Lions hold off Jacobs to cap 2-1 opening week

By Mike Garofola

Saint Viator capped its first week under new head coach Mike Taylor with a 2-1 victory Friday afternoon on the turf of Olympic Park in Schaumburg over a gritty Jacobs side out of the Fox Valley Conference.

Connie Kulczycki would strike the eventual game-winner at 53 minutes to give the Lions (2-1) what looked like a comfortable 2-0 cushion.

However, the homeside continued to be pushed hard by the Eagles (1-1-0), who found some extra energy after drawing close after a Kelsey Quitschau long cracker at 66 minutes.

"Maybe playing our third match in five days caught up to us a little towards the end, but all-in-all our it was a good effort out there (today) and a good start to our season," said senior Samantha Gavin, who's work rate for Taylor would help give the Lions the edge in the center of the park, while providing the helper on the Kulczycki goal.

"We saw a lot of different players this week, especially today with us missing (4) starters, and overall I am pleased with our results this week, and looking forward to getting a fresh start when the girls return from spring break," Taylor said.

The long-time boys head coach moved over to the spring season recently to guide a womens program which returned several quality players from a 2009 club which bowed out 2-1 in its sectional opener to Glenbrook South in its final match at 3A soccer.

"(Taylor) brings a lot of experience from the boys side of things, as well as an intensity that (you) see both in our training sessions and during our games," said the aforementioned Gavin, "and I know that I like that a lot."

Forced to realign things along the backline, Taylor began the match playing a 4-4-2, with Kathleen Kane, Meghan McGrath, Megan Goerth and Jessica Tanyko in his first-11 and in front of senior Kate Lavelle in her initial start as the Lions' keeper with regular Stephanie Shanahan getting a head start of her spring break vacation.

During the first half hour, the Lions did well to find both Kane, in particular, on the outside as it constantly built its attack from the back and up the side, and it was Katherine Petrovich, in fact, who would score from her spot along the outside where the sophomore would play as one of Taylor's four in the middle.

Petrovich would run onto a ball sent from the far touchline by teammate Katelyn Hammarlund, and one-touch beautifully from 30 yards a ball that went up and over a helpless keeper Alex Williams, who would have little chance to stop the bending shot.

Petrovich, Taylor Skala and freshmen Erin Renee Murphy nearly combined to make it 2-0 in the 31st minute, and a late flurry by the visitors produced a low-driving free-kick from Margaret Rivera in which Lavelle would gather easily.

"It was a decent first half of soccer, which produced a couple of chances, that we should have put away," offered Taylor.

The home side had the run of play after the break and leading up to its second goal, in which appeared to fool newly-installed keeper Alyssa Barnard, as the left-footed floater by Kulczycki settled into the back of the net.

The pace and energy of this match would find another speed after the goal, and much to its credit, Jacobs didn't give in after conceding this second goal.

Lavelle was forced into a reaction save in close to stop Catie Sherman near the hour mark, which appeared to inspire the Lions' attack with Taylor stopped at the post by Barnard, then later going wide with a header off a Gavin corner.

An unmarked Quitscha would run onto a loose ball and strike a long-range drive to pull the Eagles within 2-1 to start a less than impressive final quarter hour of soccer by the Lions, who struggled against a hard-charging Jacobs club in search of the equalizer.

"We played a terrific 70 minutes of soccer, but fell off (some) for the last 8-10 minutes," said Taylor, who nonetheless was pleased with how his club responded down the stretch.

"But we had a lot of players in new spots towards the end, and (Jacobs) came hard and would test us a little along the back."

"We're a very young team, and playing a very good team like (Saint Viator) is a great experience for us, while showing how important it is not to have too many lapses against quality opponents," said Jacobs first-year coach Anthony Cappello.