Tres, St. Viator blank Antioch
St. Viator was seeded No. 5 in the Class 2A Grayslake Central sectional, but the Lions have played more like one of the top seeds.
They scored three times in the first half en route to a 3-0 shutout over top-seeded Antioch 3-0 in Grayslake on Wednesday night.
Aidan Williams scored twice and Zach Gyuricza had the other goal for Viator, while goalkeeper Aaron Tres had a clean sheet with 3 stops.
"We take whatever seed they give us," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor. "We just come to play the game. We have a group of kids that are jelling together and playing together. They play our system very well and are very discipline. We just want to go as far as we can."
The Lions (19-5-1) have played a schedule that has helped them for the postseason. They have played many Class 3A teams and even some nationally ranked teams outside of Illinois.
"We play a strong schedule to be ready for playoff time," Taylor said. "Any team we see isn't going to be stronger than any team we've seen on our schedule. That's why we play that strong schedule. We want to get the kids ready for the playoffs. Our kids were prepared and ready to play today."
St. Viator began its scoring within the first two minutes.
Williams scored on a header with the assist going to Chris Beiersdorf.
"I know I flicked it and I really didn't know that it went in," Williams said. "We've been working on them a lot in practice. In our program we've done that for a lot of years. They have a way of working. W execute and get it done."
Williams followed up with his 18th goal of the season in the 36th minute. It was set up by a Beiersdorf corner kick off that Romero flicked with his head to Williams.
The Lions added another goal just over a minute later.
Gyuricza redirected a ball near the back post that went off a Sequoits defender and into the back of the net for the 3-0 advantage.
Antioch (16-8) saw its season come to close a bit earlier than last year. The Sequoits were a game away from a trip to state with a loss in the supersectional.
Antioch had a number of chances against St. Viator.
"We've got to get one and we had five corner kicks," Antioch coach Marni Polakow said. "We gave ourselves a chance but didn't capitalize. We were pressing and pressing. If we didn't capitalize, I knew that we wouldn't win this game. Three (goals) down was too hard to come back. I thought we had a good season, but I thought we underachieved."
Iven Hernandez finished the season with 35 goals and 102 in his career.