Lake Park blanks St. Ignatius
in Toyota Park showdown
Lancers' first goal by Horgan gets team fired up
By Derek Wolff
BRIDGEVIEW — After watching the previous game go to a penalty shootout, Lake Park and St. Ignatius were looking for goals in their Sunday afternoon fixture from Toyota Park.
They didn’t need to wait long.
Lake Park’s Oliver Horgan scored in the 12th minute and helped lift the Lancers to a 3-0 victory over the Wolfpack in game four of the Chicago Showcase, hosted by Toyota Park and the Chicago Fire.
Horgan, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, took advantage of some defensive miscommunication between St. Ignatius defender Conner Hatzopoulos and his goalkeeper, Nick Sanchez-Plesha.
Hatzopoulos attempted to play the ball back to Sanchez-Plesha after a Lake Park attack had sputtered out, but the keeper fell on the play.
Horgan jumped at the chance, picking off the pass and slotting it in for the early lead.
Sophomore goalkeeper Bryant Hales replaced Sanchez-Plesha seven minutes later, but it did little to stem Lake Park’s attack.
In the 26th minute, Horgan took a deep ball played over the top and went on a run. Eventually Horgan cut back inside the box and slotted a perfect pass for Anthony Passi, who doubled the Lancers’ lead.
Struggling to produce wins and goals lately, St. Ignatius coach Ryan Kearns said the first goal put his side at a disadvantage, not just on the scoreboard but also in its mind-set.
“We went down early on a mistake,” Kearns said. “Our keeper slipped, and that didn’t help. For my guys it gets in their heads quickly because we’ve been struggling lately. We’re having a hard time finishing games and getting a result, so when they go down 1-0, they’re probably saying in their heads, 'Shoot, it’s going to happen again.' And that’s probably the last thing they need to do.”
That just seemed to be the case for the Wolfpack on the afternoon. Trailing 2-0 at the half, the lead increased to 3-0 in the 58th minute when Ricky Claudio floated one over Hales’ head from about 30 yards out.
St. Ignatius had its best chance to get on the scoreboard 10 minutes later when junior forward Ethan McManus just missed on a header, knocking it just over the bar and harmlessly landing in the stands.
Kearns preached that his side, the Class 2A state runner-up in 2013, needs to look at the game and the stage as a learning experience moving forward.
“We have to take it as a learning experience,” Kearns said. “I told them in the locker room, 'I can’t tell you that this doesn’t stink to lose like this.' ”
With high expectations the norm for both sides, Kearns spoke about his side’s relative youth and its impact in the attacking third.
“We’re very, very, very young," Kearns said. "There are a lot of seniors on this team, but for the most part the juniors and the sophomores are getting the time, and it takes time for those guys to gel together. There’s only a few of them who’ve played more than just the eight or nine games we’ve had together, so it gets real tough to find that momentum.
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"For the first six, seven games of the season, we’ve really been struggling in the final third. I thought in the second half we actually did a pretty good job with possession, but we’re just not getting opportunities on frame.”
Senior defender Taylor Reifert said that while his team hasn’t been getting the desired results lately, there’s no room to panic yet and that they have experience dealing with slow starts after last season.
“It’s still fairly early in the season, and last year we did not start well, so no one who was on the team last year is too pessimistic now," Reifert said. "We still think we have time to move forward and learn from our mistakes. And a lot of our mistakes were stupid little things today that we can work on in practice, so we’re confident about the future.”
For Lake Park, which finished fourth last season in Class 3A, the start to the 2014 season has been special. St. Ignatius' Kearns recognized the strong group of seniors playing for the Lancers. Lake Park forward Pasquale Ottolino said their chemistry has developed as a result of being a tight-knit group.
“We work as a team,” Ottolino said. “We practice together, hang out with each other, just work as a team. Everyone gets along.”
Lake Park, which has already won a tournament this season after winning its own Invitational, looked at the spectacle of playing at Toyota Park as a challenge and hopes to build off the success it has already experienced, Ottolino said.
“We were talking on the side, and we just have to play with the intensity that we had in this game," Ottolino said. "It just brought up our confidence even more knowing that we played in Toyota Park today, and now we’re planning to play other games like that.”
The two teams met last year at Toyota Park -- St. Ignatius won that round as well as two prior matches.
Still, even in a 3-0 defeat the Wolfpack were able to gain collectively from the experience, Reifert said, and know there’s an easy way out of its current rut.
“We just have to score,” Reifert said. “We have to score some goals and we have to win. We haven’t won in almost a week-and-a-half, so a win would be very helpful.”
Starting lineups
Lake Park
G-Michael Jasiak
D-Josh Solarz
D-Miguel Ramirez
D-Brody Thompson
M-Kris Lopez
M-Oliver Horgan
M-Lorenzo Mariani
M-Franco Mariani
M-Michael Passi
F-Pasquele Ottolino
F-Ricky Claudio
St. Ignatius
G-Nick Sanchez-Plesha
D-Joe Brikha
D-Taylor Reifert
D-Kevin Dingens
D-Jake Schafer
D-Marco Gariabay
M-Woo Sung Jung
M-Randy Martinez
M-Mike Troyke
M-Max Smith
F-Pedro Torres
Man of the Match: Oliver Horgan, Lake Park
in Toyota Park showdown
Lancers' first goal by Horgan gets team fired up
By Derek Wolff
BRIDGEVIEW — After watching the previous game go to a penalty shootout, Lake Park and St. Ignatius were looking for goals in their Sunday afternoon fixture from Toyota Park.
They didn’t need to wait long.
Lake Park’s Oliver Horgan scored in the 12th minute and helped lift the Lancers to a 3-0 victory over the Wolfpack in game four of the Chicago Showcase, hosted by Toyota Park and the Chicago Fire.
Horgan, Chicagoland Soccer’s Man of the Match, took advantage of some defensive miscommunication between St. Ignatius defender Conner Hatzopoulos and his goalkeeper, Nick Sanchez-Plesha.
Hatzopoulos attempted to play the ball back to Sanchez-Plesha after a Lake Park attack had sputtered out, but the keeper fell on the play.
Horgan jumped at the chance, picking off the pass and slotting it in for the early lead.
Sophomore goalkeeper Bryant Hales replaced Sanchez-Plesha seven minutes later, but it did little to stem Lake Park’s attack.
In the 26th minute, Horgan took a deep ball played over the top and went on a run. Eventually Horgan cut back inside the box and slotted a perfect pass for Anthony Passi, who doubled the Lancers’ lead.
Struggling to produce wins and goals lately, St. Ignatius coach Ryan Kearns said the first goal put his side at a disadvantage, not just on the scoreboard but also in its mind-set.
“We went down early on a mistake,” Kearns said. “Our keeper slipped, and that didn’t help. For my guys it gets in their heads quickly because we’ve been struggling lately. We’re having a hard time finishing games and getting a result, so when they go down 1-0, they’re probably saying in their heads, 'Shoot, it’s going to happen again.' And that’s probably the last thing they need to do.”
That just seemed to be the case for the Wolfpack on the afternoon. Trailing 2-0 at the half, the lead increased to 3-0 in the 58th minute when Ricky Claudio floated one over Hales’ head from about 30 yards out.
St. Ignatius had its best chance to get on the scoreboard 10 minutes later when junior forward Ethan McManus just missed on a header, knocking it just over the bar and harmlessly landing in the stands.
Kearns preached that his side, the Class 2A state runner-up in 2013, needs to look at the game and the stage as a learning experience moving forward.
“We have to take it as a learning experience,” Kearns said. “I told them in the locker room, 'I can’t tell you that this doesn’t stink to lose like this.' ”
With high expectations the norm for both sides, Kearns spoke about his side’s relative youth and its impact in the attacking third.
“We’re very, very, very young," Kearns said. "There are a lot of seniors on this team, but for the most part the juniors and the sophomores are getting the time, and it takes time for those guys to gel together. There’s only a few of them who’ve played more than just the eight or nine games we’ve had together, so it gets real tough to find that momentum.
f
"For the first six, seven games of the season, we’ve really been struggling in the final third. I thought in the second half we actually did a pretty good job with possession, but we’re just not getting opportunities on frame.”
Senior defender Taylor Reifert said that while his team hasn’t been getting the desired results lately, there’s no room to panic yet and that they have experience dealing with slow starts after last season.
“It’s still fairly early in the season, and last year we did not start well, so no one who was on the team last year is too pessimistic now," Reifert said. "We still think we have time to move forward and learn from our mistakes. And a lot of our mistakes were stupid little things today that we can work on in practice, so we’re confident about the future.”
For Lake Park, which finished fourth last season in Class 3A, the start to the 2014 season has been special. St. Ignatius' Kearns recognized the strong group of seniors playing for the Lancers. Lake Park forward Pasquale Ottolino said their chemistry has developed as a result of being a tight-knit group.
“We work as a team,” Ottolino said. “We practice together, hang out with each other, just work as a team. Everyone gets along.”
Lake Park, which has already won a tournament this season after winning its own Invitational, looked at the spectacle of playing at Toyota Park as a challenge and hopes to build off the success it has already experienced, Ottolino said.
“We were talking on the side, and we just have to play with the intensity that we had in this game," Ottolino said. "It just brought up our confidence even more knowing that we played in Toyota Park today, and now we’re planning to play other games like that.”
The two teams met last year at Toyota Park -- St. Ignatius won that round as well as two prior matches.
Still, even in a 3-0 defeat the Wolfpack were able to gain collectively from the experience, Reifert said, and know there’s an easy way out of its current rut.
“We just have to score,” Reifert said. “We have to score some goals and we have to win. We haven’t won in almost a week-and-a-half, so a win would be very helpful.”
Starting lineups
Lake Park
G-Michael Jasiak
D-Josh Solarz
D-Miguel Ramirez
D-Brody Thompson
M-Kris Lopez
M-Oliver Horgan
M-Lorenzo Mariani
M-Franco Mariani
M-Michael Passi
F-Pasquele Ottolino
F-Ricky Claudio
St. Ignatius
G-Nick Sanchez-Plesha
D-Joe Brikha
D-Taylor Reifert
D-Kevin Dingens
D-Jake Schafer
D-Marco Gariabay
M-Woo Sung Jung
M-Randy Martinez
M-Mike Troyke
M-Max Smith
F-Pedro Torres
Man of the Match: Oliver Horgan, Lake Park