Griffins get best of Lincoln-Way Central

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NEW LENOX -- The Lincoln-Way East senior soccer players wanted this one.

The East seniors had never been on a varsity soccer team that beat Lincoln-Way Central. But the Griffins put an end to that streak by rallying for a 3-1 victory over Central in a Southwest Suburban Red battle Tuesday night.

"We wanted it this year," East senior defender Alex Cernak said. "This is the first time us seniors have beaten them and it was our last chance on the varsity."

"Yeah, it was a big thing," agreed junior defender Seamus Hughes. "Last year, we lost a heartbreaker to them 4-3 in double overtime. But this time we stayed strong after we got down and came back with three goals."

East (9-8, 4-2) trailed 1-0 at halftime, but the Griffins knotted the game up at 1-1 when senior midfielder Marko Dumlija rocketed in a goal from 22 yards out that sailed into the top left corner of the net with 22:39 left to play.

That sent a group of about a dozen Griffin student fans, that braved the rainy elements, into a celebratory mood.

But the goal, and Dumlija's excessive celebration that included grabbing the corner flag afterward, seemed to charge up Central. The Knights came back just a minute later with the first of a couple of golden opportunities as freshman striker Conor Bartuch had a shot bounce off the crossbar and a follow-up header sailed over the goal.

Just over 2 minutes later, junior midfielder Keegan Balle had a one-on-one opportunity down the right side, but his crossing shot sailed past the left post and no other Knight could get a touch on it.

"They had chances after we scored and we got lucky," Cernak admitted. "Both teams had hard play and good team effort."

"We had opportunities," lamented Central assistant coach Dan Scanlan. "They took advantage of theirs and we didn't on ours. We were pumped up in the first half and it didn't quite carry over to the second half."

Central head coach Dan Radz wasn't on hand because he received a red card in the Knights' 2-1 loss against Eisenhower on Saturday.

The Knights (6-11-2, 3-3) had a couple of more chances, but were either whistled for being offside or couldn't get off a shot despite possessing the ball in front of the East goal. A bit later Balle was able to get an attempt off, but it sailed just to the right of the post and into the side of the net with 13:13 remaining.

It seemed like the game might go into overtime when Griffin senior midfielder Karl Zoellick had a header that Central senior defender Matt Zack made non-goalie save by heading the ball out right in front of the goal.

But exactly 3 minutes later, Zoellick took a perfect left side corner kick from junior midfielder Jason Casler and zipped it into the net to put East on top 2-1 with 6:30 remaining.

After the goal, Zoellick dropped down in front of the net and did a few pushups. That along with Dumlija's excessive display, drew the ire of East veteran coach Brian Papa.

"We just don't condone that," Papa said. "We've never celebrated like that before. I don't know where that came from and that's not the way we play.

"There's no excuse for it and there will be some ramifications from it."

Central sent in a couple of balls in the final 4 minutes, but never got a real shot off. The Griffins capped the victory when senior midfielder Robbie McGowan blasted in a shot from 40 yards out that sailed over Central senior goalie Tommy Wardynski and into the upper half of the net with 50.9 seconds left in the game.

"He had the wind at his back so I told him to take the shot and he did," Papa said of McGown's unassisted goal. "Central had near miss after near miss. We'd played them tough, but this is the first time we've beat them here in four years."

The Knights scored their goal 28 minutes into the first half. It came when sophomore defender Brett Lysik laced a long shot that eluded East senior goalie John D'Ortenzio. Balle had the assist. The Griffins had 2 shots on goal in the first half, both by senior forward Mike Hegazin.

Now both teams look to gear up for the final regular-season push. Central had a tough start going 1-8-1 in its first 10 games. The Knights then went 5-1-1, but have now dropped two in a row.

"We have to defend the set plays better," Scanlan said. "On offense we moved the ball through the midfield well, we were just offside too often. We have to correct those things."

On the other side, the Griffins don't want to see the .500 mark again.

"Hopefully this is a sign of things to come," Hughes said. "We scored 3 goals in the second half and we've got two weeks to work on things before the regionals.