Douglas, St. Viator convert at Carmel

For St. Viator's girls soccer team, the season is a work in progress as a young group grows together.

The Lions showed Saturday it's possible to win while making that progress.

St. Viator improved to 5-3 overall and 3-0 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference by topping host Carmel 2-1 on Saturday morning in Mundelein.

Delia Douglas had both goals on rebound opportunities for the Lions as Carmel dropped to 4-3-2 and 1-1-1.

"The key thing was that we controlled the ballgame," St. Viator coach Mike Taylor said. "We just got tired toward the end, and it showed a bit. I thought we played a good game against a good team. We're young - I only have three seniors. I start a freshman, a bunch of sophomores and juniors.

"We're going to make some silly mistakes. We're growing as a team, and that's all I ask for."

St. Viator took advantage of what was given to them in the final third of the field for most of the match.

"For the first three-quarters of that game, we controlled the game," Taylor said. "We knocked the ball side-to-side to get in. But we've got to sharpen our striker runs. We know that we can pick up the garbage goals."

Douglas netted her first goal in the seventh minute and her second in the 52nd minute.

"Megan (McCollum) and Lauren (Kohn) had some pretty good shots," Douglas said. "They were some hard shots. I was just there for the rebounds. We do that in practice, making those runs. I was reading the goalie and where the shots were coming from."

Carmel Catholic got a goal back late in the 78th minute when Sarah Bowles scored on a header from Kayla Handel's corner kick.

The Corsairs, however, have plenty of work to do as they try to assemble a complete game.

"Obviously, St, Viator was a good team, and they gave us a good game," Carmel Catholic coach John Halloran said. "I don't want to take anything away from them. We just didn't show up."

The Corsairs started finding their rhythm around the 60-minute mark, and they played much better the rest of the way.

"We're still making the same mistakes going back to first week," Halloran said. "You can't do that going into the middle part of the season. We're still making them and you just can't do that. You have to be improving - and we're struggling."