Boys soccer: Benet beats Carmel with late burst

Trent McVey and Chris Mankowski scored goals in the final 10 minutes that led Benet Academy past host Carmel Catholic 3-1 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference boys soccer matchup in Mundelein on Saturday morning.

With the win, the Redwings (10-1-1) remained unbeaten in the ESCC at 4-0, while Carmel fell to 4-7 and 2-4.

"We started very, very slow," Benet coach Sean Wesley said. "I give a lot of credit to (Carmel), they started fast and they put us under a lot of pressure. We weren't connecting passes. It was a Saturday morning 10 a.m. game and a long drive didn't help. We just didn't come ready to play a game. After a couple minutes in the second half, we started waking up, we started connecting passes and we showed the talent that we have much better in the first half."

McVey broke a 1-1 tie in the 70th minute after he took a feed from Nick Renfro and found an opening, beating Corsairs' keeper Camden Krautsack.

Then, Mankowski sent a kick from the right side outside the box that caromed off the far post into the back of the net for an insurance goal in the 76th minute for the 3-1 lead. Nick Augustyn set up the final goal.

Both teams played through a scoreless first half with a few chances that could've gone either way.

Krautsack made a penalty kick save diving to his right and got a right hand on the ball in the 35th minute that was off the foot of the Redwings' McVey.

In the second half, Hans Haenicke was on the spot for a rebound goal that put Benet up 1-0 in the 48th minute.

Carmel responded less than a minute later after a foul in the penalty area. Carmel's Ryan Cawley tied it up on a penalty kick.

"It was a tough loss," Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. "We had them and we were doing really well. I was really enthused after the penalty kick save. That got us really excited and we started to believe in ourselves. We're playing so much better than we started the season. We knew Benet was a strong team and they're deep. It took a really good ball on their second goal to split through us."