Boys soccer: Perez, Stahl lead St. Viator's big comeback

Inspired by Zaul Perez and David Stahl, St. Viator erupted for 5 second-half goals to overtake and defeat visiting Crystal Lake Central in a nonconference boys soccer matchup Wednesday afternoon in Arlington Heights.

The victory for the Lions (2-1-0) comes as the club played its third soccer match in the three days after opening the season with a victory over Lisle and then falling on Tuesday to Lake Zurich 1-0.

"We could use the fact we've played three straight days as an excuse for our poor first half today, but it's not - we just didn't played well, and it showed with us giving up 3 goals," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor, now in his 39th year. "The guys were all over each other at the break, which seemed to bring them all together in the second half. And we showed with us playing at full strength we can be a dangerous team going forward."

It wasn't a pretty start for the home side, which conceded the opener at two minutes by Billy Cummings.

While the Lions successfully targeted Will Hartman up top, the Tigers (1-1-0) still doubled their advantage near the half-hour.

That's when Brandon Bruski, from a nearly impossible angle along the end line, made something out of nothing when he found a way to send his attempt off the post and over the line.

Brimming with confidence, the Tigers forced their hosts to absorb plenty of pressure. And they may have had another score if not for a block of a close-range shot by Patrick Hammarlund.

Moments later, Cummings was sent to the spot following a foul inside the box.

The junior converted his spot-kick at 36 minutes to send the visitors into intermission with what looked like an insurmountable 3-goal advantage.

"We just didn't play well in that first half. (Crystal Lake Central) was winning just about every 50-50 ball, and we really do anything at all," said Hammarlund, whose move into a defensive midfielder role in the Lions' 3-5-2 second-half formation was key, according to Taylor.

Zaul Perez scored for St. Viator in the 54th minute, with the helper coming from Stahl. Two minutes later, the senior drew his mates closer when he had enough time to tee up his 25-yard blast into the upper right corner.

St. Viator drew even when Christian Evans' free kick spilled freely off the bar to an opportunisitc Stahl.

Stahl ran onto a long throw by Perez and fired his one-timer in from inside the box to cap the Lions' fourth goal in 11 minutes, and Hartman finished the scoring with a goal at 73 minutes.

"It was good to see the boys recover from that 3-goal deficit by playing attacking soccer, the way that we all know we can," said Taylor.