Boys soccer: Big finish lifts Lake Zurich past St. Viator
Scott Shadrick's PK conversion at 79 minutes completed a thrilling comeback to give host Lake Zurich (1-1-0) a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in its boys soccer home opener at Mel Eide Field against St. Viator.
Shadrick steered in the game-winner just 60 seconds after teammate Nate Rathe had drawn the Bears, stunning Lions supporters.
"There's a lot of things you can put up with in your first game of the year, but not managing a 1-goal advantage with just under five minutes to go, and allowing 2 goals, is not one of them," said Mike Taylor, now in his 36th year as St. Viator's coach. "One loss doesn't make a season, and you hope you learn from your mistakes. This is why we play this game every year - because Lake Zurich is always a quality opponent, and most of the time the game is just like it was tonight."
Last year, Mike Schmitz' Lake Zurich team won this annual season opener 2-0 over the Lions. St. Viator went on to earn a fourth-place trophy at the Class 2A state tournament.
"What a finish tonight," said Schmitz, who welcomed nearly a dozen new faces to his roster this fall. "We had a rough start the other day in our opener with Carmel (a 5-3 defeat), but you've got to hand it to the guys. They came out, dominated the first half with some terrific play, then didn't give up when we fell behind."
The Bears started slowly before finding their form and keeping the Lions under pressure during the first half-hour. The result was a goal from Brandon Klett, who finished in the 27th minute after the visitors failed to clear a Bears corner.
Before the Klett strike, Jordan Fleita missed wide, and Kevin Johlie went wide on two occasions, the second time when he thumped a header off the post after catching up to a superb cross from Joaquin Ganoza.
"We possessed and moved the ball really well in that first half and created some very good chances - we should have finished a few of those," said Johlie, a senior.
Despite its rough opening half, St. Viator managed to go into the intermission even at 1-1 thanks to a thunderbolt of an equalizer from freshman Zaul Perez, who drove his right-footed blast into the lower right corner from 30 yards.
"Our backline began to defend better," Taylor said. "(Patrick) Hickey was stepping up and intercepting balls and getting the attack going, while our midfield began to possess and began to find Anthony Pineda, who created a lot of trouble for us up top."
The Bears' inability to defend a long throw from Kyle Borst led to the go-ahead goal from Jack Murphy, who finished nicely at the back post at 61 minutes.
Four consecutive long throws from Zane Chung-Mehdi seemed to help spark a sleepy Lake Zurich attack, and a sequence which saw Mehdi and Johlie pry open the Lions' defense led to Rathe bringing the Bears back even in the 78th minute.
Fleita's brilliant ball out of the back put Johlie in on Lions keeper Kevin Napoleon, who had no recourse but to bring down the striker. That sent Shadrick to the spot, and he converted with ease.
"I've been playing soccer for 11 years, and that was easily the most exciting final five minutes that I have ever been a part of," said Johlie with a wide smile.
The Bears begin preparation for pool play next week at the high-profile Barrington Classic which starts on Monday, while St. Viator entertains Prospect in nonconference play Saturday in Arlington Heights.