Boys soccer: Late score lifts St. Patrick over Carmel Catholic
Soaked by a driving rain and windstorm, Carmel Catholic coach Ray Krawzak watched helplessly as Jorge Parra's 70th minute goal dashed the hopes of his Corsairs, who dropped a hard-fought 2-1 boys soccer contest against reigning East Suburban Catholic Conference champion St. Patrick Wednesday night.
Parra's bending 30-yard wind-aided blast broke a 1-1 deadlock on the northwest side of Chicago at Read-Dunning Stadium for the Shamrocks (1-0-0), who finished fourth in the Class 3A state tournament in the fall of 2019.
"Obviously Pat's lost just about everyone from their state team and, right now, they are not the fantastic attacking team they were one year ago. But I thought, given the conditions, we played a very good game against a team that is still highly skilled and technical," offered Krawzak, whose club opened its season last week with a 1-1 draw with Lake Forest.
Both sides were welcomed by a most dreadful night to play their league opener but despite it all the play, for the most part, was much better than could be expected when considering the rain never stopped during the 80 minutes of action.
The Shamrocks, who had their ESCC opener with Nazareth postponed on consecutive nights beginning on Monday, grabbed an early spot kick conversion with senior Sebastian Estrada driving home his attempt at 10 minutes.
Ryan Cawley would find the equalizer six minutes later when he unloaded an unstoppable free kick from 20 yards just under the woodwork and over the gloves of keeper Bryant Alvarez.
"I knew I had to hit it hard enough to beat the wall (but) low enough to sneak under the bar, and I was able to finish from a great spot," said Cawley.
With a gusty wind at their backs, the visiting Corsairs threw numbers forward with the hope of finding their second goal before the break, and they nearly did when a deep, long throw from Connor Nettesheim forced Alvarez to make a difficult save on the slippery turf.
Alvarez's counterpart between the sticks for the Corsairs, Tim Harvey, was at his best when called upon, particularly during a sequence in the 53rd minute.
A trio of corners initiated by Ivan Guerrero saw the junior punch one out of the area, and yet another turned away with an outstanding kick save, all done fearlessly with several Shamrocks' players inside the six-yard box.
"It was a good effort by the guys tonight - much better than our first game," said Krawzak. "We obviously wanted to get out of here with a win but overall, I was quite pleased with how we played on such a terrible night of soccer."