Reddington's big finish lifts Conant past BG

Conant continued its perfect start to the Mid-Suburban League boys soccer campaign when a spectacular goal by Kevin Reddington completed a 3-2 comeback victory Thursday night at Buffalo Grove.

A resilient Conant (5-0-2, 2-0-0, 6 points) side absorbed plenty of pressure by the Bison (3-3-2, 1-1-0, 3 points), which played a terrific first half of soccer. They had the ball in the Cougars' end far more than they would have liked, only to see the match slip away in the 73rd minute.

"I knew it would be this type of match," said Conant coach Jason Franco. "Buffalo Grove has a great work rate and they really outworked us, and kept the pressure up the entire first-half.

"But this is the first time this season that we've been behind, and I have to say that I was proud of the guys and how they never gave up to get a very big win tonight."

The Cougars started bright enough, but quickly went into a free fall with the Bison midfield of Greg Betz, Markus Fiordaliso and Alex Hughes aggresively hounding their counterparts and mounting several sharp attacks in the opening quarter hour.

Sophomore Alex Maciopinto took advantage of some confusion in the Cougars end to find the back of the net at 11 minutes with teammate Guiseppe Bucaro doing plenty of the dirty work to help initiate the strike.

The early scares conjured up by the Bison helped spark the Cougars into action and just four minutes later. Reddington hit the equalizer near the spot when he finished a superb cross from the left side by Matt Manka.

Hughes would help pry open the Cougars defense inside the 18 with several well-aimed, long-range missiles off of the throw. However, the Bison were unable to drive any of a near dozen home during the match.

Maciopinto would give his club a 2-1 lead just after the half hour against the run of play when his 35-yard shot found its way into the back of the net.

"Coach (Franco) gave us a really good pep talk at the break and reminded us that we had to get after the (50-50) balls and to get our work rate up," said Reddington, who from start-to-finish was the Cougars man-of-the-match.

Just after Franco pushed another player forward to give his club three strikers, Shivam Patel would hit the right post, before Alex McKenna would draw the Cougars even when he thumped a header at the end of his center channel run, catching up to Dan Marrufo's serve from the left flank.

Reddington's game-winner was truly magnificent and helped validate his work on the night.

The senior would never stop running after a ball played back did not have enough pace on it to reach Bison keeper Nick Landsberger. In a sequence rarely seen, Landsberger's attempt to clear would ricochet off the onrushing Reddington before exploding into the net.

"You hope that something like that happens when you run hard at the keeper ... and it just went upper 90 for me," smiled Reddington.

"Yes, the guys are disappointed with the result," said BG coach Rick Schoffstall. "We played well in the first half, and probably could have finished on a few of our chances, but credit (Conant) with a great effort in the second-half to get a victory."

St. Viator 9, Notre Dame 0: St. Viator wasted little time in destruction of visiting Notre Dame by scoring 4 first-half goals en route to a 9-0 victory Thursday afternoon in the East Suburban Catholic Conference opener for both sides.

Senior Alan Aboona was the main culprit for the Lions (5-2-0, 1-0-0) with 2 goals and 2 assists. Teammate Kevin Cavers, making his first appearance of the season, added 2 goals against Notre Dame (4-2-1), which was coming off its championship last weekend at the North Shore Country Day tournament.

"This was a game that we were able to get a lot of players into the match, and especially Kevin (Cavers) who has been

out since the beginning and has been so anxious to get back out of the field," said Viator coach Mike Taylor.

Taylor had promised to spot Cavers here and there to help the talented midfielder gain back his fitness after suffereing a stress fracture to his shin during the off-season, and the senior made an immediate impression in the match when he was brought on at 10 minutes.

"It's good to have Kevin back," said Trevor Wheeler, who suggested his club is slowing rounding into form after its dismal 0-2 start. "You can still get a lot of value out of a game like this, and to especially be able to have everyone on our bench get some minutes."