Boys soccer: St. Viator wins a tough one against St. Patrick
Mike Taylor leaned backward, threw a glance to the dark skies around above him and wore the expression of a man who had just been told the last bus home had been cancelled.
"It was ugly out there today," said Taylor, St. Viator's boys soccer coach, "but we still won an ugly soccer game, and on a day I thought maybe we should not have played because of the extreme heat and humidity."
Taylor's team from St. Viator won its East Suburban Catholic Conference opener 2-1 Wednesday afternoon in Arlington Heights over a young club from St. Patrick, which played a man down for the final half-hour in a match which featured three red cards and a handful of yellow-card bookings as well.
"Pat's has a very talented ball club and certainly gave us trouble at times," said Taylor. "But as you can see, we're missing leadership right now. We need a player like Miles (McDonnell, now playing at Loras University) to take over a role we so desperately need."
Taylor saw his club go a man down at 68 minutes after an altercation led to the Shamrocks (5-1-0, 0-1-0) losing a second player during this brief loss of composure by both players.
Way back in the first minute, Zaul Perez put the Lions on the scoreboard when he neatly finished a nifty flick from Jack Hartman, who redirected a Kyle Borst long throw.
"It seemed so long ago that I was in the right place at the right time to put that one into the back of the net," said Perez, a sophomore midfielder. "After that, we struggled to find our game and had to really fight to get a win - which we really needed to have after such a poor performance last Saturday against Marquette (University High of Milwaukee).
The Lions (2-3-0, 1-0-0) never were in that game against Marquette, which ended 4-0 in favor of one of the top clubs in the Midwest. The score was especially disappointing to Perez and his teammates following a strong effort the night before against another highly rated side, Chaminade, Mo.
"We played so much better last Friday, even though we lost 1-0," Perez said. "But that's been our problem so far - we just are not consistent enough with our play. But once we are, I really feel we'll be a much better team down the road."
Although Perez is likely correct in his assessment of the Lions' play thus far, some credit for Wednesday had to go to the visiting Shamrocks. Despite starting four freshmen and one sophomore, St. Pat had its moments, especially in generating offensive pressure.
The attacking prowess of the frosh trio of Aaron Moreno, Luis Saucedo and Bash Modrzejewski was clear, especially as sophomore Herbert Carrera's left-footed snap-shot found the upper right corner from just inside the box. The 26th-minute equalizer revved up the visitors' attack, and if not for a confident save from Lions keeper David Petrovich on a well-paced 40-yard free kick by freshman Jonathan Rodriguez, the Shamrocks could have gone into the break with a 1-goal advantage.
Just nine minutes into the second period, the Shamrocks' bench howled in disapproval of the center referee's decision to send defender Erik Jachym off when the official felt his tackle as the last man warranted a red card. And when the Shamrocks' coach protested loudly and for too long, he was red-carded as well.
"It was a tough call, but I felt the correct one," Taylor said.
With a light rain beginning to fall, Mark Young put teammate Nicholas Guttuso up the center channel, and after outracing the Shamrocks' back line, the senior sent the eventual game-winner past a diving Chris Troyke.
"If we can get a few players back and finally get healthy, I still feel we can get ourselves back to where I know we can be and have a solid team that can compete," said Taylor.