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Carmel manages to edge Nazareth

Trying hard to recover from a 1-goal loss on Monday to Benet Academy, Carmel got what it needed.

Barely.

The Corsairs managed to get past visiting Nazareth 3-2 in another East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Mundelein on Wednesday afternoon.

The Corsairs didn’t get the same effort as they’d had earlier in the week according to coach John Halloran.

“Our guys didn’t play with any energy or focus,” said Halloran, whose team improved to (5-3-2, 2-1). “I thought we wasted a lot of chances in front of the net. We didn’t have the killer instinct. We weren’t ready to go mentally and we weren’t ready to battle for 80 minutes.”

Nazareth (5-5-2, 0-2) though came out stronger than expected and got the opening goal from Phil Lombardo in the 27th minute.

“You can’t give up the first goal to a team like Nazareth,” said Halloran. “It would make their season if they beat us. I told the guys, ‘The more chances you miss, they are wasteful and it keeps (Nazareth) in the game.’

“If we were playing better and the effort was there, then it would be different. A second-rate effort isn’t acceptable.”

Carmel did respond with a pair of goals after falling behind.

The Corsairs’ Adam Cloe finished a one-time kick near the back post off a pass from Ian Heinrich in the 27th minute.

Christain Avalos scored five minutes later following a nice drop-off from Mike Scheer.

Ian Heinrich added one more goal on a header, which came following a corner kick from Cloe in the 54th minute for a 3-1 Carmel advantage.

“We didn’t come out here ready to play,” Ian Heinrich said. “We should’ve dominated (Nazareth) and needed to finish our chances. I don’t know how many shots we blatantly missed.

“We usually play to the level of our competition. We came out not prepared and got into a slump, and we never got out of it.”

Nazereth scored the final goal in the 72nd minute as John McLachlan connected on a header off a service from Lombardo.

The Roadrunners did have a couple of chances to tie in the final five minutes but came up short.

“(Carmel) is a good team year after year,” Nazareth coach Doug Hunt said. “(Carmel) controlled and dominated the ball. We did take some chances and made a couple of goals with what we had. We have a way of taking opportunities when they come to us.”