Lions use four-goal second half to defeat Dons in ESCC play

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By Mike Garofola

Judging from the Cheshire Cat grins on the faces of both Adam Fetter and Ashwin Cornelius, field turf is the desired choice of surfaces the two would prefer to play on from here on out.

The Saint Viator duo were the power source for the Lions attack Wednesday as they proved to have much to much firepower in a second-half explosion, which saw them pour in four goals, with three coming just eight minutes apart, in a 5-1 victory over Notre Dame in a East Suburban Catholic Conference match played in Niles.

"Oh yeah (we) like playing on the turf," said both Fetter and Cornelius simultaneously, when asked about their favorite pitch.

"We're a turf team, no doubt, and tonight - when we let the ball do the work, and we ran off of each other and played through our guys in the middle, we showed that we can play some attractive (attacking) soccer, just as I thought that we could with the players that we have," offered Saint Viator head coach Mike Taylor.

Taylor is in the process of moving all of the Lions matches from their worn-out natural grass home in Arlington Heights to other locations in the area for the remaining part of his regular season schedule.

The Lions (5-3-3, 2-0-0) will host Evanston this Saturday at Celtic Park in Palatine instead.

Taylor's lads won their second road match in the ESCC after playing a so-so opening 40 minutes - then turning up the heat after the break to make the second-half a one-sided affair against the gritty Dons (3-6-3, 0-4-0).

Notre Dame, which was badly short of attacking options, relied only on its big striker up top, Brett Bartes, who on another side, would easily be a 15-20 goal scorer.

In the early stages of this match, it appeared off the opening whistle that the Lions would run away and hide from their opponents, who had no answer for the pace of the Lions front six, including the aforementioned Fetter and Cornelius, as well as Spencer Moore, Jackson Owens and Andrew Ferrante.

All are part of Taylor's 'new-look' first- 11. The Lions' backline now features mainstay Troy Wheeler, along with Michael Decker, and rookies Jon Surdam and Mark Beletti, just brought up for the lower levels.

"We recently made a few changes in the back, as well as a few others spots in our starting lineup, and, for now, it looks like this is the direction we're going to go from here on out," offered Taylor.

The Lions coach almost called up a handful of others, including sophomore Mark Tun, who was given close to a half hour of play in the back, and showed he might be able to handle the rigors of varsity soccer in the not too distant future.

The first chance of an error-filled opening quarter hour fell to Owens, who finished under Dons keeper Sean McGovern from the right side after the junior took a quality ball from Ferrante to help break him loose from the Dons on that side.

With the Lions firmly on course to put several more past McGovern, it was the heart and meddle of the Dons which prevented the visitors from doing so, as well as was the Lions' inability to possess and make good decisions with the ball which helped keep a struggling home-side in the match, and eventually to find the equalizer 10 minutes from the break.

"We got a little careless, and started to give the ball away far too much - so we were chasing and defending, and on the other end, our offense was breaking down far too often to build any type of attack," said Taylor.

Despite its less than sharp play for the next 25 minutes following the Owens' goal, the Lions still mustered a few quality chances - including a moment where Cornelius nearly caught up to a wonderful ball sent in across the face of the goal from Ferrante at 10 minutes.

They threatened again at 17 minutes, when Kevin Patzke, just brought on to provide fresh legs up top - had a go at McGovern from 15 yards to force a save from the Dons senior keeper.

Both Patzke and Kyle Sukowicz, who would score the eventual game-winner just after the break, each provided much-needed energy and hard work up top when Taylor needed a spark to help jump-start the Lions attack.

Junior Mike McGrath saved a 30-yard blast from Adrian Barzowski - then a shot from Joe Hancock in a span of two minutes near the quarter hour mark, but the Lions keeper was unable to pull a Bartes' shot out of the back of the net at 31 minutes when the Lions allowed him to roam freely to the back post where he finished easily on a ball served in from Hancock.

"We had built so much momentum leading up that goal, and we let it all slip away, and never really regained any of (it) until the start of the second half," said Fetter.

Just before the Notre Dame equalizer, Patzke nearly doubled the Lions' lead when his close-range shot stung the gloves of McGovern, and squirted free, and if not for an alert Lucas Carlsson, who cleared off the line, it would have been the second goal of the game.

After reminding his club to play simple and to let the ball do the walking on the super-quick Notre Dame turf during intermission, Taylor was thrilled to see the lads heed his advice with a terrific opening salvo just moments after the referee whistled the start of the second half.

The Lions created a corner at 44 minutes and Fetter's low line drive from the near flag found the head of Wheeler - who sent a ball towards the spot - where an opportunistic Sukowicz somehow was able to redirect past McGovern.

"That was the start we were hoping for," said Cornelius.

Moore, who has been nursing a sore right foot, would come off for good minutes later when the talented sophomore re-injured that same foot, while Decker came off for a brief spell at 62 minutes - but would return later to the backline.

Stefan Miller, who shared the keeper job with McGrath, stayed with a looping free kick into the box from Hancock and pulled it away from a horde of Dons who bumped and jostled the junior.

But his best work of the half came at 59 minutes when he saved a blistering drive from Bartes at the near post to help keep the home-side from drawing even.

The Lions made Notre Dame pay for its failure to get equalizer at 67 minutes when Ferrante caught the Dons flat-footed with a superb early ball to space along the right side.

Owens found another speed to get past his mark - and when he did - he sent a curling ball at McGovern who was unable to make the stop.

With an always dangerous two-goal lead to protect, the Lions went about building a more comfortable cushion for themselves - and it did not take them long to do so.

Cornelius scored two goals in rapid succession - and nearly had a third in the span of six minutes - if officials didn't wave off his missile from 12 yards past McGovern.

"I kind of wanted a hat trick," said Cornelius with a wry smile.

Saint Viator poured forward after the Cornelius goal at 67 minutes with so much pace and creativity in its play, with the junior and his MF mate Fetter at the heart of it all.

Fetter played a superb ball to Cornelius - whose rapid strike went under McGovern.

Moments later, he chested a loose ball to his right foot, then volleyed home from 22 yards to score the prettiest of all of the visitors' goals.

"We played really well against O'Fallon (last Friday) and I think (from) that game, we saw that we could play at a higher level," said Cornelius.

"There's a lot of soccer still ahead of us, so we're not looking past anything but winning the ESCC for now," added Fetter.

The Lions will be at St. Patrick today for another ESCC match, before welcoming Evanston this weekend in an annual non-conference game with the Wildkits.

"We've been telling the boys this is the time of the year to begin to get their game together for the stretch run," began Taylor.

"We have a ways to go - but we're starting to see more positive things out there, than the negative which we had to get through in order to get ourselves in a position to compete for a conference title and a nice run in the playoffs."