Lancers bounce back from defeats with win over Mustangs

 

 

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By Curt Herron

Norm Hillner was definitely worried about how well his Lake Park squad would fare during Saturday's match at Metea Valley.

After all, Hillner's Lancers had gone 1-3-1 in their last five matches, including a 3-1 home loss to Streamwood on Thursday.

And Metea was celebrating its first senior day, honoring 17 players who've helped to get the program off on the right foot.

The Mustangs just missed a trip to last weekend's Pepsi Showdown finals and were coming off of 4-1 victory over Oswego East.

Another intangible was the 9 a.m. match start time for the teams on the day after each school had hosted big football game.

Lake Park eased some of its coach's concerns after it scored a goal during the opening quarter hour against the Mustangs.

The Lancers added an insurance score in the final half en route to a 2-0 Upstate Eight Conference Valley victory in Aurora.

It was the first division win for LP (10-4-1, 1-2), which had dropped Valley matches to South Elgin and Waubonsie Valley.

Oliver Huerta and Joe Passarelli scored goals for the Lancers while Joe Keane and Huerta both chipped in with assists.

Pasquale Giovine made five saves to record his seventh shutout, which was his first since September 10 against Elk Grove.

"I was concerned, especially after losing on Thursday and with three starters hurting," Hillner said. "It was a 9 a.m. Saturday game and it's homecoming week and the guys were at the game late last night.

"It was there senior day ever so we knew that they'd be pretty excited. You never know about senior days, but considering that these were their first seniors, we figured that they'd be fired up and they were.

"At this point of the season, everybody has injuries and you can either say that we lost because of them or hope that you have some depth and we had a lot of kids who stepped up today."

After winning eight of their first nine matches, with six of those being shutouts, LP struggled during the last two weeks.

Their coach hopes that Saturday's performance helps the Lancers return to their winning ways for the remainder of the year.

"We kind of challenged the guys by telling them that we only have three weeks left," Hillner said. "After Tuesday's game the seedings are done so this is a big for us to be 10-4 with a win over Metea Valley.

"We needed a big win like this, especially going up against Bartlett and Wheaton Warrenville South this week and with six other quality teams left on our schedule. I'm really pleased by how the guys played."

Hillner was pleased to see his squad post another shutout after they had allowed seven goals in their last two matches.

"Pasquale Giovine had a nice game today and Tommy LaFontaine is playing out of position, he's not a natural-born defender, but we moved him back there and he's doing a real nice job," Hillner said.

"We moved Timmy Adelman from midfield back to defense, Ryan Castello has been outstanding, Pasquale Maranto is getting better every day and Erik Benhart came off the bench today and played terrific."

Posting another shutout after going two weeks without accomplishing the feat was an encouraging sign for the Lancers.

"It feels good to win on their senior day," LP senior Ryan Castello said. "Tommy who hasn't even played defense before in his life came in and has been playing pretty solidly for us.

"Our defense had some difficulties against Streamwood. In the first half we played pretty solid but then they scored two quick goals in the second half and that brought us down.

"I like how our captains keep talking to us in order to keep all of us up. After going a week without winning a game, we were down but the captains helped to keep everyone up."

Like the Lancers, the Mustangs (5-4-3, 0-2-1) were also missing several key performers on Saturday for various reasons.

While Metea coach Josh Robinson would have liked to see his squad follow up on the Oswego East win, it wasn't critical.

What Robinson was far more concerned about on this day was allowing all of his seniors to get the opportunity to play.

And all of the healthy seniors on the varsity roster, as well as a few from the JV, saw playing time during the match.

This year's seniors include Derek Carothers, Blake Erwin, Adam Miller, Andres Espinosa, Cody Jones, Brett Erwin, Joel Schmidt, Ian Baumgartner and Kevin Decker.

Other Mustang seniors are Ryan Smyth, Ryan Solomon, Marco Cattani, Danny Shea, Zach Bavol, Nathaniel Bloodsaw, Chinmay Vaidya and Ilham Kabir.

"We wanted to play the seniors and got them all and that was exciting," Robinson said. "It was a super senior day and it was fun and enjoyable for them, with the exception of the final result.

"This is high school soccer and we want them to be a part of something. We had kids from our JV-1 and JV-2 teams playing in the game. I don't like a loss, but the most important thing is playing my kids.

"We had a great win on Thursday but we were banged up today. Norm does a great job of setting up a good team and they played well. They got the early goal and that made it tough for us to get into it.

"I thought that we knocked the ball around well, but unfortunately we weren't very dangerous offensively, and that was our biggest struggle today."

After getting off to a 4-0-2 start, the Mustangs have gone 1-4-1, which included tough losses in the Pepsi Showdown.

Following an overtime loss to Lyons Township and a late defeat to Oak Park and River Forest, Metea tied South Elgin.

The Mustang coach hopes that with the return of some key players, his squad will be able to put things back together.

"We had goals to win this or that, but we also have an end goal for the season," Robinson said. "This may have been a step backward but we want to peak at the right time and I think that we will.

"Blake and Brett Erwin have been playing fantastic soccer, Franco Cattani is playing center back for the first time and has excelled at it and Derek Carothers has also stepped up in goal for us.

"I'm also super proud of how Kevin Decker has worked extremely hard in the midfield. You have to be happy with how Ryan Solomon has been scoring goals for us and Cody Jones is also working hard."

As for Saturday's match, LP grabbed the momentum when Huerta scored off of an assist from Keane in the 11th minute.

Although Metea had a few close calls soon after that, its best first-half chance came shortly before the intermission.

Nate Donovan sent a long shot toward the box in the 33rd minute, which required Giovine to tip the ball over the net.

"On Thursday against Streamwood it wasn't our day but we came out today and I thought that we played a good game," Huerta said.

"We have some injuries right now but everyone has been stepping up. Hopefully we'll get everyone back since we have some tough teams coming up.

"It's been a pretty good season so far for us. We have eight more games left so hopefully we can keep it up the rest of the way."

After the break, LP added an insurance score when Passarelli connected in the 56th minute off of a pass from Huerta.

Lake Park had been struggling to find the net of late, scoring more than one goal only once in its last five matches.

The Mustangs had two chances with about 10 minutes left but Giovine stopped both, including a short shot by Donovan.

"We worked hard and had some good looks but just couldn't put the ball away," Donovan said. "It's disappointing but now we'll focus on our next opponent.

"A lot of people have been playing well so far and we all have to keep working hard to keep our energy up. We're progressing and getting better as a team.

"We have two big games coming up this week with Benet and Naperville North. We know that we'll have to go out and play well and we'll see how we do."