Familiar pattern for St. Viator
The pattern of the boys soccer season thus far for St. Viator has been a simple one — concede early goals.
In each of the Lions’ four matches this season, they have given up a goal in the early stages and have little to show for their efforts, including a 2-2 draw with visiting Lyons Township on a steamy Friday afternoon in Arlington Heights.
The hosts allowed Lyons junior Brett Heimerdinger to strike in the first 90 seconds. St. Viator battled back to level, then went ahead — only to see the visitors find the equalizer in the 60th minute, much to the disappointment of St. Viator coach Mike Taylor.
“Bad goals,” he said. “We continue to give up bad (early) goals.
“We did it against Lake Zurich in our opener, then with Palatine, who really took advantage of us, and even against (Joliet Catholic) the other day, but came back to score the next 5 goals. I don’t know how you give up a goal in the first minute of a game, but we’ve got to get turned around or we’re going to have a long season.”
Heimerdinger raced into the area from the right side and found plenty of space in which to operate. He used a nice left-footed touch past Lions keeper Mike McGrath.
“I was kind of surprised to be all alone in the box, and I just shot the ball the other way,” said Heimerdinger, whose club was without all-state candidate Elliot Borge (recruiting trip).
Despite their bright start, things turned dark for Lyons (1-1-2) due to midfield problems probably partially caused by Borge’s absence. That helped St. Viator (1-1-2) slowly grab back the run of play, leading to strikes from Ashwin Cornelius and Spencer Moore three minutes apart.
The visitors were too loose in their own end and allowed Cornelius to sidestep his mark in close before firing past Lyons keeper Max Hadley at 17 minutes.
After McGrath turned away a corner from the far flag by Frankie Kocimski, the hosts raced forward in the counter-attack, and after a neat interchange with Troy Wheeler out of the back, Moore raced up the right side, sprinting clear of the Lyons backline and rattling his shot off the back post and into the back of the net to give St. Viator its lead.
“Elliot is such a big part of this team, and we struggled at times without him, but I thought the boys rallied in the second half after we challenged them to play with more urgency and heart, and I really feel that after the break, we possessed better and maybe won back the run of play,” said Lyons coach Paul Labbato, who led the program to a 3A state title in 2009.
Lyons’ persistence paid off at the hour mark when Spiro Kass slid a wonderful ball through to teammate Spencer Hagan, and the senior got past McGrath to tie it up.
McGrath stopped a blast from David Reed at 65 minutes to help keep things even, and later on, Cornelius took a ball from Moore, but his short-range shot sailed over the bar.
“We’re getting a little better with each game, but we still have to work hard at getting things cleaned up in the back,” said Wheeler.
Both sides open play in the Pepsi Showdown on Tuesday, with St. Viator hosting West Chicago at 4:30 and Lyons, the No. 3 seed, hostting Streamwood at 4:45 p.m.