St. Viator strikes late to edge Carmel

St. Viator’s boys soccer team scored late — twice — and edged host Carmel Catholic 2-1 in Mundelein on Tuesday.

Jackson Owens and Nick Winter came up with the clutch goals for St. Viator, which improved to 8-1-2 and 3-0 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, despite playing short-handed.

The Lions were without talented senior midfielder Ashwin Cornelius for the first time and needed to make adjustments. Cornelius injured his knee Saturday in St. Viator’s Pepsi Showdown semifinal loss to Lyons.

Cornelius found out Monday that he injured his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. It was also discovered that he has bone chips in the knee. He will miss the rest of the season.

“Ashwin dictated what happened in the midfield,” St. Viator coach Mike Taylor said. “Now we have to come up with a new identity. He was our general manager in the middle and he was our field marshal.”

Carmel (5-4-1, 2-1) grabbed a 1-0 lead when Adam Cloe scored off a Michael Sheer assist in the 28th minute.

St. Viator made some adjustments in the final 10 minutes of the second half to make its comeback possible.

“The first half, we gave away the ball so much,” Taylor said. “We were totally out of sync. It might take us a couple of games to get used to not playing with Ashwin anymore.

“The second half, we played and started to connect. We moved some people around. We’re just looking for the best 11 people out there.”

Carmel keeper Michael Zucco helped Carmel retain its slim lead, as he made all 5 of his saves in the second half.

“Their goalkeeper made some nice stops back there,” Taylor said.

St. Viator finally broke through in the 75th minute, as Owens scored off a rebound after Winter’s initial shot.

Winter then scored the game-winning goal on a one-timer a minute later, after the ball was deflected off a Corsairs defender.

“I saw the ball go up in the air and the defenders all skid, so I went behind and was right there to put it in,” said Winters, whose 6 goals also include one-timers against Lake Zurich and Nazareth. “That’s something I didn’t want to mess around with it. That’s why I one-timed the ball and hoped it would go in.”

The comebacker spoiled Ray Krawzak’s first game coaching against his old coach. Carmel’s first-year coach graduated from St. Viator in 2004 after playing three varsity seasons for Taylor.

“I thought we had it,” Krawzak said. “You can’t let St. Viator pressure you down the stretch. We were put under pressure too many times. The best thing about all of this is that our guys believe that they can play with anybody.”