Lake Zurich shuts down Cadets

By Mike Garofola

The Division I-bound trio of Eric Pothast, Nick Janus and Tim Kreutz helped Lake Zurich claim 3 vital points Wednesday afternoon against Marmion Academy in a 2-0 victory to help the Bears stay alive in the race for a spot in the 3rd place match this Saturday at the 21st annual Barrington Class Soccer Tournament.

Janus, who is bound for the University of Wisconsin next fall, helped put the Cadets (1-2-0) under pressure early with a goal at 13 minutes, then later was the Bears senior in the middle Pothast (Marquette) who finished things off with a superb finish to help seal the Lake Zurich victory.

The Bears (2-1-0) will need a win in its final match in pool play today against Rockford Boylan to insure their spot for a team trophy this weekend, while the Cadets look to surprise high-flying Wheaton-Warrenville South which has already booked its place in the 6:00 final two days from now.

"The reason we come to a tournament like Barrington every year is because we play big-time clubs and big-time competitions to help us prepare for what is ahead of us in the regular season and hopefully beyond," said an upbeat Cadets head coach Kevin O'Connor.

"Even after dropping our first two matches (here) I really feel that we're not that far away, and that we're beginning to figure things out on both sides of the ball."

The Cadets fought and defended magnificently for the first half hour of play as the Bears were at full throttle with as good as an opening spell as O'Connor's club might see during the 2009 season.

The aforementioned threesome from Lake Zurich had a little too much size, speed and strength for the Cadets along the back to handle from the opening whistle and it appeared it was only a matter of time before they would find the back of the net.

"They were big and strong and we had some trouble marking and keeping (them) in front of us," admitted O'Connor of the Bears frontline and midfield.

Junior keeper Evan Lefelstein did his best to slow the Lake Zurich express, making four terrific saves, including a kick save at the near post off the shooting boots of Kreutz just two minutes into the match.

Lake Zurich's keeper did well to challenge off his line to punch away a potentially dangerous free kick sent in from Max Rosenfelder at 22 minutes, which would be the Cadets best chance at solving their opponent's backline during the first half.

"We made it (too) easy for Lake Zurich to defend because we played too direct and not wide (enough) to stretch the field and create some space," admitted Rosenfelder.

Marmion's attack picked up after O'Connor dropped his other top striker, Sam Duffield, into the middle of the park to help spark a struggling attack.

The Cadets would produce some better play from front-to-back for a good quarter of play, slowing the Lake Zurich offense down with an aggressive trap, while going through the middle and having Duffield, Jeff Martin and Duffield getting more touches than before, but not enough to find the back of the net.

A nifty run after collecting a poorly cleared ball deep inside the Cadets' end would allow Pothast to close out the scoring and the chance for Marmion to find a late equalizer.

"We possessed well in the second half up (to) the 18, but we just didn't have enough bite in the final third to get in and challenge (their) defense and keeper," said O'Connor.

"I thought we picked up play for nearly 20 minutes in the second half, and that was very encouraging to see us do against a really good team like Lake Zurich," added Rosenfelder, who shares the captain's armband along with Duffield, Steve Anderson and Tommy Cruger.

"There's a lot of team unity with this club this year and I know that we'll get things put together in time for conference play when it begins."