Lancers stay unbeaten in Upstate Eight play
Cali's serve, Huerta's goal spell doom for Waubonsie Valley

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By Gary Larsen

Lake Park goalkeeper Eric Ahrens stood tall and varsity newcomer Oliver Huerta got the goal the Lancers needed on Wednesday.

Lake Park (8-4-1, 2-0 in UEC play) won 1-0 over Waubonsie Valley (2-7-1, 1-3-1) in Roselle on Huerta’s 63rd-minute goal, in a makeup game after Tuesday’s storm-canceled contest.

Huerta stepped forward and buried a Sam Cali centering pass from 8 yards out, after Cali strolled up the end line on right side and picked his spot.

“I usually play an early cross but I thought maybe I’d dribble past the defender,” Cali said. “I took it down the line and saw Oliver. He was in a good position and I just played him the ball.”

The sophomore Huerta fought the urge to crowd the goalmouth, biding his time until the moment was right.

“He’s a good attacking mid, and he did a nice job on that play,” Lancers coach Norm Hillner said of Huerta. “He stayed near the top of the box and then ran onto the ball.”

Three of the Lancers’ four losses this year have come in 1-0 games. Goalkeeper Eric Ahrens posted his 5th shutout of the season and his second consecutive shutout, after Saturday’s 3-0 win over Freeport.

Particularly in the first half on Wednesday, the Lancers’ keeper needed to be on his game against a Waubonsie team that has struggled to score this year but pressured hard through 40 minutes.

“We had some breakdowns in the back and they had some chances. Ahrens had two or three great saves. He made some huge saves today,” said Hillner, who also applauded the effort put forth by Tim Adelman from his outside defender’s spot, and the consistency that Cali showed at outside mid.

Ahrens dove to his left to swat a Sam Bell shot over the end line in the first half, and was in good position to make saves on 4 or 5 Waubonsie shots on the day.

Lake Park nearly grabbed a lead the first half when Mike Catalano struck a free kick from the right side, and Nick Zanghi headed it off the crossbar. The Lancers pressured and found chances through the game’s first 10 minutes before Waubonsie’s attack counter-punched and play evened out.

“The thing is, we’re a good team. We know what we want to do with the ball, we can possess, we can work it around,” Cali said. “We’ve scored early and won games 4-0 and 5-0. We played really good today in the first couple minutes, but we slowed down from there.”

Waubonsie pushed hard for a tying goal after Huerta’s score, but the Lancers hung on to the final buzzer. Ahrens disappointed Waubonsie’s Jason O’Brien on his late shot on frame and Lake Park stayed unbeaten in UEC play.

But afterwards, team captain Cali expressed concern over a dangerous trend his side has been embracing recently.

“We need to work on our pre-game,” Cali said. “Our warm-ups aren’t good. We’re not getting here on time and we’re not coming out with passion. And we had passion at the beginning of the season. I think kids want to win, but nobody is lifting the whole team up.”

The Lancers play at Streamwood on Thursday in a Breast Cancer Awareness game, and then travel to York for a game on Saturday.