By Michael Wojtychiw
When Solorio started its season back in August, it knew it wasn’t going to be a typical year. The 2022 version of the Sun Warriors was a young one, featuring only four seniors on a squad of 20. They had sophomores playing key roles, like keeper David Salgado, their left back, as well as their two center midfielders.
After a penalty-shootout loss to Bloom in the season-opening Windy City Classic left Solorio at 2-2, Solorio manager Adrian Calleros, speaking after the 2022 CPS city title game against Taft, reflected that people probably started looking at the Sun Warriors squad and wondering if they were in line for a down year.
“These guys came in and the beginning of the season started off rough,” Solorio manager Adrian Calleros said. “And I’m like ‘You guys didn’t put the star on the jersey (from 2017) or any of those trophies in there. But everybody sees the jersey and wants to beat you. You buy in and you lead, and we can do something, or we’re going to get kicked around all season.’”
“Luckily they bought in. I couldn’t be prouder of a group of four seniors (Orlando Ojeda, Ivan Lopez, Yamir Gallegos and Santiago Leyva).”
All the team did after that loss was rattle off 20 wins in its next 21 games, including titles at the BodyArmor Invitational, a penalty shootout win in the city title game, and regional, sectional and super sectional championships, their last three wins against Catholic League Blue squads, which are teams in the Chicago Catholic League’s top conference.
All of the sudden, the Sun Warriors were back at the state’s final four for the second time in the program’s 12-year history, hoping to replicate its state-title run of 2017.
“After we were down here in 2017 and won, we unfortunately had a (Chicago teachers) strike and the pandemic. That took two great teams away,” Calleros said. “But these guys coming in and picking up the slack … we’re fortunate the guys buy into the system and what we do, and they put the work in. And the results are here.”
Unfortunately for the Sun Warriors it wasn’t meant to be as they dropped a 4-2 decision in double overtime in the semifinals Friday to Peoria Notre Dame, before falling to Grayslake Central 4-0 in the third-place game.
“Our style was very similar to schools like (earlier AA tournament opponents) Mount Carmel and St. Laurence,” Calleros said, “but the one thing we didn’t have is that depth.
“We played those teams and made one sub: 12 guys played all the minutes. Today was obviously a reflection of that (depth issue). Everybody was a little beat up, and we had a captain (Lopez) who took a good shot to the head yesterday and couldn’t play.”
Playing in games like they did coming down the stretch gave the Sun Warriors a lot of confidence coming into the playoffs. Winning games against conference opponents, as well as some big non-conference games gave them what they needed as they headed on a deep postseason run.
Defeating its rival, Washington, which handed the Sun Warriors their only loss in the 20-1 run, in the city quarterfinals was an uplifting moment for the squad, as well as the penalty-kick win over Taft in the city title game and one-goal playoff wins against St. Ignatius, St. Laurence and Mount Carmel.
“There was definitely a lot of confidence [in] winning city (the Chicago Public League tournament),” Orlando Ojeda said, “because that’s an achievement for us. And playing against all these teams in the state (tournament) showed us how much we could keep up with these teams and how much talent we had.”
Due to a number of injuries, Solorio’s manager was able to give a number of his younger players who will be returning next season a chance to play in the third-place game, hoping that the experience will help them next year.
“Yesterday I went to the hospital, and the doctor said I can’t play for a week,” Solorio captain Ivan Lopez said after suffering a concussion Friday. “I was begging to come in for the last two minutes at least, but for safety precautions I needed to sit out.”
“I know I’m able to trust this guy here (Sebastian Gonzalez) for leadership next year,” he said. “And I’ll expect them to be back here next year.”
That isn’t, however, to say that the senior class wasn’t a key part of what Solorio has been trying to do over the past couple years, especially after navigating through a CPS work stoppage and the Covid-19 pandemic. Both of those wiped out portions of the players’ seasons, ones that would have been valuable to the players’ development.
“I built a program where I preach family,” the Solorio manager said. “I told them that the games against Mount Carmel and St. Laurence, the amount of alumni and families that came out…when we started the program in 2010, we started it where it’d be a family.
“We knew we were going to take tough losses, but that was part of the process and we were going to get there. It’s amazing to see those alumni come out and feel the pride of the program.”
