Troubles continue for banged-up Lancers

By Mike Garofola

Lake Park's mid-season woes continued Thursday night when an undermanned Lancers side fell to Leyden 3-1 in 3rd-round play at the Stach Tournament in Northlake.

The Lancers (4-5-2) who have had a bad string of luck and far too many injuries to list, found themselves in a tough spot against the Eagles (5-4-0) early on when the home side struck for two goals before the quarter hour mark.

"It would be easy to blame all of our injuries on our results of late, but the fact is we are not playing as well as we (can) and we've got to stop making so many mistakes if we look to turn things around," said Lancers captain Mike Keane, who returned to coach Norm Hillner's first-11 after injuring his knee in a 1-1 draw with Wheaton North on Sept. 5.

"It's been tough finding enough healthy bodies to (throw) out there," admitted Hillner, who saw three of his lads leave the match against Elk Grove last Saturday with a variety of ailments, including a couple of concussions.

"Elk Grove played hard (physically) and we just didn't come out of there very well."

"At times we've had 7 kids out, and that can become a difficult thing to overcome at times."

Leyden put the visiting defense under pressure almost from the start, and after Keane provided teammate Tyler Sadowski with the helper which went over the woodwork, the home side broke through in lightning-quick style.

Eric Ruiz fired in an unstoppable blast from outside the box on the right which ricocheted off the far post and jumped into the back of the net to give the Eagles the lead at 11 minutes.

Less than 60 seconds later, Eagles leading scorer David Wisniewski finished in sensational style after Ruiz collected a poorly played square ball in the Lancers end.

The goal was Wisniewski's 10th of the season.

"David put on 10 pounds of muscle during the off-season and he has now become one of the those prototypical type's of strikers that you always hope to have," said Leyden head coach Mark Valintis of his junior.

"Coach (Valintis) has helped me with my confidence this season, and my teammates are giving me lot's of chances to score this season," Wisniewski said.

The Lancers struck back minutes later to back into the match with defender Nick Ricciardi coming forward to thump his header into the back of the net off of a superb corner from Dewey Admire.

Neither side did well to play through the middle of the park after the trio of goals, but plenty of direct play and some glorious chances to finish would dominate play up to intermission.

Lancers keeper Marty Lupou would stop Luis Adame and Wisniewski along the way, while Leyden keeper Jose Lopez made an acrobatic save on a nicely hit side-volley from Sadlowski just before the break.

Chippy play and an eventual 5 yellow-card bookings would take much of the pace out of the match during the second half, but the Lancers would generate a couple of quality opportunities to equalize until Leyden would increase its lead later on.

Lopez would stay with consecutive well-aimed freekicks from Admire to keep his club ahead...  but would save his best for last when Keane missed on a clear chance when his one-timer in close was somehow turned away by the Leyden keeper.

An enterprising run to the far flag and great turn along the endline allowed Wisniewski to find Adame who would tuck his low drive into the back of the net to give the Eagles its much-desired 2-goal lead.

"This was a good win for us because Lake Park always comes at you at 110% and they really make you work for everything you get," said Valintis.

"Tonight was a good example. We get those two early goals and Lake Park came right (back) at us. We had some trouble in the back, but in the second half I thought the guys did better at finding our midfielder or just playing it out to stay out of trouble."

"We had some chances along the way (tonight) when we hit the post, or went wide (in) close," offered Lancers senior Ricciardi.
"We've got a lot of guys playing out of position because of injuries, and with that we're going to struggle at times."

With the loss, the Lancers tournament record now stands at 0-3-0, while Leyden improves to 2-1-0.

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