Gooooooal: 2 out 3 works for St. Viator

St. Viator's boys soccer team set forth team goals at the start of the season, and the Lions still had hopes of reach them Wednesday ight.

First was wanting to win an East Suburban Catholic League championship.

Second was going unbeaten, and third was not giving up a goal throughout the conference.

It turns out two out of three isn't all bad for St. Viator, which earned a 2-1 victory over host Carmel Catholic on Wednesday afternoon in Mundelein.

The Lions (17-0-3) went unbeaten in the ESCC with a 9-0 mark and allowed just 1 goal over the nine games. Keeper Jonathan Harris made 4 saves and has allowed just 9 goals in 20 games.

Carmel dropped to 7-2 and an overall mark of 14-5-2

"We really didn't play well, but maybe (Carmel) didn't let us play well," St. Viator coach Mike Taylor said. "Once we got a goal, the boys stepped up. I think we worried about the game too much. We were worried too much about losing.

"Carmel has a good team and that's we came to play the game and worked hard for it."

St. Viator's Ryan Cortese, standing at 6-foot-3, started the ball rolling in favor of the Lions thanks to some extra effort.

"We didn't come out working very hard," said Cortese, a senior forward. "Things weren't working to well up top. Once I got back in, things just started to click. It really got the motivation going for the team."

Cortese was on the receiving end of a corner kick and knocked the Lions in front at the half-hour mark.

"We've been practicing that a lot with me coming out of the corner," Cortese added. "Victor (Mendoza) gave me a great ball and I was there for it. Those corner goals are fun to hit. They like to find me because I'm the target man."

St. Viator's Petar Milanovich added another goal in the 59th minute. After taking a long ball from Trevor Wheeler, Milanovich then beat two Carmel defenders and placed it into the far corner.

"(St. Viator) is so well-skilled up top," said Scott Bierman, Carmel senior defender. "They do a nice job in the air and placed a nice ball in the corner.

"Our defense has played well all year and we've had a few breakdowns. Overall, we've been solid all year."

Carmel's Colin O'Malley made the score 2-1 after taking a pass from John Zeffery in the 65th minute of play, but the Corsairs couldn't find the tying goal.

"I thought we played hard and made a couple of mistakes," Carmel coach John Halloran said. "We haven't given up a corner kick goal in 21 games. On one hand, it's good -- on the other hand, you hate to give one up. We've been solid up in the air.

"Losing a game like this is like losing in the playoffs. We can learn from this and win four to five games in the playoffs. You just hate to lose a game to a rival like St. Viator."

Hoffman 3, Meadows 1: The Hawks spread out their offense against Meadows with first-half goals by Salin Golotic off Brad Powszo's assist and Luis Lara off Reona Oishi's assist in the Mid-Suburban League crossover.

Freshman Sishuh Zerihun sent a pass to Brian Neu, who scored the Hawks final goal.

Palatine 5, Wheeling 2: Leo Elizalde's scored 2 goals for the Wildcats (12-1, 6-5) but it wasn't enough to make up for the Pirates attack. Goalie Ricardo Ballesteros kept Wheeling in the game with 9 saves in the MSL crossover.