LADUE – Kaeden Anderson is a set piece guru.
When a free kick opportunity arises, the Whitfield senior likes to survey the defensive wall, observe the positioning of the goalkeeper and plan his strategy.
Teammate Braydon Sellers wishes he would hurry up.
“He likes to tell me to go quick, but I like to go for the highlight play,” Anderson said.
Anderson scored twice off free kicks, including once on a quick shot that pleased Sellers and changed the momentum of the game as Whitfield soared to a 4-0 victory over Parkway West in a Class 3 District 3 quarterfinal Monday at Ladue High School.
No. 2 seed Whitfield (12-9), which won for the ninth time in the last 11 games, will face No. 4 seed Ladue (9-14) for the district title at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Ladue High.
Ladue advanced by upsetting top-seed and reigning Class 3 champion Webster Groves 1-0 on a goal by Ahmad Shebi off a corner kick in the 56th minute.
Whitfield led 1-0 after a back-and-forth first half in which both teams found glorious scoring chances. Less than two minutes into the second half, the Warriors earned a free kick from 24 yards away and Anderson decided to take the advice of Sellers and move quickly.
“Part of it was knowing the rules. I didn’t ask for 10 (yards), so I didn’t have to wait for the ref’s whistle. I was waiting for an opening, a (defender) moved slightly out of the way and I just hit it,” Anderson said.
Anderson’s strike grazed off of a defender’s hip and flew past Parkway West sophomore goalkeeper Carson House into the top left corner.
Twenty minutes later, Anderson stood the same distance from the goal and lined up another free kick. This time, he waited, surveyed the scene and provided material for his highlight reel, putting his shot and the game out of reach.
Anderson offered insight into his thought process during set pieces.
“Stay calm. It’s called a free kick, but I can’t beat myself up over missing. All I can do is read where the goalie is at, put it on target and hope for the best,” he said.
Anderson notched his ninth and 10th goals of the season despite making a move from center mid to center back this season to solidify the defense for the Warriors.
“His set pieces are phenomenal, and quite frankly, his play this season has been incredible,” Whitfield coach Charlie Noonan said. “To his credit, he stepped up and said, ‘I’ll play center back this year,’ and that’s been huge for us. You have to hand it to the guys who are willing to sacrifice what they’re most comfortable doing to bring success to the team.”
Anderson and the Whitfield defense had to be sharp to slow down a Parkway West attack that produced excellent chances throughout the first half.
A free kick by Longhorns’ sophomore Cameron Spangler and a partial breakaway by sophomore Zoran Todorovic both missed the upper corner of the goal by inches. In the 29th minute, a beautiful passing play from Max Ribble to Wilson Clardy to Spangler resulted in a foul in the box.
Spangler stepped to the penalty spot and launched a shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar, bounced and lounged in the goal crease before it was eventually cleared from danger by Whitfield defender Holden Souder.
The bevy of near-misses convinced both teams that a goal was imminent. Sellers ensured the goal would belong to Whitfield.
A pinpoint, triangular passing play along the left sideline between Sellers, Max Megargel and Nick Flood sent Sellers dribbling towards the goal with space.
“When they missed that penalty (kick), that was a big momentum changer. That was our time to step up and get the energy and passion up,” Sellers said. “Coming down the left side, I was thinking, ‘Can I do something to get this team going and change the tide of this game?’” Sellers said.
Sellers weaved between three defenders before sliding a shot past House to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead with 2:40 remaining in the first half.
The late goal produced a burst of momentum for Whitfield, and at halftime, Noonan challenged the Warriors to find another gear.
“We didn’t really change much. We just asked them to get up and down the field faster,” Noonan said.
Roman Angieri took that request and ran with it.
Three minutes after Anderson connected on his sneaky free kick, the speedy junior Angieri accepted a pass in the midfield and raced past the Parkway West defense, blasting a shot past House to give the Warriors two goals in the opening six minutes of the second half and a 3-0 lead.
Angieri, who began the season as a defender, notched his seventh goal of the season. He had two goals disallowed later in the half due to an offside situation and a foul call.
“In the second half, I just flipped something that said I needed to go, go, go,” Angieiri said.
Parkway West (13-11) played without star defender Mitchell Seavey, who led the Longhorns with 17 assists, many originating from devastating throw-ins that found the heads of his tall teammates near the goal crease.
The Longhorns still received high-quality throw-ins from senior Max Ribble and strong defensive play from senior Brian Wright and sophomore Hugo Ortbals, but the loss of the captain Seavey was noticeable, especially in the effort to slow down the Warriors in the second half.
For Whitfield, which lost its first three games and had a 3-7 record after 10 games, positional changes of players like Angieri and Anderson and heightened concentration changed the direction of the season.
“We were just going through the motions a little bit, not super-focused at practice or during games, but a switch flipped, and we realized we had to lock down and put the effort in to achieve what we want to achieve this fall,” Sellers said.
Anderson credits the development of several underclassmen as a key factor in the Warriors’ late season surge, including freshmen Cody Baden and Noah Mohmoud.
“I have trust in our young guys. People aren’t looking at them as a threat, but we know they are threats and we’ve been using them to our advantage,” Anderson said.
And the Warriors, which have advanced to the state semifinals each of the previous three seasons, feel like they have developed the correct positional alignment and team chemistry to be a threat in the postseason.
“We’re here to prove a point, that Whitfield is still one of the best programs in St. Louis,” Sellers said.