Carmel 5, St. Viator 1

St. Viator got Carmel Catholic nervous and off stride for the first 15 minutes of Wednesday's East Suburban Catholic Conference soccer showdown.

The Lions had a one-goal advantage and were playing their best soccer.

But the Corsairs woke up and realized what was at stake -- the ESCC title.

It helped, too, that Sara Petermann took over. She scored 4 goals -- giving her 29 on the season -- and added an assist to lead Carmel to a 5-1 win in Arlington Heights.

The win improved the Corsairs' record to 17-1 and gave them an undefeated record in the conference at 9-0.

"When you run through a conference of this quality and win it outright," Carmel coach John Halloran said, "it's an accomplishment and a credit to our girls with all the work they put in.

"We created chances and took care of enough. I was a little disappointed how we came out in the first 15 minutes. Maybe we were scared and lacked some composure."

St. Viator (14-7, 6-2) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute, when Sam Gavin sent a ball into the middle of the box. The ball went off a Carmel defender and into the goal.

"We played well for the first 15 minutes," St. Viator coach Sam Donnelly said. "I thought we played great and Carmel looked like they were worried. Then we had mistakes and everything went to pieces."

Carmel came to life in the 15th minute. Petermann took advantage of the Lions not having their wall set up well on a free kick and knocked in the tying goal.

"The wall was set near post and the keeper was far post," Petermann said. "I just put it near post where the keeper wasn't. I curved it with my left foot around the wall."

Petermann netted the go-ahead goal in the 35th minute. Liz Perrenot had a long service to Kassidy Brown, who sent the ball to Petermann, who finished the scoring chance.

"I just made a chest trap and gave it to Sara," Brown said. "The pass was just perfect from Liz. I remember saying, 'Sara, go to it.' Sara, of course, finished beautifully."

Petermann got her hat-trick goal in the final minute of the first half, scoring off a Stephanie Swanson cross.

The Corsairs added two second-half goals. Petermann finished a Maddie Ogrinc pass in the 49th minute. Ogrinc headed in Petermann's corner kick in the 62nd minute.