Carmel's comeback sinks St. Viator
Carmel sent St. Viator's boys soccer team to a fifth consecutive loss to open the season Wednesday afternoon when Austin Ehren stunned the Lions with his game-winning strike two minutes into overtime.
The Corsairs came all the way back from a 2-goal deficit to draw even seven minutes from time before defeating their long-time East Suburban Catholic Conference rival 3-2 in Arlington Heights in a league opener for both teams.
"In all the years I've been coaching here, I have never had a team which has opened the season 0-5-0 until today - and right now, we're not a very good ball club," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor, now in
his 36th season in charge. "We've given up four PK's in five games, and 18 goals. There's been entire years when we've gone the entire soccer season without giving up 18 goals.
"We're just not very good right now."
Former St. Viator star Ray Krawzak, now head coach for the Corsairs (3-2-1, 1-0-0), could not have received a better birthday present than the one his players gave him, particularly when things looked grim for Carmel after St. Viator's Miles McDonnell thumped his header in off an Anthony Pineda corner to give the Lions a 2-0 advantage in the 55th minute.
"Two-goal leads are the toughest to protect, but once we got that first one, our confidence began to build, and the momentum in this game started to swing in our favor," said Carmel senior Ryan McKernan, who pulled one back in the 70th minute.
Ehren said confidence was a key for the Corsairs.
"We were keeping St. Viator under, so I think a lot of us felt like a goal or two would come, but we just couldn't get one in on them until Ryan did, and then things really opened up for us," said Ehren.
On the decisive goal, Ehren latched onto a ball out of the back, then roared up the left side before dribbling a pair of defenders and finally finding the far inside net with a sublime touch past keeper Kevin Napoleon.
The Corsairs were guilty of some sloppy work in their own end on a long throw from Kevin Borst, which resulted in Jonathon Moyo driving in his close-range shot to get the Lions off and running in the 10th minute.
Braco Lasso helped key Carmel's comeback by converting his spot kick in the 73rd minute after Josh Grzesiak, who enjoyed a terrific second half of play in the middle of the park, was hauled down inside the box and drew the penalty.
"This is the second time we've given away a 2-0 lead late in the game, which resulted in a 3-2 loss. So we're obviously not able to manage a ball game right now also," Taylor said.
The Lions move on to the PepsiCo Showdown this weekend in LaGrange, were they will play Washington of the Chicago Public League on Saturday after hosting Nazareth in another ESCC contest Friday.
Next up for Carmel is a nonconference game against visiting Lake Forest Academy at 4:30 p.m. Thurdsay.