Saint Viator rolls into sectional title match

By Matt Le Cren

Basketball is Alan Aboona’s best sport and the one he hopes to play in college. He’s been Saint Viator’s starting point guard and captain since his sophomore year.

But the season Aboona is having on the soccer field has left opponents wishing he had stuck with just basketball. The senior midfielder continued his torrid play Tuesday, scoring two goals and an assist to lead Saint Viator past Fenton 3-0 in a Class 2A Elmwood Park Sectional semifinal.

Aboona now has 33 goals, including nine in the Lions’ three playoff matches, to go with 14 assists.

“The kid’s having a hell of a year,” Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor said. “He’s a basketball player by tradition and I say to him, ‘If you work as hard at this sport as you did basketball, you could go anywhere in the country and play’.”

“I still believe that. I’ve said to him, ‘If you don’t hook on with basketball, come to me. I’ll talk to some of the college coaches I know and take you for a year and work with you in a college program.’ He’s an athlete. He could be a stud.”

The Lions (20-4-1) have now outscored their foes 19-1 in the playoffs and are giving every indication that they could contend for the 2A state championship after dropping down from 3A, where they lost in the regional finals last year.

Saint Viator will play Wells in the sectional title game at 4 p.m. Friday at Elmwood Park. Wells defeated CICS Northtown 3-2 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

“I think we can make it all the way, especially if we’re playing as well as we are now,” Aboona said. “We’re all playing with confidence now. I don’t see anyone stopping us. Let’s hope it keeps going.”

The Lions completely dominated Fenton (11-13-1), which was playing in its first sectional game since 1987, when Taylor coached the Bison. St. Viator outshot the Bison 26-7, including 12-1 in the first half.

Despite that, the Lions led just 1-0 at halftime. The only goal was scored by Trevor Wheeler at the 32:33 mark. Aboona started the play when he passed the ball from the near the endline on the right side of the penalty area to Kevin Cavers in front of the Fenton goal. Cavers was blocked by a defender so he slid the ball to Wheeler on the left post for the easy finish.

Everything looked easy for Saint Viator except for the finishing. The Lions hit the crossbar three times and barely missed several other open shots. The first misses came five minutes in when Cavers hit the bar with a 22-yard shot and then watched Aboona whiff while attempting to put the rebound in with a bicycle kick.

Eight minutes later, Jack Horvath’s cross found Aboona, whose header hit the bar. Horvath had a chance on the rebound but shot it high. Cavers again drew iron with a header with 18:30 left.

Then there was the play of Fenton goalie Pedro Acuna, who was all over the place in making 11 saves, most of them tough ones. Acuna stopped Joe Schmidt from point-blank range with 13:35 remaining before intermission and knocked a hard shot by Cavers over the bar 10 minutes after that.

“We played well until [we got into] the last third of the field,” Aboona said. “We couldn’t really put it away in the first half. We weren’t really worried coming out of halftime. We knew we had this game.

“We just had to put a couple in and it would be done. Once we got that second one things really came for us and we put it away. Our effort was great in the second half. I think that’s what won it for us.”

Aboona played the starring role, scoring his first goal with 32:19 left after taking a pass from Wheeler, turning quickly and firing a 14-yard shot into the lower left corner of the net.

His second goal, which came at the 19:35 mark, was even prettier.

Acuna had rushed off his line to clear a ball but was caught out of position when the Lions quickly won the ball back. Aboona settled the ball and chipped it over Acuna’s head from 30 yards out.

“First half on all the set plays, on all the long throws we were inside the six and trying to hit and couldn’t put it away,” Taylor said. “I told the kids in the second half to play our game and just execute. That’s the key thing. And the next two goals they executed very nicely.

“My guys started to talk and started to connect with each other in the second half and took it to them. The first half we weren’t really connecting and we prefer to play connecting [passes] than play long balls.”

Lions keeper Scott Faul made four saves to record his seventh shutout. None of the saves were difficult as defenders Bill Krawzak, Joe Surdam, Nick Abel and Brendan King were solid throughout.

While the Lions do admit that dropping down in class gives them a better chance for a long postseason run, Taylor said the road is not as easy as the results so far would indicate.

“There is competition at this level,” Taylor said. “Fenton is as good as some of the teams we’ve played in 3A. They’re a young team.

“Do I think we’re good? Yes, I think that’s part of the reason you see these scores, because when we do execute, we can finish better than anyone. I’ve got guys that can put balls in the back of the net better than anybody. That’s what makes the scores go up.”

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