Lions blank Marian Catholic to get victory in home opener

 

 

By Curt Herron

Considering that his roster features several young players, Mike Taylor realizes that it's going to take some matches to bring things together.

Unfortunately for Saint Viator's coach, his squad had played just two early matches prior to last weekend due to the weather and spring break.

As of Wednesday, the Lions have suddenly doubled that total and their coach saw several positive signs as the squad kicked off conference play.

Their most-recent action marked the start of the home schedule as they took on Marian Catholic in an East Suburban Catholic Conference match.

The short-handed Spartans hung tough for a half but the Lions opened things up after the break as they claimed a 4-0 win in Arlington Heights.

Saint Viator (3-1, 2-0), who entertains Carmel on Saturday, also posted a 2-0 victory at Providence Catholic last Saturday in its ESCC opener.

"We went 1-1 in the first week and then had our next three games cancelled and then we went on spring break for 10 days," Taylor said. "Now we've come back and played two games in the last week, so it's been a little tough to try to get into a rhythm.

"We've got a lot of young kids and game experience is going to biggest thing to help them out. They just need to get into games and play with some of the older girls. We're progressing and will improve each game and get there by the end of the season."

The hall of fame coach likes the makeup of this squad, which gives him hope that they can make another long run in the postseason this year.

"We have some good ball movement and the girls get along well with each other and work hard and listen. But when you have eight freshmen and sophomores on the squad, it's all about their confidence.

"After only playing four games they're still looking to the seniors and not letting their personalities come through so that they can do things. I would much prefer to let them just go play the game."

In Wednesday's victory over Marian, the Lions received goals from Chloe Luthringshausen, Erin Murphy, Michelle Trovato and Molly Ziegler.

Samantha Stanley only had to stop one long attempt by the Spartans (1-4-1, 0-2) before being replaced late in the match by Megan Mueller.

But things certainly didn't come easily for the Lions as Marian battled throughout despite arriving late and then falling behind quickly.

The match started nearly 40 minutes late, which could have been an issue on the overcast and chilly afternoon, but fortunately, was not.

While it would have been understandable for fans to watch the match from their vehicles along Dryden Avenue, most opted to tough it out.

Problematic for Nasser Shahtaji's squad was the fact that they didn't have any reserves available while the Lions substituted liberally.

And had it not been for the efforts of keeper Sarah Sieracki, the bus ride back to Chicago Heights would have seemed a whole lot longer.

While Saint Viator kept the Spartan keeper on her toes, she came up with many big stops to keep her squad close during the opening half.

One she couldn't do anything about happened in the first minute when Luthringshausen fired in a shot from the side for the first score.

"We need more practice," admitted Luthringshausen. "We've only had two conference games so the more we play, the better we'll do. We're looking forward to Saturday's game since it should be one of our toughest games in the conference.

"We have a young team with a lot of new girls this year, but I think that we have a lot of chemistry so we'll be able to work together. The seniors on the team all need to step up and shoe more leadership and things will fall into place."

The Lions kept up the pressure with a header from Trovato that was hauled in and then a liner from Murphy that was punched over the net.

Sieracki deflected away a short try by Luthringshausen and stopped the rebound from Maggie Leazer before halting a Luthringshausen liner.

Marian's lone offensive threat came about half an hour in when Mary Ann Crosetto sent in a long attempt, which Stanley easily hauled in.

As the half wound down, Ziegler, Megan McCollum, Murphy and Sarah Cooney all had attempts of varying degree thwarted by Marian's keeper.

It was more of the same after the break, beginning with denials on efforts by Kayne Stanley and Trovato before the Lions scored again.

Saint Viator grabbed a 2-0 advantage in the 47th minute when Murphy fired in an attempt from long range which managed to find the net.

"It was just really exciting to be able to finally play on our own field," Murphy said. "And it's also nice to finally be playing some more games. We were able to relax after awhile and once we started to play, things were fine for us.

"We've been with this group of girls for a couple of weeks now and the underclassmen are really helping us a lot and they bring a lot to the team. I think there's a lot of team chemistry and that's something that's also good to have."

Stanley and Murphy were denied a bit later but Trovato made it 3-0 in the 51st minute with a shot that hit the crossbar and went in.

A few minutes later, Murphy had a corner kick punched away and sent in two more, with headers from Trovato and Leazer being halted.

Sieracki thwarted efforts from Trovato, Cooney and Katharine Sexton before Murphy found Ziegler, who connected in the 74th minute.

The Lions kept at it but Grace Ross was denied on a short try and Micaela Lonigro saw two shots stopped prior to the final whistle.