the ball at the offensive end. (Center) Donovan Meeter (coming) out and (doing) a great job at the faceoff X. Our wings (doing) a great job offensively, the ball just moved really well. People were waiting to not take their own shot but find the best shot. We were able to capitalize early on some stuff and (our) defense locked down. We were disciplined and supported each other.”

With Meeter, a Belmont Abbey (N.C.) recruit, winning house faceoffs, the Warriors kept Glenbard West (19-5) at bay with a four-goal first and a defense that held the Hilltoppers without a shot on goal over the first 10 minutes of play.

Senior Aiden Weisenborn rang up two of his three goals in the game’s first 41 seconds of play. He next fed sophomore Charlie Foley for the first two of his three scores in the remaining 4:10 of the period which also were the first pair of his four assists on the evening.

After Foley connected on his third goal in the opening minute of the second, and a Zeke Merchant score came shortly afterward, senior Gavin Pedone connected on two of his three goals to leave Wheaton Academy up 8-1 at the half.

From there Weisenborn, a USMA-Westpoint appointee, and his teammates committed themselves to finishing the job in half number two. They did not allowed West to make a comeback as it did the previous month where it rallied from a five-goal Warrior advantage before they responded to win an 11-9 decision in Glen Ellyn.

“Our goal at halftime was to not let that happen again,” Aiden Weisenborn said. “Take away all hope as quickly as we could and I think we did pretty well at that this time.”

Senior Mercyhurst, Penn., signee Jaret Jawor, a Lincoln-Way Central transfer, had seven saves for the Warriors.

Senior attacker Bobby Brennan got the Hilltoppers on the board with a goal in the second and a pair of assists for scores by junior Ben Cesario in the third and senior Andrew Bare in the fourth as it had made its first Elite Eight appearance since finishing fourth in 2019.

“We just talked about (how) it was a great season,” West coach Eric Huss said. “We had a lot of big victories that a lot of people thought we couldn’t have. Losses sting, but it’s one game in a great season.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20230530/boys-lacrosse-wheaton-academy-handles-glenbard-west-earns-3rd-straight-state-berth