Boys soccer: Carmel falls to St. Pat's

A birthday gift for Carmel Catholic boys soccer coach Ray Krawzak would've been a victory, but a good effort was enough of a present on this day.

Carmel fell to visiting St. Patrick 2-1 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference opener Thursday night in Mundelein.

The Corsairs (2-2, 0-1), through their first four games, are trying to grow with a number of young players. But they appear to be getting better with each match. In this one, they did have a number of chances moving forward in trying to get that finishing touch in the final third of the field.

"It was a good game, very proud of my guys, and they kept their heads in the game," Krawzak said. "They played with a lot of heart and they believed that they were in it at a lot of times. We did a nice job of adapting and dealing with (St. Patrick's) pressure. We figured that out quickly and we figured out a bunch of different attacks against them. If we had put the ball into the back of the net that could've changed the game."

St. Patrick (2-4, 1-0) opened the scoring in the 29th minute. Nicolas Leon scored on a 25-yard free kick into the corner for a 1-0 advantage.

Carmel found a way to tie at 1-1 in the 71st minute of play. Ben LaMora sent a long free kick into the box, Erik Miller got a head on the ball and placed into the back of the net.

The Shamrocks responded about 4 minutes later off a ball not cleared out of the area by Carmel. Conor Day one-timed the kick and scored for the one-goal victory.

Nick Magnone made a total of 10 saves for Carmel with 8 of them in the second half, which was a big difference in keeping the Corsairs in the match.

"We do feel that we can be competitive with anybody," St. Patrick coach Kyle McClure said. "Carmel was a very good team. Strong, always well-coached, physical and played well. We just finished on one more opportunity then they did. It was one of those games that can go either way. I thought our guys fought hard out there."