Boys soccer: Ehren, Carmel stay hot with win over Mundelein

The crosstown rival couldn't cool off Carmel Catholic's boys soccer team, which used a 4-goal outburst in the second half to beat visiting Mundelein 5-1 in a nonconference match Thursday.

Austin Ehren led the way with a pair of goals and a couple of assists. Henry Barnes, Ian McKernan and Rob Rao also scored for the Corsairs.

"It's a pretty good rivalry for us," Ehren said. "I've played soccer with some of these guys."

Carmel (14-2-1) is unbeaten in its last six games, going 5-0-1 and outscoring its opponents 29-3. The Corsairs are the No. 7 seed in the Class 3A Fremd sectional and open regional play by hosting No. 11 Fremd at 7 p.m. next Wednesday.

Carmel coach Ray Krawzak likes his team's ability to put the ball in the net.

"A lot of teams can't keep up with our offense," he said. "We've got so many different ways to attack you. We'll make it hard for anybody. If we can play defensively like we did against (Mundelein), we should be in really good shape against anybody in the regional."

Carmel has been playing without defender Brett Cloe, who's been sidelined with a knee and ankle injury. He could return for the postseason.

"It would be nice to have him back at 100 percent," Krawzak said. "But we did show that we are capable of defending against a good team like Mundelein."

Eli Larson, Spencer Rudolph, Michael Handel and Nate Passarelli led the Carmel defense.

"We're very organized and do a good job of communicating back there," Larson said. "We've improved a lot since our first game, when we had a lot of breakdowns. We haven't let in many goals throughout the season."

Carmel grabbed a 1-0 lead when Barnes deflected in a ball in the 32nd minute. Mundelein (8-6-3) got a goal from Cesar Ortega off an assist from George Gonzalez. The Mustangs drew the No. 8 seed and will play No. 10 Lake Zurich in the Libertyville regional at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday.

"I just have to do a better of preparing my team to compete," Mundelein coach Ernie Billittier said. "We've got a few days to get ready for Lake Zurich and be ready to go. It looked like one team was ready for the battle of Mundelein."