Everything's falling into place for Carmel

Carmel Catholic's boys soccer has found its game.

Which seemingly was only a matter of time.

The Corsairs notched their third win in a row Tuesday, defeating host Stevenson 3-1 at the Vernon Hills Athletic Center.

Carmel (4-3) has also posted quality wins recently over Mundelein and Glenbrook North, after starting the season with three losses in its first four games.

"It's been a good run," Corsairs coach John Halloran said. "It's been impressive. Those aren't any powder puff teams."

Carmel struggled in losses to Lake Zurich, Dundee-Crown and Waukegan.

"We tweaked things a bit, but 90 percent of it was all mental," Halloran said. "We had a lot coming back from last year and the year before. The kids have been successful coming all the way through and we had a great summer. The kids didn't realize it wasn't summer anymore, and they needed to step things up."

Carmel jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half against Stevenson (3-2-1).

Justin Gibbons knocked in the first goal, heading in Jack Stefanski's corner kick at the first quarter hour.

"I was just waiting there after making a run at the back post and put it in over the keeper," said Gibbons, whose goal was his first this season. "My job was to go to the back post and wait for anything to come through. The ball came to me after a couple of bounces."

Aaron Ogunro scored the second Corsairs goal off a Jimmy Ryan drop pass in the 28th minute.

Ryan tallied the third goal in the 64th minute off a pass from Gibbons, making the score 3-0.

"We're working on all cylinders up top right now," Ryan said. "Our counter-attacks are working real well for us. It's just a lot more fun to win."

Stevenson spoiled the shutout bid with a goal in the final seconds. Avery Rosenbloom scored off a through ball from Ryan Crane.

The Patriots are trying to get themselves set up for the rugged North Suburban Lake Division and are still trying to put all the pieces together.

"We're still searching for ourselves right now," Stevenson coach Mark Schartner said. "It's going to take some time. We do have problems with counterattack goals. Other than that, I thought we were solid and had great control of the ball.

"We do a number of new players in the back," Schartner added. "We've played some good defensive games. We should be all right."