Lake Park puts expert tips to use

When Lake Park’s boys soccer team had a special guest coach a couple of weeks ago, senior forward Joe Passarelli listened closely.

If former U.S. international Brian McBride shows up to offer a few pointers, a forward would be smart to pay attention. The rest of the team also.

On Tuesday in Roselle, McBride’s tips paid off for the Lancers in a 3-0 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division victory against Bartlett (6-7-1, 0-3-1).

“That was a great experience,” Passarelli said. “You don’t really (get a chance) to witness such a great talent like that. It was a lot of fun.”

McBride, now retired as a player and running camps for strikers, played high school soccer at Buffalo Grove for coach John Erfort, now a Lake Park assistant.

“When he came he just kind of taught us to be quick with the ball,” Passarelli said, “and when you get any kind of window just try to fire on the net. I feel like we’ve been going by that all season, really.”

The Lancers (11-4-1, 2-2) struck for their first goal in the 33rd minute when Passarelli collected the ball near midfield on a counterattack and dribbled toward goal down the left side. His cross found freshman forward Giovanni Ciaccio, who won the ball and put it into the net.

“Ciaccio was making a good run across the middle of the field, and I kind of got lucky with a little bit of a bounce over the keeper,” Passarelli said, “but I was just trying to make it a dangerous ball and Gio did a great job. He made a great finish.”

“It was great,” added Lancers defender Ryan Castello. “It picked us up. We love scoring the first goal. It picked up the tempo for us.”

Three minutes later it was Passarelli’s turn to score off an Oliver Huerta assist.

“The defense was a little slow to get to it, so I just tried to jump on it and cut it across and put it on my right foot, which isn’t my dominant foot,” Passarelli said. “But I just tried to give it a crack on the goal and it found the back of the net.”

“We’re still working through how we react,” Bartlett coach Ben Beary said. “When we get a goal down we become a different team. We didn’t have the leadership today that we needed, and I think that was one of the deciding factors. We’ve got to learn how to play down and how to pick it up when we’re down.”

Senior Tom LaFontaine scored the third goal in the 43rd minute, heading in a Huerta corner kick.

“They’re the kind of team that capitalizes on your mistakes, and we made three terrible mistakes and they capitalized on each one,” Beary added. “I thought we limited their chances pretty good in the second half except for the mistake, and it happens.”

Bartlett’s best scoring chance came in the third minute when Anthony DiNuzzo cracked a hard shot off the left post. It went out for a goal kick.

“We had chances,” Beary said. “All of our chances were off, all of their chances just happened to be on. That’s the way it goes.”

Senior goalkeeper Pasquale Giovine earned his eighth save with some late help from backup Marco Coria. It was a good pick-me-up for a team that hit a rough patch the past five games after a good start to the season.

“Our defense has picked it up the last two games and got two shutouts in a row,” Castello said. “We’re feeling good like we did in the beginning of the season.”

“We’ve won two straight now and we’re still trying to find our groove, but we’re going to hit our stride once the state tournament comes and we’ll be making some noise,” Passarelli added.