Lancers post 14th win of the year against visiting Batavia

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By Gary Larsen

Like a thief in the night, Lake Park striker Joe Passarelli lurked on the back side of a free kick sent in by teammate Ryan Castello, and when the ball hit the ground he was ready.

“Before the ball had gone over the keeper, I saw that it was going over,” Passarelli said. “Then I just touched it into the goal. I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Castello’s finish into an empty net ultimately proved to be the game-winner of the Lancers’ 4-1 win over visiting Batavia on Thursday night.

The Lancers got two goals from Passarelli and one apiece from Oliver Huerta and Tim Adelman in the win. And with the days counting down on three decades of service for retiring head coach Norm Hillner, Lake Park’s players know that every one from here on out counts on a larger scale.

“It’s our last night game we’re ever going to play here, and it’s coach’s last night game, too,” Adelman said. “We needed to get a win, especially after a tough loss on Tuesday.”

Lake Park (14-6-2) and Neuqua Valley were tied 0-0 at halftime of their game Tuesday before Neuqua exploded for five goals in the second half.

“We came out really flat in the second half, and that loss really inspired us to come out (strong),” Passarelli said. “We came out firing at the net and it really paid off.”

Lake Park took on a Batavia team that rested five players for various reasons, so coach Mark Gianfrancesco got to see how a handful of young players would fare against a big and athletic Lancers’ squad.

Batavia (13-5-3) played without the services of Lalo Cuautle, Nick Barstatis, Cam Callipari, Peter O’Brien, and Calvin Baez on Thursday.

“We sat five guys to make sure there were no (yellow) card problems going into the playoffs,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “I would have liked to have our full lineup today and not have to worry about cards, but it would have been silly for me as a coach to put those guys out there and take a chance.”

Passarelli netted the game’s first goal at 16 minutes, when he romped up the left touchline and fired from a tough angle after he had passed the top of the Batavia penalty area. The senior let out a screech as the ball was still in flight inside the near post, headed for the back netting.

“I was just trying to put it towards the goal at the near post. It’s usually not a place you can score on, from that angle,” Passarelli said.

Batavia answered back with a tying goal three minutes later, when John Barnes finished on a ball near the post, but Lake Park regained the lead for good nine minutes later when Castello launched his long-range freekick near the touchline on the left side

Passarelli wasn’t sure if his sneaky second goal of the game was his 19th or 20th of the season, after it arrived at the 28-minute mark.

Batavia kept fighting and pushing into its attacking third, but Lake Park grabbed a 3-1 lead before halftime thanks to a nifty bit of give-and-go between Huerta and Osvaldo Rivera at 37 minutes, with Huerta scoring from 18 yards out.

Huerta’s craftiness stood out in the second half.

“I though (Passarelli) played with fire tonight and made things happen, and Oliver can do those things offensively,” Lake Park coach Norm Hillner said. “We’d just like to see him do more of that.

“We played hard tonight and got some breaks. We got a near-post goal early but yet, within five minutes we gave one back and you can’t do that, especially when the tournament rolls around. Unfortunately in the past few years we’ve lost on PKs – we lost a sectional championship on PKs – but if you don’t give up goals, you’ll at least get to that point.”

“I think we’ve got enough firepower to score, so if we can defend…”

Adelman got in on the action as the lone goal scorer of the second half, set up by another long free kick from Castello. “It was deflected off one of their players,” Adelman said. “(Passarelli) took out the goalie, their defender hit it, and I just wanted to finish it.

“We’ve been playing faster. When (Rivera) came in we started to get those combinations and then (Huerta) got his goal.”

Passarelli applauded the Lancers’ play off the bench in the win.

“The bench did a really good job sparking us tonight,” Passarelli said. “When they came in, they played hard for ten minutes. They didn’t just go through the motions. They contributed to the way the game turned out.”

Lake Park plays its final regular-season match at home against Barrington on Saturday before the No. 4 seed of the Bartlett sectional opens regional play on Wednesday against No. 14 Streamwood, at West Chicago.

Batavia is the No. 2 seed of the Naperville North sectional and the Bulldogs will play No. 14 Bolingbrook in their regional semifinal at Waubonsie Valley on Tuesday.

The Bulldogs’ full lineup hasn’t been on the field together in four of their last six games, but they’re aiming to have everyone in the fold for Tuesday’s regional opener.

“They’ve got some guys that are crafty and if we don’t come ready to play, they’re going to put some goals in on us,” Gianfrancesco said of Bolingbrook. “But we’ll have everybody ready to roll and we’ll have everyone back.

“I thought Anthony Torres played very well in the middle tonight, controlled a lot of the pace of the game and was very composed. He did a nice job tonight.”

Gianfrancesco was also glad to get a look at his program’s future on Thursday.

“The guys we had out there did a nice job,” he said. “We brought up five guys to take a look at them for the playoffs and we liked what we saw from some of the guys.

“We really had two keeper mistakes that led to two of (Lake Park’s) goals, so really it’s 2-1 at that point, and then we just didn’t close a couple people down. But we were really mainly focused on seeing what some of the guys we brought up could do out there. Ian Larsen, a freshman, looked pretty good and so did Brendan Allen. Those are two guys that played really well.

“They showed me a little something and that’s what I wanted to see, that maybe they can put some pressure on some other guys to play for Tuesday.”