Boys soccer: Deerfield upsets Carmel

Losing tightly contested matches was a theme all season long for Carmel Catholic's boys soccer team.

The postseason didn't change the narrative.

No. 8 Deerfield upset the second-seeded Corsairs 1-0 in a semifinal of the Class 2A Deerfield regional on Wednesday night.

"Goal-scoring was the issue (this season)," Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. "We were a little flat in the first half and weren't able to settle down. Second half of the game we played so much better, but it was a little too late at that point."

Carmel finished 5-12.

"I think we could've done a few things differently," Krawzak said. "We will refocus and rebuild as a program. We have a lot of work to do. We have to allow a lot of the younger kids to step up and get real serious about moving into the right direction."

Deerfield (4-15-2) scored in the 25th minute when Ari Wainer took a pass through the middle from Nicolas Prus. Wainer beat a defender and scored on a breakaway.

"It's a big win for us," said coach Elliott Hurtig, whose Warriors advanced to Saturday's 3 p.m. final against No. 6 Vernon Hills. "The guys have been playing extremely hard all year. They have been playing together, but we've just had some bad luck that led to a lot of bad losses. It was a good effort and Carmel was a very physical team with some big guys. They played a good second half and put us under a lot of pressure."