Lions win ugly, advance to sectional play
Saint Viator wins 2-1 in OT on Horvath's goal

 

By Dan Santaromita

There’s nothing like the intensity and desperation of a team trying to equalize late in a playoff game.

Then again, there’s nothing like the reaction to a team actually getting that equalizer either.

Saint Viator gave up an early second half goal to underdog Glenbrook South, but the Lions rallied and defeated the Titans 2-1 in overtime of the Class 3A regional final at Glenbrook North.

Jack Horvath converted a penalty with less than six minutes to play and scored the winner in the third minute of the overtime.

With a field beat up by rain and a football game the night before and wind blowing strongly towards one goal, conditions were tough on both teams and the play suffered a bit.

“Didn’t play a good game today,” Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor said. “Give it to Glenbrook South, they took us out of our game plan. We struggled against the wind. We got through the first half. We said we didn’t want to give up a goal in the first half and then we give up a goal when we were with the wind.”

After surviving the first half, the Lions gave up a goal in the 43rd minute when Saint Viator had the wind at their backs. Titan senior Branden McGarrity made a great first touch in the box from a service to set up an easy finish near the goal.

The Lions started to push forward and seemed to have the run of play after the goal, but continued to struggle with counters usually anchored by Nathan Park.

“At half I was disturbed because we weren’t playing well in the back,” Taylor said. “For some reason we had a nightmare of a day in the backfield.”

Senior goalkeeper Scott Faul (12 saves) had multiple quality saves, including stuffing a couple breakaways, to keep the Lions in the match.

Saint Viator started to rack up the shots, but were unable to get a solid rip at David Abiera (9 saves), who was also solid between the pipes for the Titans.

“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm,” Taylor said. “They were good at taking us out of our rhythm and I give them credit on that.”

Taylor said the Titans did a good job of pinching the outsides to make attacks difficult for his team.

South nearly got a second goal through an unusual play in the 63rd minute. Faul went up for a cross against 6’4” Luke Harrison and the two had a violent collision. The ref didn’t see a foul and the loose ball lazily rolled towards the goal before a Lions defender could clear the ball off the line.

With time running out the Lions earned a throw-in that resulted in a penalty with 5:37 remaining. A South defender pushed a Lion from behind and the ref called for the spot kick. Horvath coolly slammed the ball to the keeper’s right and got him to guess wrong.

Horvath said he always knew which way he was going to kick the penalty.

Saint Viator kept the momentum and scored early into the overtime.

Nick Abel threw the ball into the box and it got kicked out to Horvath, who turned, fired and scored on a terrific shot.

“It just came to the left of the PK spot and I was able to get my foot on it,” Horvath said. “Luckily it went up into the corner. Abel did a good job throwing the ball in all year so it was good that we got a goal off one of those set pieces.”

“I was just looking to get it as far as I can because it was getting tough out there,” Abel said of the throw-in. “We already played a whole game and we were all running low on energy.”

The Lions (18-5-2), seeded fifth in the sectional, advance to the Libertyville sectional where they will play the host and top seeded Wildcats Tuesday.

It was just another example of this team surviving when they don’t play their best.

“This team sometimes finds a way to play ugly and still win so we move onto the next game and we’ll see what happens,” Taylor said. “We didn’t play a better game, but we did enough to win.”

“We just found a way to win today, which we’ve been doing,” Horvath said. “It’s a good thing to do in the playoffs.”