NL_092718

newlenoxpatriot.com SPORTS
the New Lenox Patriot | September 27, 2018 | 41
Boys soccer
Knights offense stifled against speedy, big Griffins bunch
Tim Yonke, Freelance reporter
The latest chapter in a
long-standing boys soccer
rivalry between Lincoln-
Way East and Lincoln-Way
Central was a lot like the
previous games: a shutout.
On Sept. 18 the Griffins
hung a 2-0 loss on Central
thanks to the play of forward
Cory Pitlik and goalie Victor
Porada.
The win put East at 8-3
overall, 2-0 in conference
and 3-0 at home; Central
dropped to 5-4 overall and
0-1 in conference.
Last year the Knights’
were 2-0 winners while in
2016 East triumphed 1-0.
“We wanted to do two
things tonight. We wanted to
make sure the set pieces were
clean and good — we scored
off of a throw-in. And, to get
stingy in the back and keep a
zero. We accomplished both
goals,” East coach Ryan
Decker said.
Pitlik was instrumental in
the Griffins scoring twice
in the opening half. At
the 23:57 mark, the junior
made a long toss-in from
the corner. After a couple
of deflections, junior Dante
Wright was able to head it
past Central goalie Adam
Kedzior.
Then, with 3:23 left in
the first half, Pitlik was out
ahead after taking a beautiful
pass from teammate Andy
Cahue and rifling it into the
far left corner of the net.
“Cory played excellent
tonight. He’s a handful,”
Decker noted. “Vic did a
nice job cleaning up the box.
The other guy that played
well was Ryan Corydon.
He’s our left winger and the
kid is just an endless motor.”
The Griffins needed that
motor to help stave off
a much more aggressive
Knights team in the second
half.
Andrew Burton heads the ball away from the Knights’ goal.
“I thought we played well
enough to create a bunch of
chances,” said Central coach
Sean Fahey. “We were on
the doorstep here and there
and we were just missing
that final touch. Unfortunately,
that was the game. I
think the second half kind
of spoke for what the first
half could’ve, would’ve,
should’ve gone.”
The Knights applied the
pressure during the final 40
minutes. Early on, Porada
made a nice save that was
followed by narrow miss on
a header in front of the net.
Central’s best chance, however,
came when Connor
Erickson’s blistering shot hit
the post with 18:20 left in
the game.
“Connor was all over the
field,” Fahey said of his senior
forward. “He played a
great game.”
Porada lauded his teammates.
“The defense in front of
me played really well tonight.
They didn’t let up
anything bad. All the shots
were manageable,” he said.
“It was a good win.”
The Griffins were forced
to play without leading scorer
Jackson Seida, who had to
sit out the contest for a red
card violation in East’s previous
game.
“Hats off to East. They’re
obviously a good team;
they’ve been rolling this
year,” Fahey said. “They’ve
got speed, they’ve got size
and they capitalize on chances.
That was the difference
in the game.”
“I think the team is starting
to come together in the
way of what we want to
and what the character of
the group and the intentions
of the group are,” Decker
said. “We set goals. It was
to win conference, to win a
regional and see how far we
can go.
“We’ve been waiting for
this group. Some of these
boys have been coming to
my camp since they were
9 and 10 years old. So we
knew this group was coming.
We knew that these two
years of juniors and seniors
together was going to be
a good one. The depth is
there; the speed is there. It’s
a really good multi-faceted
group. We have a lot of the
pieces to the puzzle.”
Pitlik added: “We have a
tough schedule but we can
take care of it. This is the
best team I’ve been on all
three years I’ve been here.”
The Knights’ Connor Erickson (left) tries to advance the ball past Lincoln-Way East’s Ryan
Corydon Sept. 18 during a match between the two teams in Frankfort. Photos by Julie
McMann/22nd Century Media
Lincoln-Way Central’s Dylan Leonard (left) stays in front of Ethan Barranca to control the
ball.