St. Charles North claims another victim: St. Viator
Fresh off a championship run at the Barrington Classic last weekend, St. Charles North (8-0-2) has put together a flying start at the Pepsi Showdown after defeating St. Viator 1-0 Thursday afternoon in Arlington Heights to stay perfect in pool play after two matches.
Sophomore Connor Lefelstein struck the game-winner at 33 minutes with teammates Noah Anthony and Hayden Hagemann supplying the assists to move the North Stars closer to a spot in the quarterfinals on Sept. 16 - if the Stars can get past Chicago Kelly this Saturday at tourney host Lyons Township.
"That may have been our best 40 minutes of soccer of the year that we played during today's first half," said Hagemann of the Stars' effort against the Lions (3-2-2).
St. Viator is slowly rounding into shape with a return to good health by players such as Scott Faul, who left early during the Lions' 2-0 victory over Chicago Kelly on Tuesday in a Showdown opener.
"That's a big, strong team that we played today who enjoyed a good first half against us, but (which) had to work hard in the second half to hold onto the lead and eventual victory," said Viator coach Mike Taylor, whose team meets Deerfield in a late afternoon match at Lyons on Saturday.
The North Stars stayed in the Lions' end for the first quarter hour thanks to a persistent attack, beginning with Noah Anthony, Alex Behm and Jared Casey running wild out of the middle, with the trio finding Joe Stone and Zach Matuszak, whose work rate up top was outstanding and helped the visitors dominate large portions of play.
Hagemann provided a terrific serve to Anthony at 28 minutes, which Faul collected. But the Lions senior could do nothing five minutes later when Lefelstein finished what Anthony and Hagemann had started.
"We wanted to move the ball a lot up and down the outside, and with quick movement when doing so, and that is how we scored that goal," said Hagemann.
The Stars were able to stay around the 18-yard area for most of the first half, but were unable to add to their lead, allowing the Lions to remain just one strike away from equalizing.
"If we could have done one thing better in that half, it would have been to be a little sharper when we had opportunities to finish," said St. Charles North coach Eric Willson.
Taylor made a key tactical move at the break, moving sophomore Ashwin Cornelius into the middle alongside Adam Fetter, and with the young duo running the show with energy and pace, the Lions' attack suddenly became energized.
After Faul came off his line to pull back a dangerous ball from Matuszak supplied by Matt Rasmussen, the tide turned in favor of the Lions, who saw a backline led by Dan Loizzi, Joe Surdam and Troy Wheeler begin to initiate consistent counter-attacks over the last 20 minutes.
The Lions pressed until the closing moments as they searched to draw even, but could not solve the visitors and keeper Garrett Creasor. The best chance was a clever chip into the 6-yard box from Matt Morsches which nearly caught Creasor and an unsuspecting Stars backline off guard as the ball fell freely near the post before being cleared.
"I told the boys afterwards that if we play the rest of the season as we did in (that) second half, that we will be in very good shape from here on out," said Taylor.