Lancers top a solid Addison Trail team in season opener

By Gary Larsen

Team unity is an invaluable commodity for a soccer team, but Lake Park just didn’t have it last season.

This year’s Lancers have already found that unity, which translates into something even better.

“We have the will this year,” Lancers’ goalkeeper Eric Ahrens said. “We could tell we’ve got something good here, and we want to win. We want to go far.”

“The big thing is, we play for each other this year,” Lancers’ defender Chris Mash said. “We don’t have one star player. We’re all good players and everyone can do their part.”

The Lancers played team soccer throughout their 1-0 win over host Addison Trail on Monday. And while season openers can often be hard to watch, the Lancers (1-0) and Blazers (0-1) put on a solid performance in Addison.

“We hope to be pretty good this year,” Lancers’ coach Norm Hillner said. “We played all 22 guys in the first half and 16 or 17 in the second half, and I thought everybody played well and contributed.”

“We’ve got good seniors, juniors, and a few freshmen, and they all seem to like each other.”

It was Lake Park freshman Mike Catalano who rescued a game seemingly headed for a scoreless tie, when he busted into the Blazers’ penalty area late in the game, drew a foul, and converted the penalty kick for the game’s lone goal.

“He’s good,” Lancers’ senior Sal Cali said of Catalano. “He’s going to help us this year.”

For most of Monday’s game, Lake Park’s back line of Mash, sweeper Jimmy Albright, Brendan Feeney, and Tyler Sadowski held the Blazers to shots from long-range. Ahrens fielded every shot from distance the Blazers sent in on him, including a long, late rip that forced him to make a diving save at the post.

In his first varsity season between the pipes, the senior Ahrens played calm and collected in his first start of the new year. “I’m comfortable,” he said. “I’ve been playing with these guys in club season, regular season, so it’s just like playing in any other game. I just want to come out to win.”

In the first half, Lake Park used a good handful of through-balls and crosses to penetrate the Blazers’ defense, but the Lancers couldn’t pull the trigger on a good, clean shot on net.

Scoring is usually hard to come by during early-season soccer games, but midfielder Cali liked the pressure his attack was able to muster.

“Elson Divinagracia is really good on the ball, Joe (Passarelli), Nick (Zanghi) is big and fast – we have a lot of threats in the attack,” Cali said. “I think there just needs to be a little bit more communication, and people just need to start moving more, and moving to the ball to get open.”

“But our subs and starters – everyone can score for us.”

Passarelli reached the end line up the left side a few times in the second half, with teammate Cameron Siegle sending one of Passarelli’s serves just wide of the far post. Mash drove a ball on net in the 65th minute, and Lake Park’s pressure resulted in a trio of corner kicks before Catalano earned his penalty kick in the 73rd minute of play.

Chasing a tying goal, Addison Trail managed to penetrate the Lancers back line a time or two down the stretch, but Ahrens and company kept the slate clean.

Lake Park also built a good head of steam coming into the new season. The Lancers went 15-1-3 in summer league play, including wins over Lincoln-Way East, Prospect, West Aurora, and Conant.

“A lot of what developed over the summer was our communication and our passing,” Mash said. “That’s a lot of what we worked on. We had a tournament in Iowa, and that’s strictly what we worked on there was our passing and finishing.”

“In this game, there was a ton of opportunities we could have finished.”

The Lancers travel to Lane Tech for a game on Tuesday before opening Lancer Classic play on Thursday, at home against Niles West.  The Lancers will also play Buffalo Grove, Conant, Wheaton North, and Glenbard East in tournament play before facing hosting Metea Valley on Sept. 6 in an Upstate Eight Conference opener.

“The Upstate Eight should again be one of the top conferences in Illinois – especially with the additions of soccer powers Geneva and Batavia,” Hillner said. “There is no weak team among the fourteen, and we hope to compete for the 1st UEC Valley Division championship.”