Rams can't hold off Lake Park in a 5-0 loss

By Dan Santaromita

Glenbard East played a Lake Park team on Tuesday that had some serious wind in its attacking sails, and the Rams couldn’t slow that ship down.

The Lancers put five goals on the board in a 5-0 win that put the Rams’ record at 1-3 on the young season. The game was part of Lake Park’s Lancer Classic tournament, and Tuesday’s contest was played at Niles West.

“I just think we need to work together as a unit. We’re trying to do too much individually,” the Rams’ Sam Dennis said. “We’ve got to come together as a team. It’s just go to be 1-2 touch and it’s off our foot.

We’re fortunate that we’re finding these mistakes out early on in the season. We haven’t even started our conference play yet. Hopefully by then we’ll have it figured out.”

Rams coach Josh Adler was disappointed in his boys’ lack of defensive organization and pointed to another quality that he’d like to see improved upon.

“I think our work rate on the field has to pick up more,” Adler said. “I don’t think we’re tenacious enough all over the field. I think we got to have more guys battling out there for things.

They’ve just got to buy into this and battle for each other a little bit and pick it up as a team. We’ll figure it out. I’d rather have these games right now and sort things out because we got conference play in a week or so. Playing good teams like this is only going to make us better in the long run.”

The Lancers scored goals from long range, short range and in the air against the Rams.

“It was brilliant soccer,” Adler said. “I mean the creative soccer, attacking soccer, finishing soccer. They punished us in the back.

They capitalized on any little mistake that we had all over the field and that’s what a good team’s got to do. They got to make you pay for the mistakes you make, and they made us pay for them dearly tonight.”

Lancer goalkeeper Eric Ahrens had six saves for the shutout, including a nice diving goal line save following a Rams’ corner.

Early on, the match didn’t look like it would be a won with a wide margin. Both teams had possession and chances early, but the Lancers gradually took a more decisive grip on the game.

Lake Park (3-1-1) started off the scoring with a goal from Luca Giovine exactly 26 minutes into the match. He placed a shot into the upper 90 from about 12 yards out. 

A hustle play set up the second goal just a few minutes before halftime.

Lancer midfielder Justin Castello slid to block a pass and the ball deflected back towards teammate Joe Passarelli. Passarelli won the ball, made a run towards goal and surprised Rams’ keeper Andres Guerrero (6 saves) with a rocket just inside the near post.

Lake Park came out on fire in the second half and dominated possession for the first twenty minutes of the half.

That possession turned into the third goal when Elson Divinagracia tucked a low shot into the corner of the goal after a defensive miscommunication allowed for the opening in the 51st minute.

The fourth goal, by defender Joe Kubica, was an absolute beauty. Kubica held the ball from about 30 yards out and had some space. He decided to take a rip at goal and the ball curved perfectly, finding the inside of the post just under the crossbar.

Lake Park coach Norm Hillner said it was the kind of shot he’d rather see at 0-0 instead of 3-0, but it was that kind of day for the Lancers.

“Things were working good tonight,” Hillner said. “We knocked the ball around pretty good. We had a couple guys out, but to be a little shorthanded and to respond like this is terrific.”

Passarelli added his second goal in the final minutes when he headed home a cross from Ryan Castello.

The Lancers scored two goals in their first three matches, but have nine in their last two.

“We’ve been struggling to score,” Hillner said. “The first couple of games we had two goals and they were both on penalty kicks. We had four Saturday and five today, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be winning the World Cup or anything.

“We finished today. We took advantage of our opportunities. That makes a big difference. We’ve had opportunities all year, it’s just a matter of being able to light things up.”

The Lancers are a deep team that played everyone that was healthy. Performances like this make them look like one of the best teams in the area.

“There’s still a couple things we need to work on, but this is a game where we were getting back into things,” Divinagracia said. “We had a rough start to the season, but we’re starting to kick in right now.

“We just had a tough time getting into the swing of things. There’s a couple injuries right now and everyone’s trying to get healthy.”

Hillner was pleased with the performance and it was hard not to be.

“We’re still looking for some pieces, all the kids played,” he said. “We’re a team and hopefully everybody can contribute and tonight everybody did. We did some nice things. We attacked. I’m very pleased with the effort. You can’t argue about this. We controlled the game most of the way. There were a couple small, little breakdowns, but for the most part we played really well.”

The Lancers are now 2-1 in the Lancer Classic and will host Conant Thursday to continue the tournament. The Rams take on another top-shelf team in Downers Grove North on Thursday, in a game to be played at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.