Griffins fall 3-2 at Lockport

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By Chris Walker

Neither Lockport nor Lincoln-Way East is going to finish its regular season with a winning record, but that didn’t stop either team from playing a very competitive and exciting Southwest Suburban Blue Conference match on Tuesday afternoon in Lockport.

The hosts rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Griffins, 3-2.

“I thought we kind of dominated the game,” Lockport coach Chris Beal said. “But not putting it in the back of the net when we had chances once again gave us problems all half. We’re just not ruthless enough in front of the net.”

Lockport (7-9-2, 2-3-0) rested Louis Piccione, one of its standout players, in preparation for the post-season, which gets started on Friday for the Porters as they travel to the Joliet West regional to face Romeoville. His absence from the lineup certainly had something to do with a sluggish start.

“We started 4-5-1 and then we saw we were giving up too much possession and giving them too much control,” Beal said. “We switched to a 4-4-2 and we were able to dictate play more which is what we wanted, but we started differently because of personnel.”

Although the Porters shaped the pace of the first half, they suddenly found themselves trailing 1-0 at halftime when the Griffins scored with just 7.1 seconds remaining.

After a delay of game foul stopped the clock, Lincoln-Way East’s John Ulrich showed a great deal of poise and a fantastic touch when he floated a free kick over the defenders and into the right side of the back of the net.

“The first 15 minutes was good, the next 20 minutes was all them and then we found one seven seconds left in the half but all that momentum was lost in the break,” Lincoln-Way East interim head coach Ryan Decker said. “After halftime we hit a lull sometimes and just struggle.”

Lincoln-Way East (6-9-5, 2-3-0) surrendered the game-tying goal at 32:44 of the second half when Wojtek Iwan dribbled ahead of the Griffins’ defenders and sent a shot out of the reach of keeper Rich Torres toward the opposite post.

“They kept their composure well today and it’s been that way since the start of the season with injuries and social suspensions killing the first half of the season,” Beal said. “They started to move forward winning five of six and have started to believe in each other and enjoy winning.”

The Porters took a 2-1 advantage on a beautifully served free kick from Nick Bergamini who perfectly fed Luke Harnik. At the 29:54 mark of the second half, Harnik headed in the go-ahead score.

The Griffins scored the equalizer on an ugly goal, but a huge one nonetheless. With Ulrich, Spencer Bartczak and Jim Ralph converging among a few Lockport players in front of the goal, the Griffins scored an own goal at 24:16 as the players collided into a heap while the ball trickled into the unattended net.

Once again, the Porters had to respond from adversity.

“They stayed positive,” Beal said. “They could’ve easily gotten down after something like that, but they’ve grown throughout the season and learned to handle a lot of things.”

Not inclined to settle for a tie, the Porters pulled ahead for good with 15:32 remaining when the Griffins allowed Robert Zieba to score on a breakaway goal. Torres came out to defend Zieba’s shot, but rammed into a defender which allowed a wide open Zieba to easily place the game-winner into the back of the net.

“It was great. We didn’t put our heads down after those two goals and just kept fighting,” Zieba said. “In the end we were able to win again as a team and it’s great that we have the mentality of wanting to win.”

The game was the first of four straight for the Porters. They will host Lyons Township on Wednesday and Joliet West on Thursday before starting the post-season on Friday.

“With three games and the playoffs Friday we rotated and rested players today,” Beal said. “They stepped up, moved up at good angles and played the right way and good things happened.”

The Porters also received a boost from sophomore call-ups Rafa Chavez and Dan Michalak.

Finding consistency to play a solid soccer match from start to finish continues to elude the Griffins. They fell to 2-3-1 since the unforeseen firing of head coach Brian Papa.

“We have to win 50/50 balls, we have to take care of the ball when we possess it and we didn’t do those two things and it hurt us,” Decker said.

In their previous two matches against Joliet Central and Bolingbrook the Griffins possessed the ball well and controlled the midfield. For whatever reason, they struggled with that aspect of the game on Tuesday.

“We do things very well one day and then tonight we struggled in the back of taking care of the ball and winning battles in the middle,” Decker said. “We found two goals which usually is enough when we’re keeping teams to zero or one, but tonight we let three in. We need to find a balance of good defense and attacking and we’ve got to figure it out soon.”