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Boys soccer: Stevenson takes down St. Viator

As they say in most sports, defense wins championships.

If that's the case, then the Stevenson boys soccer team could be headed for an outstanding season.

Junior Owen Zakrzewski and his backline teammates played a stellar game Monday at St. Viator, especially early on when they were able to kick away a couple of good scoring chances by the Lions.

The Patriots' attack took over from there as Stevenson won 5-1 in Arlington Heights.

"We've got a lot to learn because we graduated a lot of defenders (from last year's team)," Stevenson coach Pepe Jon Chavez said. "But some young guys stepped in today and I thought they did excellent for their first game in competition."

"We do have a lot of new guys on the team," Zakrzewski agreed. "And today was a great experience for them. Overall, we were able to bond and it was a good win."

After Zakrzewksi, classmate Nazar Mormul and senior Daniel Saltzman made some heady defensive plays in the opening minutes to keep Viator off the board. The Patriots struck first when Christian Yen scored after a cross.

The Lions tied the match in the 16th minute when midfielder Conor Giroux took possession of a pass, made a long run and nestled the ball in the back of the net off the left post, just past the diving outstretched arms of Patriots keeper Ryan Harper, a senior.

"We're able to connect when we find the ball correctly," first-year St. Viator coach Byron DeLeon said. "And when we moved the ball (today) and created the attack we were able to find the net."

"We scheduled this game (against a tough Stevenson team early) for a reason," DeLeon added. "We're a brand new group, and we're trying to see what we need to work on and that's why we have two big games (this one and a match Tuesday against Lake Zurich) at the beginning of the season - to expose the weak areas we have, so we know what we need to work on."

Just 20 seconds after Viator tied the match, sophomore midfielder Alex Xie knocked one in for Stevenson to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Then just 5 minutes into the 2nd half, Patriots senior Adam Hamad was able to extend the lead to 3-1 with a shot from just outside the box.

"I got a through ball," Hamad said. "Our striker Daniel Sokolovsky slipped it through to me, I got into space, the goalie was off his line and I just chipped it over him."

Stevenson scored again in the 49th minute, this time a strike by Grayson Lueck after a prolonged Patriots attack, and teammate Kohei Mori accounted for the final score with a late goal from 10 yards away.

The strong play of the Patriots defense continued throughout the second half as the Lions had very few chances in the final 40 minutes.

"This was a great start," Chavez said. "We have 27 players, and except for our injured players and our (other) keeper who will play in our next game, we were able to give everybody an opportunity to grow and develop. For us at Stevenson, the foundation is discipline and love, and that means we try to get everybody on."

"Nice to get a win in the first game of the year," Hamad added. "We had a great season last year and I think we're going to keep the legacy going."

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