Boys lacrosse: St. Viator stays hot, pulls away from Wheaton Academy

After a pair of rough losses during a weekend road trip to the Detroit area, the Wheaton Academy boys lacrosse team’s losing streak stood at three games Tuesday.

On top of that, the Warriors were without their Interim coach Cort Miller (family reasons) as they made the trek to Arlington Heights for their tilt with a red-hot St.Viator unit that has already tallied 139 goals in winning 8 of their first 9 games.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, who were led by assistant Watson Fung, it would run afoul of a trio of surges by the hosts that proved to be too much to overcome as they dropped a 15-6 decision.

After a goal by Wheaton Academy attacker Hudsen Hall 58 seconds into the second quarter tied the game at 3, the Lions took the lead for good thanks to the first of two scores by junior attacker Brady Tyrell at the 9:21 mark of the period for a 4-3 advantage.

Fellow Lion junior attacker Henry Crane scored 23 ticks later to make it 5-3 prior to Tyrell's second tally with 5:29 remaining until the break to expand the St. Viator edge to 6-3.

Senior attacker Michael Benigni closed out the first half scoring for St. Viator 57 seconds later for a 7-3 lead at the half.

After Wheaton Academy (6-6) cut the lead in half thanks to tallies from freshman Jack Schymanski and sophomore Michael Lavelle at the midway point of the third, the Lions roared back with a trio of scores over the final 3:49 of the quarter. It started with a bouncer from freshman Charlie Drake that got the lead up to 10-5 heading into the fourth when it erased any hopes of a Warriors comeback with 5 more goals including Drake's second, Tyrell's third, and senior attacker Keaton Franzen's fifth and sixth tallies.

St. Viator coach Geoff Harty spoke of his unit’s ability to bounce back after Wheaton Academy’s early second half rally.

"We lean on the game plan, the things that we're comfortable with," Harty said. "We could have gotten nervous and buckled and they chose to really step up. It was really cool to see."

For Franzen, a UMass recruit, the on-field effort from he and his teammates is a reflection of the camaraderie they have developed at the start of the season.

"We're staying composed (and) working together every single day (which) works out,“ Franzen said.