Boys soccer: St. Charles East blanks Larkin
It's Homecoming Week at St. Charles East and the Saints used the comforts of home on Tuesday to enjoy their best effort of the young season, shutting out Larkin, 3-0, in the Upstate Eight River boys soccer opener for both teams.
Senior Mitchell Dorsey and juniors Justin Stepien and Mitchell Lucatorto scored as the Saints controlled possession for most of the game.
"It was nice to see us put our stamp on the game," Saints coach Paul Jennison said. "The last three games we've been disjointed in connecting passes and our turnover-to-completion ratio was pretty poor to anyone's standards, so it was nice to see the group put together a good 60 to 70 minutes (on Tuesday)."
Dorsey put the Saints ahead early in the first half, but the Saints weren't able build their lead before the break. Dylan Tricka had a nice effort in the final two minutes, but keeper Eleno Montes batted it away.
Ricky Nava had one of the Royals' better chances in the first half, but his free kick was gobbled up by Saints keeper Steven Owens.
St. Charles East (2-3-1, 1-0-0) extended its lead midway through the second half as senior Evan DiLeonardi lofted a perfect feed to Stepien down the center of the field. Stepien gained possession at the top of the penalty box and knocked it in with 20:39 remaining.
"I kind of a saw a little gap and we needed to get him some confidence because he hadn't scored in a few games," DiLeonardi said. "We played quicker (in the second half). We just took our touches, trusted each other more and tried to have fun and let the game flow."
Larkin (3-3-2, 0-1-0) spent the majority of the game chasing and defending. The Royals didn't seriously threaten offensively in the second half about 12 minutes remained with Abel Saenz, Bryan Dominguez and Nava challenging the St. Charles East back line and Owens.
"We seemed flat today," Larkin coach Ken Hall said. "We did not move and we didn't defend well. There wasn't a lot of positives from the game today."
Prior to Tuesday, Hall had been pleased with how his young squad had played.
"We've got a very young team of 10 freshmen and sophomores and our forte has been possession and we didn't possess today, which kind of bothered me," Hall said. "I was happy with how we played in our first 7 games, but today was a bad game and we just have to move on from it."
The Saints completed their scoring with 5:42 remaining as the 6-foot-2 Lucatorto used his size to rise and knock in a header off a corner kick from senior Gustavo Mancera.
"Being back at home we looked a lot better and moved the ball much more efficiently then we had recently," Jennison said. "We're doing the right things and just trying to find consistency.
"When you find yourself lose 19 seniors from last year you have a new roster, but that's no excuse. We've had a high standard for a few years now and we're working toward it and I think the guys are buying into it."