Boys soccer: Resilient Wheeling battles past St. Patrick
Wheeling's boys soccer team fought back from deficits twice to earn a hard-fought 5-3 win over a feisty St. Patrick club Wednesday afternoon in a second-round contest in the Titan Invitational at Glenbrook South.
"I am real proud of how we came back from our loss here yesterday to get a win to help keep our chances alive of winning our pool and advancing into the final this Saturday," said Wheeling coach Kevin Lennon, whose team dropped a 1-0 decision to Francis Parker of Chicago on Tuesday.
"Parker and St. Patrick are two real good teams from Chicago," Lennon said. "Each of them play hard and gave us a lot of trouble. But if we had finished our chances in our first-rounder, we would be in a little better shape right now."
The reigning MSL champs found themselves chasing a young and talented Shamrocks club early on when Joshua Torres opened the scoring in the sixth minute by chipping keeper Jonathan Ayala from in close.
Jared Urueta pulled the Wildcats (3-1-0) level three minutes later with a cool, calm finish of a Phil Bucko helper.
With the Wildcats' defense struggling to keeping sophs Aaron Moreno-Lopez, Luis Saucedo and Torres under wraps, the Shamrocks (3-2-0) took back the lead on a header from in close by Herbert Carrera.
"We're giving up too many goals right now, and we'll have to get better at that, as well as being a better defensive team all the way around," said Wheeling senior David Soto, an all-area selection last season.
Robert Cruz's defense-splitting pass put Jason Rivas in on St. Patrick keeper Christopher Troyke to bring Wheeling even in the 15th minute.
Jose Mariscal, who bagged 3 goals last week against Cary-Grove, drove in the Wildcats' third of the day just moments into the second period, and when Bucko made it 4-2 seven minutes later after Urueta and Cruz helped set him up, Lennon's team finally had some room to breathe.
"Phil is one of those great stories - he played on the freshman B team, never complained about being there, and just worked and worked until he finally made it onto our varsity roster, and he's been a terrific addition to this team," said Lennon.
The senior had a hand in the last goal of the day when he connected with Vicente Castro, who was brought down inside the box with six minutes remaining in regulation and converted his spot kick.
Pool play will end for Wheeling on Thursday when it meets Stevenson at 5:45 p.m.
"We've got to win tomorrow and hope we get some help along the way, then see what happens," said Lennon.
St. Patrick will perhaps have something to say about the final standings in this Gold Division when it finishes up against Francis Parker, a team it defeated earlier in the season 2-1.