Tigers score twice late to beat Lancers

By Curt Herron

Wheaton Warrenville South's players felt a little empty after settling for a weather-shortened tie against West Chicago on Thursday.

That's why they were anxious to return to their winning ways when they met up with Lake Park in a nonconference match on Saturday.

In a clash of two squads who were both missing a few regulars, the Lancers gave the once-beaten Tigers all that they could handle.

But South scored a pair of goals during the final 10 minutes to pull out a 4-2 victory over Lake Park at Kruske field in Roselle.

Alden Marton got the game-winner with 9:36 left and George Doran added a score with 8:02 to go. Both goals were assisted by Alec Brazeau.

The Tigers, who had won four straight before their recent draw, improved their record to 14-1-2 while The Lancers fell to 8-8-2 on the year.

"I think there was some unfinished business from Thursday since the boys felt they got a result that wasn't deserved," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "I'm proud of how our guys hung in there and fought through adversity.

"We made some adjustments by keeping guys up and playing simpler through the middle. We got numbers forward and consequently we had second chances and the boys adjusted well and were able to find the open seams and finished.

"We were missing some starters and then Manny Munguia went down in the first five minutes. But you know that guys are going to go down and other people need to step up. Games like this are great since other guys get tested."

South scored late in the first half to forge a 1-1 tie at the break and then it moved ahead with another score in the first eight minutes of the second half.

But the Lancers responded with a score with just over 23 minutes remaining and the two sides both had chances to move in front before the Tigers finally did so.

With 9:36 left in the match, Marton got past defenders and was able to head in a short shot off of an assist from Brazeau to give South a 3-2 advantage.

About a minute later, Doran was stopped on a header but he made the most of his next header by converting from close range following a pass from Brazeau with 8:02 left.

Marton got things started with the initial shot on goal against Lancer keeper Eric Ahrens less than two minutes into the match.

The Tigers got a bad break a few minutes later when Manny Munguia had to be helped off of the field and the senior never returned.

Lake Park capitalized on its first good opportunity when Elson Divinagracia placed a shot into an open net with just 9:11 gone.

South threatened next as Doran tried to get off a shot with the keeper out of the net but Tim Adelman was able to clear the ball.

Just after the midpoint of the first half, Lake Park's Sal Cali and Tyler Sadowski had shots that were deflected and resulted in corners.

The Tigers evened things up with 6:25 left in the opening half as Joe Bianucci connected following an assist from Andy Guerrero.

South's Drew Bellmer and Lake Park's Sadowski exchanged shot tries during the final two minutes of the half as things stayed even at the break.

"We came out with the mentality that we had to win but we knew that it would be tough because of the conditions but we pulled together as a team," Guerrero said.

"This was a good victory for our team. We were anxious to get a win since we couldn't complete our last match. We knew Lake Park would be scrappy and play hard.

"We want to continue our winning streak and build our momentum going into the playoffs since that's important. We're playing together as a team and working hard."

Ricky Munguia gave the visitors a 2-1 lead with 31:57 remaining after he put in a side from the side which was set up on a pass by Marton.

After Bellmer had a shot knocked away a short time later, South keeper Derek Babb hauled in a corner kick that was sent in by Lou Cesario.

A short time later, Cali had a shot attempt cleared by Will Huesing and Divinagracia saw a shot try get cleared away by Colin Ringel.

But the Lancers capitalized on their next chance when Kevin Twarog put away a loose ball following a pass from Mike Keane with 22:51 left.

Just prior to the midway point of the final half, Bellmer and Tom Schubert were both stopped by Ahrens on line drive shot attempts.

Lake Park's fortunes took a turn for the worse with about 18 minutes left when Keane got injured and left the match for good.

With just under 15 minutes to go, Ricky Munguia had a shot try deflected and Marton came up with the rebound but was just wide of the net.

Lake Park's Twarog, Alec Kubica and Divinagracia and South's Brazeau all had shots stopped or deflected away in the next few minutes.

That set the table for Marton's game-winning score and then the subsequent insurance tally from Doran which closed out the scoring.

Next up for the Tigers is Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. DuPage Valley Conference showdown against unbeaten Naperville North in Naperville.

Man of the match: Alden Marton

Wheaton Warrenville South senior Alden Marton was all over the field during his team's 4-2 nonconference victory at Lake Park on Saturday.

With his squad already missing a few regulars, everyone had to step up when Manny Munguia went down with an injury during the early going.

To further complicate matters, Lake Park grabbed a quick 1-0 advantage and was able to maintain it until shortly before halftime.

Ricky Munguia took a pass from Marton and scored a goal with 31:57 left in the match to give the 14-1-2 Tigers a temporary 2-1 lead.

The hosts forced another tie and things were still even at 2-2 heading into the final 10 minutes of play before South scored twice.

Marton scored the game-winner with 9:36 left off an assist from Alec Brazeau and George Doran added another score just 1:34 later.

"This was a blast," Marton said. "It took a lot of effort to battle through it since the conditions weren't ideal. But we were definitely eager to play today.

"The refs could have made it either really bad or really good and they allowed us to play a lot, which allowed some flow to form so this was a great game.

"It always feels good to win and it's good to be able to compete against teams like Lake Park. We're having a great season and it's been a lot of fun so far.

Tigers starters vs. Lancers

Tigers Schedule