Lake View, St. Joe tumble in semis

Sacred Heart-Griffin's Luke Miller (3) tries to maintain control over Lake View's Julian Montiel.
(Stacia Timonere/For the Sun-Times)

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The first year of the Class 2A boys soccer finals was a rude awakening to area teams Friday afternoon, as Lake View and St. Joseph combined were outscored 11-3 in their two semifinal games at North Central College in Naperville.

Their reward -- a spot in the 9 a.m. third-place game on Saturday morning.

Peoria Notre Dame (20-3-1) earned a berth in the 11 a.m. title game with a 6-2 victory over St. Joseph (16-7-2). Up next for the Irish is Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (20-2-2), which knocked off Lake View (18-8-1) 5-1.

“We came out ready to play, but I’m not really sure what happened to us out there,” said St. Joseph forward Marco Gutierrez, who entered the contest with 31 goals.

Odds are if it wasn’t for the outstanding play of Chargers’ goalie Jovani Castanon, Peoria Notre Dame would’ve easily scored 10 goals in the contest. The sophomore’s 14 saves were the most made in a state finals game since St. Viator’s Marcus McDowell recorded 18 in 2003.

But even Castanon’s heroics weren’t enough to slow the Irish’s attack, which has now outscored its postseason opponents 26-0 this fall. With the latest shutout, Peoria Notre Dame has not allowed a goal in its last nine games.

With less than 10 minutes to play in the opening half, Cody Gilfillan opened the scoring for Peoria Notre Dame. A minute later, Dominic Bonello extended the Irish’s lead to 2-0. Vince Cicciarelli landed the knockout goal with less than three minutes to play in the first half when he recorded Peoria Notre Dame’s third goal in six minutes.

John Porvasznik and Frank Petrich tallied for St. Joseph in the second half.

“We had a great year, and I’m sure that will sink in later on,” said Gutierrez, whose team was outshot 30-11.

Lake View’s dream of becoming the first Public League team since Harrison in 1973 to capture a state title came to an abrupt end.

The Cyclones scored four unanswered goals to start the game and cruised into its third state championship game in the program’s history.

Elviden Topic had the lone goal for the Wildcats with 20 minutes to play.