Eagles tie Lake Park in their 3rd game in 3 days

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By Gary Larsen

There are so many soccer tournaments across Illinois named for people worthy of the honor, and Lake Park’s Stach Memorial tournament is one of those.

“He was my assistant during my first ten years here. He was a physics teacher, a science teacher, and he was a great guy,” Lake Park coach Norm Hillner said. “He was killed in a motorcycle accident (in 1996). Wayne Stach was a good man.”

Lake Park earned the team title of the 10th annual Wayne Stach Memorial tournament with Thursday’s 1-1 tie against visiting Leyden in Roselle.

Leyden (5-2-3) won the Stach last season, while Lake Park (8-2-1) has won it in 7 of its 10 years of existence.

Thursday’s game was nearly split in time of possession, with the Lancers arguably earning a slight edge for the game. The Lancers had more possession in the first half, while Leyden picked up its possession game in the second.

What neither team had was many good looks on net. Lake Park’s Edgar Dorado chased a ball down in the right corner early in the game and Joe Passarelli got a touch on Dorado’s cross before it rolled over to Nick Zanghi.

Zanghi fired at the far post but Leyden keeper Marco Granda made the stop on what turned out to be the game’s best scoring chance in the run of play.

“They’re a good team and it was a pretty even battle. Everyone played hard but neither team could really find that edge,” Zanghi said.

Leyden had a flurry of early free kicks on the Lancers’ end through 12 minutes, while Lake Park worked the ball into its final third and earned a handful of corner kicks that went for naught.

Leyden got on the board first when Krystian Drozdz buried a penalty kick at 26 minutes. In the Eagles’ last four games, the senior forward scored a game-winner against Wheaton North, a hat-trick against Hinsdale South, and a goal against both Bolingbrook and Lake Park.

Drozdz ran in the shadow of all-state forward David Wisniewski last season, and with Wisniewski now gone to graduation, Drozdz is getting more and more at ease in his role.

“(Wisniewski) was the main focus last year,” Drozdz said. “But I feel like the team depends on me to score now. When we score, we win, and I’m trying to step up. I’m calling for the ball, we’re connecting more and more, and they’re finding me.”

Leyden coach Mark Valintis sees Drozdz acclimating well to his role as the team’s leading scorer. Thursday’s goal gave Drozdz eight on the season.

“Anyone would have been in the shadow of (Wisniewski) last year,” Valintis said. “But it really started last year for (Drozdz) in our regional game against Schaumburg, when he scored a goal for us.

“He had the best summer of anyone here and he has really stepped up. He’s being the leader we want him to be. And with Juan Recendez up there it helps him to have a partner he can work with. Since we’ve moved Juan up there, we’ve started to score.”

Thirteen minutes after Drozdz’s PK, Lake Park earned one of its own when Joe Passarelli turned the corner on the right side and got tripped inside the box. Passarelli converted the penalty kick at 39 minutes to give fans a 1-1 game at halftime.

Lake Park spent the first 40 minutes not allowing Leyden a truly dangerous shot on net. Ryan Castello, Pasquale Maranto, Brian Fischer, Tom LaFontaine, and Tim Adelman have all spent time on the Lancers’ back line, and along with keeper Pasquale Giovine have only given up 6 goals in 11 games this season.

Two of those goals came on penalty kicks, the Lancers have only given up 4 in the run of play, “and we gave up two of those to Elgin,” Hillner said. “We’ve done a pretty good job (defensively).

“We’re 8-2-1 and we’re doing great. We’ve beaten good teams but we’re going to continue to face good teams, and we have the potential to beat them if we read the game and anticipate the game at a higher level.

“We need to learn to get over the hump. They put the effort out every game but sometimes we over-hustle and get beat, or make that long run that you don’t need to make and it gives the other team a counter. They’re playing hard and you can’t argue with that, but we still need to do things a little smarter.”

Forwards Passarelli and Zanghi also had a long night locating dangerous shots on net, courtesy of a Leyden backline that has been similarly rock-solid. Central defender Fernando Camacho and teammates Moises Merlos and Arthur Bernaciak refused to budge in back for the Eagles.

And they were playing in their third game in three days.

“It’s the second time this year we’ve played three games in three days, and it helps show me what kind of heart my guys have got,” Valintis said. “My back three played all eighty minutes yesterday and all eighty today. The cold weather probably helped us a little today.”

Leyden spent more quality time in its offensive third in the second half, but a decent shot remained elusive.

“I knew Lake Park was good. Coming in here if you’d have told me we’d tie them in our third game in three days, I’d have taken it,” Valintis said. “And a couple better bounces or touches down there, and maybe we put something on goal.”

“I’m extremely happy. I would have loved to have gotten Norm in his last year, but a draw was a fair result,” Valintis said. “He has done so much for Illinois high school soccer and it’s always been fun playing against him and his teams.”

Hillner will step down as Lake Park’s coach after this, his 28th season at the helm.

“Every season has its motivations and especially being (Hillner’s) last year, it’s been a huge motivation for us,” Zanghi said. “Everyone is working real hard and it’s been good for us.”

“Our defense is real tight back there and everyone is starting to mesh, and our attack has been consistent, and we’ve been able to bounce back,” Zanghi continued. “We just need to be a little quicker to the ball. Some people are banged up but if we stay aggressive to the ball we should be fine.”

Drozdz is also happy with the direction his Eagles are headed, and with the effort they gave Thursday on tired legs.

“We’re moving the ball much better than at the start of the season. We were struggling a little bit,” Drozdz said. “Today we were a little tired, and I can’t say it was my best game, but I think we played with heart and we can’t be unhappy with that. We needed to push through and we did.”