Boys soccer: St. Viator tops Notre Dame, extends winning trend
St. Viator's boys soccer team stayed on course for a third consecutive victory by defeating Notre Dame 2-1 Wednesday afternoon in an East Suburban Catholic contest played at the Lions' home park in Arlington Heights.
After a rather slow start to the season, the Lions have slowly worked themselves back to .500 at 5-5-1 overall (and 2-0-0 in the ESCC) following a league win over St. Patrick and a 1-0 triumph against Metea Valley in the club's final match at the PepsiCo Showdown.
"It's really been a work in progress for our team this season," said St. Viator's Sean Lonigro, who missed some time early on after suffering a fractured sinus cavity. "Even today, we came out so slow and flat, but we found ourselves in time to get the win. "It was hard to sit and watch while on the bench with that injury, but I am happy to be back and helping my team right now."
Lonigro and back-line mate Kyle Borst managed things well in front of David Petrovich.
It took the home side just 11 minutes to grab the advantage, but only after the Dons had a chance in the opening moments to put one into the back of the net.
"It's too bad we didn't get that one right at the start - maybe it swings the momentum our way a little bit and it's a different result, said Dons coach Mike Smith. "But we didn't, and that's the way this sport can go sometimes."
The Lions faithful held their collective breath when Kevin Kaspryzk's long throw from the near side sailed to the far post and hit the ground untouched on the first exhange for the visitors after the opening whistle.
St. Viator's Jack Morchiori ran onto a Zaul Perez inward swinging corner in the 11th minute to punish the visitors for their inability to clear the area after two long throws by Borst.
When it appeared the Dons (5-5-1, 1-2-0) might be in trouble after the Morchiori goal, they fired back to get even at 16 minutes on the first varsity goal of his career by David Mikolajczyk, with sophomore Christian Quiroz getting the helper on the equalizer.
"I couldn't fault the effort or work rate from the boys today, and even though we took a step back and struggled a little bit after (St. Viator) went ahead, I thought we came back and played hard in the second half," said Smith.
On some terrific individual effort and persistent work from Alberto Kovacevic, the Lions took the lead for good in the 24th minute when the big striker took on and beat two Dons down the left side before firing the eventual game-winner into the far right inside netting.
The Dons lost their top attacker, Nick Feeney, to an apparent knee injury in the 35th minute. But the dangerous striker returned after intermission, and his presence kept Lonigro and his teammates wary of his potential scoring skills.
Feeney's well struck free kick bent over the wall and forced Petrovich into action. And on the ensuing corner, Perez parried the ball off the line to end any chances for the Dons to get even.
"We possessed much better in the second half, and had some good combination work also, and I really believe we're getting better as a team each time out," said Lonigro.
The Lions are on the road Saturday at Marian Catholic, then meet Marist in another ESCC contest before facing 2015 conference co-champ Carmel.