Prospect, St. Viator
meet in neighborly battle
9:30 a.m., Saturday (August 30)
1213 E. Oakton Street, Arlington Heights.
Players to watch
Prospect
Dominick Taldone (MF), Alex Whiteman (F), Maciel Lojewski (F-MF), Nick Jozefowski (GK).
The Knights don't have to get to school too early for the bus ride to St. Viator -- the schools are a five-minute, side streets drive apart. Prospect has just a few holdovers from the 2013 club here this season, so plenty will be riding on the shoulders of the trio of Taldone, Whiteman and Ian Lenke, to name a few, especially early as the Knights transiton from the ways of old coach Kurt Trenkle to new manager Jason Cohen. "There's a lot of new faces, and guys who will need to learn to deal with the speed of play at this level, so it will be the job of Alex, Ian, myself, and a couple of other veterans to help everyone during this time," said Taldone. First-year GK (Jozefowski) turned in a quality start in the Knights opening against Niles West.
Saint Viator
Zach Gyuricza (F), Javier Romero (MF), Chris Beiersdorf (D), Sean Lonigro (D).
After missing the Lions opener with a red card from the 2013 season finale, senior Romero returns to give the attack the extra spark that it missed in the middle of the park during its 2-0 loss to visiting Lake Zurich on Wednesday. The Saint Viator backline, in full rebuild this fall, leans heavily on centerback (Beiersdorf) who knows all too well it will take some time to get organized along with his brand new mates. "We're playing a new formation (4-2-3-1) so the responsibility is different for all of us, and with everyone pretty much new in the back, we know we'll make some mistakes early on."
Team news
Prospect
The Knights finish up a busy first week of the early season with a short drive over to their nonconference foe. Prospect earned its first victory of the season over Jacobs (2-1) on Thursday when Taldone and Whiteman found the back of the net. "Going into this match, we're a little banged up, with Lenke and Dan (Marshall) not available for us along the back, so we'll need others to step up there," said Cohen. "We don't have a lot of varsity experience with this group, so we continue to look to continue to work on adjusting to the speed of the game. Work ethic is not an issue with these guys, but we'll need to be up for the challenge against a St. Viator side which is always well organized, and who will likely present challenges all over the field we haven't seen before." ... The Knights next game is the 2014 conference season at home next Thursday against Conant from the MSL West.
St. Viator
As he has since the beginning of time, manager Mike Taylor frontloads the Lions nonconference schedule with a variety of clubs to expose his club to as many varieties of styles and levels of talent as he can. The first two weeks of this season are no different, witnessed by a first week guest list of Lake Zurich and Prospect, sandwiched around Minnesota power, Totino-Grace (Friday) which usually makes the trip south every other fall. "We were happy to pick-up Prospect last year for the first time, as they provide a different look for us, and I know for the boys, it's always fun to play your some of your friends from a crosstown rival ball club," offered Taylor. Last season, on a sweltering day in Mount Prospect, the Lions struck for three second-half goals to earn a 3-1 victory. The Lions will be in Milwaukee next weekend to face longtime rival Notre Dame (Peoria), then nationally ranked Chaminade (Mo.). "We'll see where we're at after this 5-6 game stretch, make some adjustments afterwards, then go from there," says Taylor. "We'll play some of the best to see what we've got, and what we're made of."
Mike Garofola
meet in neighborly battle
9:30 a.m., Saturday (August 30)
1213 E. Oakton Street, Arlington Heights.
Players to watch
Prospect
Dominick Taldone (MF), Alex Whiteman (F), Maciel Lojewski (F-MF), Nick Jozefowski (GK).
The Knights don't have to get to school too early for the bus ride to St. Viator -- the schools are a five-minute, side streets drive apart. Prospect has just a few holdovers from the 2013 club here this season, so plenty will be riding on the shoulders of the trio of Taldone, Whiteman and Ian Lenke, to name a few, especially early as the Knights transiton from the ways of old coach Kurt Trenkle to new manager Jason Cohen. "There's a lot of new faces, and guys who will need to learn to deal with the speed of play at this level, so it will be the job of Alex, Ian, myself, and a couple of other veterans to help everyone during this time," said Taldone. First-year GK (Jozefowski) turned in a quality start in the Knights opening against Niles West.
Saint Viator
Zach Gyuricza (F), Javier Romero (MF), Chris Beiersdorf (D), Sean Lonigro (D).
After missing the Lions opener with a red card from the 2013 season finale, senior Romero returns to give the attack the extra spark that it missed in the middle of the park during its 2-0 loss to visiting Lake Zurich on Wednesday. The Saint Viator backline, in full rebuild this fall, leans heavily on centerback (Beiersdorf) who knows all too well it will take some time to get organized along with his brand new mates. "We're playing a new formation (4-2-3-1) so the responsibility is different for all of us, and with everyone pretty much new in the back, we know we'll make some mistakes early on."
Team news
Prospect
The Knights finish up a busy first week of the early season with a short drive over to their nonconference foe. Prospect earned its first victory of the season over Jacobs (2-1) on Thursday when Taldone and Whiteman found the back of the net. "Going into this match, we're a little banged up, with Lenke and Dan (Marshall) not available for us along the back, so we'll need others to step up there," said Cohen. "We don't have a lot of varsity experience with this group, so we continue to look to continue to work on adjusting to the speed of the game. Work ethic is not an issue with these guys, but we'll need to be up for the challenge against a St. Viator side which is always well organized, and who will likely present challenges all over the field we haven't seen before." ... The Knights next game is the 2014 conference season at home next Thursday against Conant from the MSL West.
St. Viator
As he has since the beginning of time, manager Mike Taylor frontloads the Lions nonconference schedule with a variety of clubs to expose his club to as many varieties of styles and levels of talent as he can. The first two weeks of this season are no different, witnessed by a first week guest list of Lake Zurich and Prospect, sandwiched around Minnesota power, Totino-Grace (Friday) which usually makes the trip south every other fall. "We were happy to pick-up Prospect last year for the first time, as they provide a different look for us, and I know for the boys, it's always fun to play your some of your friends from a crosstown rival ball club," offered Taylor. Last season, on a sweltering day in Mount Prospect, the Lions struck for three second-half goals to earn a 3-1 victory. The Lions will be in Milwaukee next weekend to face longtime rival Notre Dame (Peoria), then nationally ranked Chaminade (Mo.). "We'll see where we're at after this 5-6 game stretch, make some adjustments afterwards, then go from there," says Taylor. "We'll play some of the best to see what we've got, and what we're made of."
Mike Garofola