Bartlett continues surprising run

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:18PM

Bartlett continued its surprising start by knocking off Mount Carmel 1-0 on Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Pepsi Showdown.

The Hawks (5-0), making their tournament debut, went 3-0 in pool play and will face Larkin in Thursday's quarterfinals. Tony Paredes scored the game-winning goal – his second in as many games – and goalie Alex Busch came up big in recording the Hawks' second straight shutout.

"I'm shocked," said Paredes, who volleyed home a pass from Carmelo Abate with 19:05 left in the first half. "I didn't know we were going to be good this year and we're actually doing good. Our coach [Ben Beary] trains us every day, [uses] good drills, we run a lot and that helps a lot."

Mount Carmel (2-5), which went 0-3 in the tournament, was outshot 16-5 and played the last 26 minutes a man down after defender Colin Marz was ejected for a dangerous play. But the Caravan kept the game close thanks to the play of goalie Nikko Campbell, who made 10 saves, including back-to-back diving stops on Tyler Lake and Abate, in his first game since returning from a broken ankle suffered in the spring.

Mount Carmel had a great chance to tie the game with 13:00 remaining but Busch saved a penalty kick by Gonzalo Martinez.

"On the penalty shot I was scared because I thought they were going to score, but Busch saved that goal," Paredes said. "He's a really good keeper."

"They [consistently] won the second ball," Mount Carmel assistant coach Mario Diaz said. "We would win the first ball and then they would come back and get that second one.

"It's a young team. For most of these guys it's their first year playing varsity. We're regrouping now and we're trying new systems out."

Beary is probably the only person who is not surprised the Hawks are in the quarterfinals.

"Our goal coming into this week was to finish this week without losing and move onto the next round, give ourselves an opportunity to continue playing and we did that," Beary said. "Only eight teams get to do that and we consider ourselves proud of the fact that we've accomplished that goal."

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