Lions' fall 3-1 to Lake Zurich in season opener

By Gary Larsen

Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor has seen it all. He’s had teams with 20 wins that lost in the first round of regional play, and lesser teams go on a deep postseason run.

So while his squad’s 3-1 loss to visiting Lake Zurich was disappointing to the Lions’ faithful, Taylor saw it as the valuable lesson it was.

“It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” Taylor said. “It’s the first game and it’s a growing process, especially when you graduate so many leaders. Who’s going to step into that leadership role and take it? I think a couple of seniors will step up and take it, but it’s an evolving process.”

Saint Viator hosts Palatine on Saturday at 10:00 AM, and last year’s Mid Suburban League champs will doubtlessly offer another strong test for the Lions.

“Playing Lake Zurich and Palatine in the first week of the season – if you’ve got a weakness, they’ll show it to you,” Taylor said. “And that’s what you want at the beginning of the season.”

One of the chief lessons learned on Wednesday was that with the graduation of players like Trevor Wheeler, Kevin Cavers, and Billy Hamilton from last year’s state title team, there’s a hole that needs filling in Arlington Heights.

“We have to find leadership,” Taylor said. “We’ve got good players but we had no one today who just said ‘settle down and let’s get this under control, work the ball, and go with it’. Everybody was looking to someone else today to take charge.”

One of the players Taylor will rely heavily on this year is senior Jack Horvath, who was disappointed in his side’s play on Wednesday.

“Our organization was bad in the back and everyone has to take responsibility,” Horvath said. “We need more leadership and I didn’t do a good job of leading today, either. We’ve got to start working harder at practice, and communicating better.”

The second lesson learned against Lake Zurich was one of the oldest in soccer: if you make a mistake, a good team will make you pay. Ten minutes in, a Lions’ foul deep in their own end set up a free kick that the Bears’ Jose Corral centered, and Colin Rathe finished on with a head shot near the goalmouth.

The Lions answered with a stretch of solid attacking pressure that resulted in numerous free kicks and throw-ins deep in Bears’ territory, through the game’s 20th minute. Lake Zurich was constantly dangerous on counters throughout Viator’s spurt of attacking pressure.

“During the second half, we had ten or fifteen minutes where we were controlling the ball,” Horvath said. “We were working well together. We just have to keep the ball, and work through the midfield.”

A one-minute span just before halftime held a pair of pivotal moments. First, filling in for absent starting keeper Scott Faul, Saint Viator’s Mike Alegnani made a nice point-blank save on a shot by the Bears’ Brenden Seeger.

“Mike did a great job for us,” Taylor said. “He hasn’t played in net for a while and I just told him that we didn’t lose the game because of him. We lost the game because we made three mistakes.”

One of those mistakes came 30 seconds after Alegnani’s save, when Seeger fed Corral, who broke free up the right side into the box and scored from 16 yards out to give his side a 2-0 halftime lead.

The second half saw the Lions’ Adam Fetter hit a free kick off the post, and a few nifty saves made by the Bears’ goalkeeper that kept the slate clean.

Disaster struck again for Saint Viator around the mid-way point of the second half, when the Bears stole a ball near midfield, John Pothast found Seeger, and the junior beat a few defenders to put his side up 3-0.

One season after advancing downstate and placing second in Illinois in Class 3A, Lake Zurich (2-0) has opened the 2010 season with a vengeance.

The Bears won 6-0 over Carmel to start the season before Monday’s 3-1 win at Saint Viator. Like Taylor, Bears coach Mike Schmitz saw a bevy of all-state caliber players graduate, but he’s got another solid team on his hands.

Of course, Schmitz isn’t drawing any conclusions just yet. “I can always see areas that need improvement,” Schmitz said. “We definitely have plenty to work on, but we’ll take this.”

“So far we’re doing a good job of playing together. The team concept is working out. Guys are looking for each other on the field and helping each other out, so I’m real happy with that. We’re not looking for anyone to be the savior here, we’re looking for everybody to step up.”

A goal from Saint Viator’s Dan Loizzi got the Lions on the board, but it was far too late in the contest to threaten the Bears’ grip on their second win.
 
Taylor expects a more cohesive back line to emerge once starting keeper Scott Faul returns from injury.
 
“He’s coming off the big series in the state tournament last year, and I think he’s gotten a lot of confidence from that,” Taylor said. “We’ve got some quiet kids, but Scotty’s not. When he’s back there, he’s screaming and yelling to keep us organized.”

Wednesday’s starting midfield of Horvath, junior Adam Fetter, and seniors Matt Morsches and Bill Krawzak showed glimpses of the Lions’ potential strength this season. Kevin Patzke, Michael Decker, Loizzi, Ryan Barth, Ashwin Cornelius, and Troy Wheeler should all chip in to this year’s attack.

Starting defenders Tim Hogaboom, Joe Surdam, Nick Abel, and Jack Simpson will continue to work to find cohesion, with Joe Ferrante, Morsches, Patzke, and Wheeler all also listed as defenders.

“I think you’ll see a strength in the middle and in the back,” Taylor said. “The frontrunners, we’ll platoon three or four different people up there.”

Taylor always likes his boys to possess and then attack the openings that present themselves, and Horvath sees the talent on this year’s squad to pull it off. But like it is for every team after a season opener, the current reality is a long way from meeting the ideal.

“The little things – passing the ball harder, not giving it up, not taking too many touches out of the back when the passes are there,” Horvath said. “We need to get better at a lot of little things.

The target’s on our back and we want to prove to people that just because we’re a 2A school, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be competing with these teams.”