Boys soccer: Lake Park leans on experience to advance past St. Charles East
Anything can happen when a boys soccer playoff game goes to penalty kicks, but it sure helps to have seniors in that pressure situation.
So when Lake Park and St. Charles East finished 100 minutes of soccer tied 2-2 Tuesday, the Lancers felt pretty good about going to penalty kicks to decide the Class 3A Addison Trail sectional semifinal.
"That was pretty cool to see our seniors step up and shine," said Lake Park coach Sean Crosby, who used only seniors in penalty kicks, many of whom have been starters since they were underclassmen. " ... To see that was pretty impressive, and I'm really happy for them because it's been a long time coming for them."
Sure enough, senior Andrew Eliopoulos' penalty gave the top-seeded Lancers (18-3-3) a 6-5 advantage in kicks, sending them through to Friday's final against No. 7 Benet.
"I walked in like it was practice. I looked the goalkeeper right in the eye and shot it, and that's it," Eliopoulos said. "I go the same way every time, and no matter if I go that way and he knows it, it's going in. You just have to go up there with confidence in yourself."
It was Eliopoulos' first penalty kick of the season, at least in a game.
"I believe in my team, and we all have better placement, vision, everything," Eliopoulos said. "So I had confidence we were going to win, I really did. Especially in my keeper. I had confidence in him. He's the best keeper I've every played with."
Senior goalkeeper Christian Lekki saved two of the Saints' seven penalties, including the last to set up Eliopoulos' game-winner. He had 5 saves in regulation and the two 10-minute overtime periods.
Twice St. Charles East had to come from behind against the Lancers. After the Lancers' Thomas Zakic converted a header off a Jesus Juarez corner kick in the eighth minute, the Saints answered with an Ulises Cabalerro goal, cleaning up the second ball after a corner kick in the 30th.
"I'm happy with the way our seniors kind of left it all out there for us, because they dealt with a lot this season," Saints coach Vince Dinuzzo said. "For them to go down 1-0, and it's self-inflicted. I mean we scored an own goal for the second one, a clear own goal.
"For them to rise above that, I thought we were the better team the second half, but credit to them because they played through it. They had their run of play in the overtime, we had ours. It just didn't go our way."
The Lancers regained the lead in the 32nd minute when Paul Grzybowicz's shot from 30 yards was deflected into the net. St. Charles East (13-8-0) - which will return seven of its starting 11, including a couple of underclassmen who took penalties - answered again, this time on senior Truitt Battin's free kick from 26 yards in the 48th minute.
"What a team St. Charles East had," Crosby said. "They're amazing at counterattacking. They kept us on our heels all game, and any chance we got in the attack, if it wasn't in the back of the net they were coming right down our throats. Just a talented, fast team that we had some trouble with but we had to push ourselves to defend for as long as we could.
"To hold them to only 2 (goals) is actually a positive thing because they kept attacking and it could have been more for them. It could have been more for us. Penalties is probably a fair assessment of the way the game went."