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Boys soccer: Palatine rallies for win at Lake Zurich

Assembling a complete game has been the issue for Palatine's boys soccer team throughout the season.

Judging from Saturday's result, the Pirates might be pulling things together at just the right time.

Palatine rallied with a couple of second-half goals to earn a come-from behind 3-2 victory over host Lake Zurich in a nonconference game on Saturday afternoon.

Will Riordan scored the game-winner for Palatine (9-7-1); Conor McGarvey and Chris Munoz had the other Pirates goals.

"We're not used to coming back in games this year," Palatine coach Willie Filian said. "We do have to get better defensively, too.

"It tells us that we can win games like this, but we still have a lot of things to work on. We had a mixed result, but we really played well together in some of the games. Defense, though, will win you games. Lake Zurich does have some talented kids over there."

Riordan scored his decisive goal in the 66th minute after taking a pass from James Hawran.

"On the goal, I had collected it near midfield," Riordan said. "There weren't a lot of defenders on the right side, so I decided to take a chance - and I really didn't think it had a chance to go in at first. But I think with the wind, I think the goalie didn't have a chance to get down for it."

About 10 minutes earlier, with Palatine trailing 2-1, the Pirates tied it up on a free kick by McGarvey from just outside the box.

Munoz opened the scoring with a header off a well-placed corner kick from Sebastian Fraczek in the 18th minute.

Lake Zurich (8-8-2) it at 1-1 in the 38th minute when Eric Bibb scored on a rebound.

The Bears took the lead at 2-1 in the 52nd minute. Lukas Pytlak sent a pass for Naqvi, who collected the ball up top, turned around and sent a kick into the corner netting.

Lake Zurich had several chances game's final stages but Palatine's defense held.

"We've been a little bit inconsistent - we're putting ourselves in a position to win, but then not finishing," Lake Zurich coach Michael Schmitz said. "We did give up a couple of odd goals which, unfortunately, cost us the game.

"We hit the post a few times and had some other opportunities that we couldn't finish. If we can just clean those things up, we do like where we're at. We had a good week as far as the level of play - just not sot so good with the results."

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