Wheeler PK gets Lions past St. Patrick
By Dan Santaromita

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Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor always demands a lot out of his players, but you didn’t need to be Taylor to see that the Lions should have been able to do more on Monday.

Viator dominated possession and had almost every chance in the match against St. Patrick, but it took a late penalty kick from Troy Wheeler to propel the Lions to a 2-1 victory in Arlington Heights. On another day the match could have ended up 5-0 to Viator, but instead to the Shamrocks hung around in the East Suburban Catholic Conference match.

“You got 18 corner kicks and you don’t put the ball away and you give it up from there,” Taylor said. “I sat a few of my kids for the first half and a part of the second half. I didn’t think they were performing. I thought they came out very lazy today and I thought they came out very lackadaisical.

“You don’t come out and go through the motions in a game like that. You don’t disrespect another team.”

St. Patrick was only able to clear the ball past the halfway line on a handful of occasions in the first half and only twice came anywhere near the goal. Despite that, Viator only led 1-0 at the break when Kyle Sukowicz followed up a blocked shot in the box and put it away.

The Lions play a possession based style that begins with short passes out of the back, even on goal kicks. It was working well on Monday, but the build up often broke down in the final third.

“We try to possess it a lot, but our coaches always notice that we usually possess more in the back and the midfield than we do in the attacking forwards,” said junior midfielder Ryan Henry. “That’s what we need to try to work on.”

The Shamrocks pushed forward more often in the second half, but the Lions still had most of the chances. Five corners and a few other shots on target produced nothing, allowing the Shamrocks a chance to level the match.

“We just simply didn’t finish,” Henry said. “We had 10 plus corner kicks and we should have been able to score. Usually we get a lot of heads on them, but we were hardly getting any heads on them.”

It takes just one chance and that chance came for St. Pats with about 15 minutes left. David Rodriguez stepped up for a rare free kick in Viator’s half and scored on a low driven shot to the far post.

Inexplicably the match was tied, but three minutes later Viator restored order. Ross Randon was taken down in the box and Wheeler converted from the spot.

Wheeler was an aerial threat on every Viator set piece and Taylor called him one of the most consistent players on the team. The senior defender moved up to the attack for part of the first half, but didn’t change the Lions’ fortunes in front of goal.

“We didn’t come out ready to play,” Wheeler said. “We thought it was going to be easier than expected. We didn’t make our runs to some posts.”

Viator’s assault on the Shamrocks’ goal continued after regaining the lead, but the insurance goal didn’t come. Spencer Moore had a pair of chances in the box and Jackson Owens had one at point blank range, but great saves from keeper Leo Rodriguez (11 saves) kept his team in the match.

“It’s just a case of getting in there and not putting them straight at the goalkeeper,” Taylor said. “My main concern today was just the lack of effort we came out with. I don’t put up with that.”

Taylor noted that in a 2-2 draw against St. Louis powerhouse DeSmet the Lions led 2-0, but the effort soon dropped and DeSmet was able to come back for the draw. It was still a positive result, something the Lions have had a lot of so far this season.

At 9-1-3 and 5-0 in the ESCC Viator has proven to be one of the top teams in the area. Their only loss came to Pepsi Showdown winner Lyons Township and the draws came against LT, DeSmet and undefeated Palatine.

Standout senior midfielder Ashwin Cornelius tore an ACL on September 15 in the loss to LT, but the Lions remain confident in the squad they have.

“Having Ashwin injured kind of set us back, but I still think our bench is deep enough that we can make a far run at state,” Wheeler said.

“We all just need to step up a little to fill that little midfield spot that we lost,” Henry added. “We have a good run for state this year we’re hoping because last year we didn’t do too good.”

The Lions begin their own tournament at Celtic Park against Wheaton North on Friday, which Taylor referred to as the start of the meat of the schedule.

“We play our tournament next week, then the next two weeks we’ve got Evanston, Marist, Notre Dame,” Taylor said. “Then our last one is Benet and that should be, as always, a good one.”