Lions roll over Nazareth in ESC battle
Decker has a hand in 5 of Saint Viator's 6 goals

By Matt Le Cren

As Saint Viator was tallying up who scored what following the Lions’ 6-0 demolition of host Nazareth on Monday, Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor was asked if scoring a goal and four assists made up for missing a penalty kick.

“It does not make up for missing the penalty kick,” Taylor said in a voice loud enough for all of his players to hear.

So it was that sophomore playmaker Michael Decker was the object of some good-natured ribbing from his teammates even though he had a hand in five of his team’s six goals.

The infamous flub came with 3:15 remaining in the first half and Saint Viator already ahead 2-0. Decker sent his left-footed shot wide of the right post.

“I actually stepped up to take it but Decker called me off,” senior Bill Krawzak said. “Then he shanks it.”

That was one of the few things that went wrong for the visitors on a day when they put on a clinical display of passing and possession soccer, completely dismantling a good team on its home field. At times, it looked like the Lions were playing with the ball on a string.

“We do that very, very well,” Taylor said. “We know we can play the game. Our biggest problem is just finishing. Look at the games that we’ve lost – we’ve had opportunities in every ballgame and we end up losing because we can’t put the opportunities away, and that’s the name of the game.

“So we’ve just been trying to work hard on finishing, just getting an organization there. It’s little things.”

Doing the little things right added up to a big victory for Saint Viator (9-4-2), which seized sole possession of first place in the East Suburban Catholic Conference. The Lions are 4-0 in league play and have 12 points. Marist (3-0), Carmel (3-0) and Nazareth (3-3) all have nine points.

Saint Viator outshot the Roadrunners (11-4-1) by a 31-2 margin and would have had a much bigger margin of victory if not for the play of Nazareth goalie Jamie Nassar-Velasquez, who made 11 saves. But Krawzak, who scored twice, was not surprised by that.

“Not really,” he said. “We just played the way we were supposed to play and finished our chances. We’ve been dominating games except we just haven’t been able to score goals.”

That wasn’t the case in this one. The Lions broke the ice just 4:30 into the contest when a shot by Decker hit the left post and Krawzak ran in to bury the rebound.

Decker then made it 2-0 at the 12:32 mark. Matt Morsches popped up a cross from deep in the right corner. Nassar-Velasquez and one of the Lions jumped for the ball but neither could control it and after one bounce Decker headed it in.

The shots started flying fast and furious in the second half as the Lions continued getting in behind the Nazareth defense with regularity and forcing the Roadrunners to chase constantly.

The third goal was an example of that, as freshman Spencer Moore, recently called up to varsity, passed out of the left corner to Decker, whose pass set up Adam Fetter’s successful 20-yard blast from the top of the circle with 29:17 remaining.

Sophomore Ashwin Cornelius scored on a header off an assist from Dan Liozzi at the 15:01 mark. Four minutes later, Decker assisted on Krawzak’s second goal, a great diving header, and then Moore finished the scoring at the 6:57 mark on another spectacular display of passing in which the ball went from Cornelius at midfield to Krawzak on the right wing to Decker in the left corner to Moore in front without any of the players taking a dribble.

“Coach stressed putting it out wide and heading for the sideline and crossing it, which we did well,” Decker said.

Saint Viator goalie Scott Faul had to make only two saves in recording his team’s fourth shutout. The first stop didn’t come until 17:54 remained in the game. Phillip Lombardo broke through into the box but his shot to the short side was deflected around the right post by Faul, who then came out to smother the ball on the ensuing corner kick.

Nazareth’s only other chance came with 2:40 to go. Alex Wilkinson got an open shot from the top of the box, but Faul knocked the ball up into the air before catching it. Defenders Nick Abel, Troy Wheeler and Joe Surdam and Jack Simpson cleaned everything else up.

“I think [the Roadrunners] are in the middle of the pack for conference,” Decker said.

“Carmel and Benet are going to be the best two we’ll play, so we’ve got to work towards getting better for those games.”

The Lions recently found out they have been bumped back up to Class 3A for postseason play a year after winning the Class 2A state championship, which is another reason they didn’t get overly excited about beating Nazareth.

“We’re focused mainly on playoffs in 3A,” Krawzak said. “We’ve been playing games against all these 3A teams and we’re just trying to figure out how we’d fare with all those teams. And we’ve competed with all of them.”