Galat, Lakes on the mend

Richard Galat suffered a concussion when he slammed to the ground in Lakes’ season-opening game against Carmel Catholic in the North Shore Shootout.

Galat left Lake Forest’s field in an ambulance.

“They thought I fractured my neck,” said Galat, who missed seven games. “I was just running through the ball and the player kicked through the ball. I landed on the back of my head. The rest of my body just followed. It was kind of a freak injury and just unlucky.”

Galat played his third game Thursday since his return, and he’s apparently feeling better.

His 2 goals — his third and fourth of the season — helped Lakes upend host Carmel 3-1 as part of the Carmel quad. Joey Savino scored the Eagles’ other goal.

Galat opened the scoring for Lakes (7-5, 2-0 tourney) in the third minute.

Carmel (5-5-2, 1-1) responded, tying the score in the 25th minute when Keenan Walsh kicked in an unassisted goal.

Savino put the Eagles back up by a goal with a shot off the near post in the 36th minute, and Galat finished a pass from Savino in the 69th minute.

The win avenged Lakes’ 4-1 loss in the season opener.

“(Carmel) was a lot sharper than us in that game,” Lakes coach Kevin Kullby said. “This game we were much more aware and sharper defensively because we knew that we were up against a very good team. We definitely have some ability and some speed up front. It’s very hard for other teams to deal with. It’s a good thing for us. Carmel has some high-quality players to defend against and they had a fair amount of the possession.”

Carmel has been hampered by a number of injuries recently. But it hasn’t stopped the Corsairs from finding ways to score.

“Defensive mistakes have been killing us for a while now,” Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. “We’re trying to work things out with different personnel in there. Those defensive mistakes led to each of (Lakes’) goals. It’s frustrating with how many shots we had. We outshot them, but our shots weren’t the same quality as their shots.”

Carmel hosts Cary-Grove at 10 a.m. Saturday, while Lakes plays at Lake Forest Academy at noon.