Savino's hat trick soaks Waubonsie Valley
Don't try and tell Fremd sophomore Lorenzo Savino that a constant rain through two games of soccer left Naperville Central's Memorial Stadium field in bad shape for soccer by the time the Vikings took on Waubonsie Valley.
In fact when Savino and his teammates took on the Warriors in the second game of Thursday's Best in the West Tournament action, the speedy forward wasted little time proving that the conditions suited him just fine. Savino scored on a nifty left-footed blast less than four minutes into the contest for a quick 1-0 lead for Fremd. It was the first of three tallies by Savino has he recorded his first varsity hat trick and powered the Vikings to a 3-0 defeat of the 2-2 Warriors.
"We were pumped up on the bus and coach told us to come out and warm up the way we wanted to play," said Savino, who has 5 goals on the year for Fremd (1-3-1). "We came out hard and it felt really good to get that first one right away."
Senior Robert Horwitz picked up the assist on the quick strike after setting up Savino on the right wing. The blast from the top of the box sailed just over the reach of Waubonsie goalkeeper Karim Aziz.
The Warriors picked up their play from there and led in shots on goal 5-4 at the half but still trailed 1-0 when Savino struck again early in the second half, this time off a feed from Matthew Mayer with 37:44 left in the second half.
Savino then finished off his hat trick and finished off Waubonsie Valley with a rebound score with 8:51 left on the clock.
"The second goal made us feel pretty good," Fremd coach and former Waubonsie Valley standout Steve Keller said. "But with such a young team you always worry they might come right back. The third one felt extremely good."
Waubonsie coach Angelo DiBernardo felt his squad played well at times but just couldn't afford to give up a pair of quick goals at the start of each half.
"When you play this type of competition in a tournament like this you just can't afford to put yourself behind the eight ball," he said. "After they scored the first goal and had a couple chances, I thought we picked it up and maybe even had the better of the play the rest of the half. But once they got that second goal in the second half we had some breakdowns."