Carmel, Lakes fall at LF

Carmel Catholic’s boys soccer team made a strong effort to get past Deerfield and reach the finals of the North Shore Shootout at Lake Forest on Thursday.

But Deerfield pulled out a 1-0 decision, advancing the Warriors (3-0, 2-0) to Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship match against Highland Park (2-1, 2-0).

Carmel (1-1-1, 1-1) will face Lakes (2-1, 1-1) for third place, also at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Carmel dominated most of the play against Deerfield.

“We had a lot of midfield possession, which was nice to see,” Carmel coach John Halloran said. “But you need do something with it and we weren’t moving the ball fast enough. We were taking 3-4 touches, and by the time we were switching the field, (Deerfield) had us closed off. If we moved the ball faster, we would have been more successful.

“We just need to be more creative.”

It proved to be a frustrating game for Corsairs midfielder Ian Heinrich and his teammates.

“Our team is set up to be a possession-style team,” Heinrich said. “We have a lot of talented players. We just couldn’t find the through ball. We did a good job hitting the ball around but couldn’t do anything in the attacking third.”

Deerfield has had Carmel’s number for the last couple years in the tournament — and in the postseason.

“Carmel had a much better first half than us,” Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said. “We were struggling to get our rhythm. Carmel’s midfield was outplaying our midfield.

“Our guys played with a lot of passion, focus and intensity in the second half. We have a strong defense back there.”

Deerfield got the game’s only goal from Joey Calistri on a penalty kick in the 13th minute.

Calistri, who recently verbally committed to Northwestern, scored his seventh goal in three games after he was knocked down in the box by a couple of Carmel defenders.

“It was a one-touch through ball and I was trying to make a move around the keeper (Steve Sliwa),” Calistri said. “(Sliwa) got a hand on it. I made the move to the left and kept going for the ball. Then I got bumped a bit.

“I thought, as a team, we had to fight through it all.”

Highland Park 3, Lakes 1: Lakes got off to a great start and led 1-0 at halftime but the Giants scored 3 unanswered second-half goals in the other semifinal at Lake Forest.

The Eagles, who played their third game in three days, got a goal from Tom Langbein. Jonathan Stanley picked up the assist.

“We had our chances and didn’t finish them, especially in the first half,” Lakes coach Kevin Kullby said. “Highland Park was a good and strong team. Maybe playing three games in three days, we might have had tired legs.”