Boys soccer: Kelly, Benet celebrate ESCC repeat
Senior Ben Kelly inspired Benet Academy on Friday afternoon in Lisle as the Redwings put the finishing touches on a second straight East Suburban Catholic Conference boys soccer championship with a 5-1 victory over St. Viator.
Benet scored twice in the first period, then got three more after intermission to run its conference record to a perfect 9-0-0 and improve to 15-1-2 overall. The result dashed the hopes of both St. Viator (9-8-1, 7-2-0) and Carmel, who'd harbored hopes of forcing a three-way tie for the league title.
"(St. Viator) put us under with so many deep throws and corners in the first 20 minutes or so, but getting the first goal, then another to build a 2-0 lead going into the break was exactly what we needed," said Kelly.
St. Viator coach Mike Taylor just wished some of that early pressure led to results favorable to the Lions.
"We created so many chances, especially in the first half with all of those throw-ins and corners we generated," Taylor said. "But today is the way our season has gone, and we just didn't finish any of those chances. In a game like this, it might have turned things around in our favor in the end."
Long-throw specialist Kyle Borst had the wind at his back and a bright sun shining in the eyes of Redwings keeper Caden Martin. So it seemed only a matter of time before the visitors would score.
"Our back line did a good job of weathering that first-half storm, which we knew could happen because of No. 13 (Borst) and that's the reason we had Caden in there today," said Benet coach Sean Wesley. "He showed he could handle the pressure of all those balls dropping into our box.".
Still, it was the Redwings striking first as a wicked blast from Connor Mote was turned away brilliantly by David Petrovich but the rebound spilled to Kelly, who finished the chance at 10 minutes.
Just afterward, Martin confidently came off his line to punch away a 40-yard free kick from Tom Scully. And moments after that, a Borst throw was redirected off a Benet player before grazing the bar on a near miss.
Petrovich was once again forced into action when he turned a Franklin Rutkowski attempt up and off the bar, but the ever-present Kelly was there again to finish in the 38th minute.
Just seconds before intermission, Martin came to the Redwings' rescue again by denying Nicholas Guttoso on an attempt from the spot.
"We gave up two soft goals, and could have put a couple in ourselves," said Taylor. "But credit Benet - they took advantage of of their chances, and we didn't."
On the occasions when the Lions struggled to get out of their own end, the Redwings made them pay, scoring 3 goals in 16 minutes to break open this regular-season finale for both clubs.
Junior Collin Dannheim claimed the next two goals for Benet, his first coming just two minutes after he was brought on. The second, in the 61st minute, was made possible by some terrific work by Bennett Curtis, who'd beaten the Lions' trap with a lovely diagonal helper.
Sophomore CJ Warren claimed the fifth Redwings goal in the 68th minute, and Jack Marchiori helped the Lions avert a shutout at 73 minutes.
"After our loss to Fremd in the second game of the year, it's been all good since then," said Kelly. "All of us have been focused on getting this conference title, and just improving our play and building our confidence heading into the playoffs."
Benet was anointed the No. 1 seed in the Class 2A St. Francis sectional and will open regional play next week against either Plano or Sandwich. The Lions begin against No. 6 seed Mundelein on Tuesday at the Lake Forest regional in Class 3A play.