Patriots' Gurson grand

His work done on Carmel Catholic's soccer field, Stevenson's Gordy Gurson untwined an elastic wrap from his left wrist and sought out a bag of ice for his thigh.

The senior then took a seat on the bench and watched his teammates finish off Tuesday's 2-0 nonconference win, which was due largely to his pair of goals.

Gurson says he broke his wrist in seventh grade while playing basketball and has had problems with it ever since.

"I'm going to get it checked up on," Gurson said. "But I can't get it casted because I still want to play."

Two weeks ago, Gurson, a 5-foot-6 forward, gave a verbal commitment to play Division-I soccer for the University of Memphis, but he's hardly playing like he's contented.

His 2 goals against Carmel (3-3-1) hiked his team-leading total to 9 for Stevenson (7-1). He has 8 assists, to boot.

"Gordy's the real deal," Patriots coach Mark Schartner said. "He's a workhorse."

Take his first goal, for example.

A hustling Gurson collected a pass from defender Yonda Abogunrin, headed the ball to himself to shed a defender and lofted a shot over the head of Corsairs keeper Matt McHugh and into the net.

"It's my senior and I just want to do what I can since it's my last year of high school," Gurson said. "It's nice that I'm moving on to college. I just want to have the best high school season that I can."

His goal came just 31/2 minutes into the match, and Stevenson was on its way to some payback after losing to Carmel in the regional semifinals last year.

"I thought we were unfocused in the first five minutes, which was disappointing because we talked before the game about (Stevenson) wanting to avenge the loss in the playoffs last year," Corsairs coach John Halloran said. "I knew they were going to come out hard."

Stevenson's defense was nearly impenetrable, and that's nothing new. The Patriots have allowed only 3 goals all season - all on dead balls. Sweeper Shawn Singh leads the group that also includes Abogunrin - a "beast," Schartner said - Ricky Lekakh and Larry Luna.

"Shawn Singh is a true sweeper," said Schartner, whose Patriots play at Evanston under the lights today (7 p.m.).

"He just doesn't make a mistake. Every challenge, the timing is perfect. When he's supposed to clear, he clears it. When he's supposed to back off a man, he does it. Everything he does mentally is so strong. He's irreplaceable."

The Stevenson midfield played strong, too, even though four-year varsity starter Steven Johnson played less than half the match because of a bruised knee.

"We're just not the same team without him in the midfield," said Schartner, whose midfield also includes Alex Nadelman, Mike Martin and Ryan Uslander.

It was Nadelman's corner kick that led to Gurson's goal in the 49th minute. After the ball wound up at the top of the box, Tom May spotted Gurson at the far post and Gurson deposited the ball after McHugh got a piece of it.

Stevenson keeper Greg Golovan preserved his shutout by making 2 quality saves in the final five minutes. On the second, he stopped Aaron Ogunro from point-blank range.

Ogunro couldn't believe it, burying his face in his hands.

"For a team that had three or four kids decide to play academy this year instead of with us, we're really doing a nice job," Schartner said. "I'm proud of these guys."