Boys soccer: Carmel makes winning adjustment vs. Plainfield North

Over the last week, Carmel Catholic's boys soccer team has made several adjustments.

The most recent one helped the Corsairs win their second straight game in the PepsiCo Showdown tournament.

Robert Rao converted the winning goal with the help of Austin Ehren as second-seeded Carmel Catholic shut out visiting Plainfield North, the seventh seed, 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the Gatorade bracket in Mundelein on Tuesday afternoon.

The Corsairs (5-3-1) next host (3) Crystal Lake South (7-2-1) in the semifinals on Thursday. Crystal South also had a shutout, over Chicago Washington, 4-0 on Tuesday night.

"I do feel good about reaching the semifinals," Carmel Catholic coach Ray Krawzak said. "I thought we made some improvements with the system we played. We were rewarded with a lot of chances and we could've had more goals."

Carmel Catholic was playing a school it doesn't normally see. The Tigers made a 90-minute bus ride up to Mundelein for the meeting.

"Playing Plainfield North, they were a good opponent for this time of the season," Krawzak said. "They were good enough where we were able to try a system to play against a good opponent and watch them succeed. I thought (Plainfield North was) good - but we were more prepared.

The Corsairs had several scoring chances in the first half but were unable to find the back of the net as Plainfield North keeper Cade Fink made five outstanding stops. He finished with 10 saves.

Carmel finally broke through in the 49th minute as Ehren's speed caused havoc in the final third of the field. He send a cross from one side to the far post; Rao ran on to the ball and delivered the game-winner.

"(Ehren) definitely saw something," said Rao, who has 7 goals this season. "Making the run, I saw that he was going to put the ball in. I just made a back-post run and made it all the way over to get it. (Ehren) has the ability to beat players using his speed - it's just insane."

Corsairs keeper Kyle Knauer earned a clean sheet with 5 saves.

Plainfield North had at least six players out due to either injury or illness, according to coach Steve Berry.

"Coming in, we knew that we would have a tough game," Berry said. "We knew that (Ehren) would make it tough on our back line if we gave him space. We also had players out and we had to piece things together."