St. Charles East comes alive in second half

Jared Brown, Evan DiLeonardi, Mitchell Dorsey, Zach Manibog, Christian Memije, Jordan Moore, Taylor Ortiz, Tyler Robbins and Collin Sheehan all sent shots for St. Charles East in the vicinity of Glenbard North keeper Nathan Challus during the first half of Saturday's St. Charles East Invite championship at Norris Stadium.

Still, the Saints only had a 1-1 tie to show for its aggressive attacking as they headed into halftime.

They hit the crossbar and the posts. They barely misfired too high, wide left, just a bit right, or were denied by defenders that stepped into their shot's path or by Challus.

Then in the second half they hit the back of the net. And they did it again and again.

St. Charles East (11-1-1) put on an impressive offensive show, scoring 4 goals in a stretch of just under 7 minutes. They added another goal for good measure in a 6-1 victory.

"It was an excellent job by the full squad," Saints coach Paul Jennison said. "I was very impressed with how the lads answered the challenge. They had both patience and discipline today and it was an excellent job to finish the tournament with a result like that."

Jennison wasn't surprised to see the Saints finally finish several of their opportunities, especially after coming so close on numerous occasions in the first half.

"We came out with a strong attack and had intensity from the start," he said. "I had been asking them for a response like this and they put the ball on the Glenbard North defense."

Manibog's rebound shot caromed off the far post and trickled into the net with 27:23 remaining to give the Saints a 2-1 lead. It was the fourth time in the game that the Saints hit a post.

"That was pretty crazy hitting the post like we did and being so close," Manibog said. "Once we got that one we started putting a bunch away."

Manibog may have triggered the fun run, but he was far from the only Saint enjoying the day.

DiLeonardi used a header to redirect a free kick from Robbins for a 3-1 lead with 24:40 left.

"I've been slumping with header goals this year so I'm trying to be more aggressive," DiLeonardi said. "Once we got a couple goals there it opened the floodgates."

Zachary Newman scored off a Brown cross, Dorsey took a long feed from DiLeonardi and dribbled a bit before scoring and Sheehan became the sixth different Saint to score with 14:58 remaining.

"It's a lot of fun to get up like that on a good team," DiLeonardi said. "The past three games we had been struggling with scoring so to get it going like that was big for us."

Glenbard North (7-3-2) scored its lone goal midway through the first half when Saints keeper Steve Owens wandered too far and Livre Emena took advantage of the empty net. It was one of the few chances the Panthers had. Mahmood Akif, Mitchell Botchev and Danny Koeller had others.

The Saints got their first half goal after Challus upended a charging Ortiz. Moore converted the PK with 29:36 on the clock.