Chicagoland Soccer

Griffins erupt for three goals in home victory over Tigers

By Curt Herron

The smiles on their faces afterward spoke volumes about the burden that had just been lifted off of their shoulders.

After experiencing a rough stretch where it went 1-5-3 in a drought of goals, Lincoln-Way East found the net on Saturday.

And unlike some of their recent matches, the Griffins didn't have to content themselves with just one hard-earned score.

East put on a goal-scoring display, by its standards, collecting three scores during a span of less than 20 minutes.

While veteran Griffin coach Brian Papa wasn't able to attend the match, assistant Ryan Decker got to witness the display.

He was very pleased following his team's 3-0 SouthWest suburban Conference Blue victory over Joliet West in Frankfort.

One reason was that East (5-7-4, 1-1) had evened its SWSC Blue record, bouncing back from a 1-0 loss to Joliet Central.

Another was that the squad recorded a shutout with Rick Torres claiming his sixth clean sheet after making nine saves.

But the main reason for the excitement was that East had only managed to score once during its previous four matches.

After getting off to a 3-2-1 start this season, the Griffins saw things come to a halt due to their inability to connect.

During its previous nine outings, East had been blanked five times while managing just one goal on three other occasions.

The only multiple-goal effort during that stretch was also a disappointment, a 6-3 defeat on a small field at Thornton.

But for at least one half of Saturday's contest, it looked like the the scoring woes might continue for the Griffins.

Despite having many good chances while going into a strong wind in the opening half, East had nothing to show for it.

That prompted Decker to call upon a different approach during the final 40 minutes, one which paid off in a big way.

The Griffin assistant told his players to fire away from long distance and before too long, that was leading to scores.

After East fought off a determined threat from the Tigers in the opening minutes of the half, the hosts dominated play.

Anthony Cetera hit a 35-yard liner in the 52nd minute for East's first goal since last Saturday's 1-0 win over Lincoln-Way North.

Although Michael Roth didn't score on his long try in the 60th minute, it was deflected to Kris Kirchoff, who put in the rebound.

Then in the 71st minute, East wrapped up its win when Jim Ralph sent a pass inside to Will Will, who connected on a short shot.

"I thought we did well in the first half and created some chances while trying to brave the elements," Decker said. "I would have liked to see us finish some of those chances, but we didn't.

"We asked them to try to take some longer-range shots and when Anthony hit a bomb on a 35-yard shot, that lifted our spirits and the energy and after that we took control and found three goals.

"The adversity that we've seen is because we can't finish on a ball, especially in and around the 18. We did that twice today and getting some confidence in finishing is what this group needs.

"Every game has that moment where you can change things as a player or as a team, and I think that we did that today while we haven't been able to do that so many times within the last month.

"Rick made a couple of nice saves, Jim Ralph and Josh Lavin anchor our back line and do a good job of controlling things and Seth Adams and Kyle Richmond got to start at outside backs today."

The final half didn't start off well for the Griffins, but they escaped unharmed following some good attempts by the Tigers.

Edgar Mireles started things with a shot that Torres deflected before Lucas Stefanski's short try was cleared by a defender.

After Torres denied Mireles again a bit later, Christian Gutierrez had a shot deflected that Kyle Richmond kept out of the net.

An apparent goal by Stefanski was disallowed by an offsides and then Angel Sanchez lined a corner kick that Torres hauled in.

The tide started turning when Cetera's corner was punched away by keeper David Solis and then Roth's free kick went just wide.

East's next opportunity came about half a minute later and resulted in Cetera firing in a line drive that Solis couldn't halt.

"In the second half, we all worked together and everybody tried to take shots," Cetera said. "Coach told us at halftime, 'why not hit a shot from 40 yards out?.' That's how we scored our first goal.

"That one shot seemed to change the whole momentum of the game and everything opened up. Once we got that goal, everyone had the biggest smiles on their faces and we knew that we had to put them away.

"Hopefully we can keep taking a lot of shots. But it wasn't just our offense today, our defense also stepped up. Our heads were kind down after we lost to Central but our team is so happy right now."

After Cetera's long free kick was stopped by the Tiger keeper a short time later, the Griffins made the most of their next shot.

Roth's liner was headed toward the net but Solis deflected it away, only to see Kirchoff put in the loose ball from close range.

Collecting two goals in just over eight minutes is big, especially for a team that had scored twice in only three other matches.

"Our team feels great right now because this was just a good all-around effort," Kirchoff said. "It started with our defense by getting a shutout while our offense also managed to come up big today.

"The first 10 minutes of the second half were rough but we overcame it and came out on top. This win was very important because we have our confidence up and know we can take anyone on our schedule.

"We probably could have won our last two games, but that's okay because we came out today and won. I like how we all connect so well, we have such good team chemistry and have fun with each other."

Over 10 minutes went off the clock before the Griffins capped their offensive outburst by converting on their next good chance.

That's when Ralph sent a pass inside to Will, who capped his winning weekend with the football and soccer teams by connecting.

"This was completely a team effort," Will said. "The defense and Rick kept a zero in the back and our offense involved everyone. We were all stepping up and taking shots to put the pressure on them.

"In the first half we were looking to keep possession and maybe get a goal but we knew that we had the wind at our backs in the second half. Once Anthony scored his goal, it got the ball rolling for us.

"This win shows what our team is capable of doing. We think we can still win this conference, especially if we play like that. We overcome adversity and play well together since we have good chemistry."

East had a few more opportunities after that but Jake Stokes and Spencer Bartczak were denied during the final five minutes.

The opening half featured some frustrating moments for the Griffins, who had several good chances but put none into the net.

Most came in the second part of the first half, beginning with a try by Roth and an attempt by Joe Seper that was deflected.

After Torres stopped shots by Mireles and Michael Huffar, Will was denied on a liner and Roth's free kick led to a corner.

West had a good chance before the break but Torres dove to stop a shot by Sanchez and Seth Adams eventually cleared it away.

The Griffins return to SWSC Blue play on Tuesday against visiting Homewood-Flossmoor and play on Thursday at Carl Sandburg.