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Short-handed Lakeview boys beat Champion
By BOB ETTINGER
CHAMPION
The Lakeview boys soccer team has lived on the brink of disaster this season, but, for the most part has been able maintain its footing.
The Bulldogs were backed to the edge of that cliff yet again after building a two-goal advantage. Senior Noah Busefink delivered them back to safer ground with a late tally in a 3-1 victory over rival Champion on the road Saturday.
“It’s frustrating because we’ve been doing it all year,” Lakeview coach Bryan Phillips said. “This is the third or fourth time we’ve been in complete control of a game and all of a sudden, we’re in a dogfight. Give credit to Noah he scored a big goal then slid back into the midfield to help us. He did a lot that goes unnoticed.”
The Bulldogs (11-1) were playing a bit short-handed with regulars Jeff Remmick, Anthony Sylvester, Marcus Cole and Dylan Sarko on the shelf, but didn’t seem to lose a step.
“Honestly, how we won this game was [Joe] Gomez, [Devonte] Parker, [Jacob] Drotar, [Jacob] Moats and even Nathan Barber, too, because he was playing a different position,” Phillips said. “When we talked before the game, I told them we needed everyone in a jersey to give something.”
Parker was the first to make a big impact in expanded minutes when he took a pass from Brendan White and put it in the net for a 1-0 lead 19th minute of the first half.
“I was trying to make my presence known,” Parker said. “[Brendan] played a beautiful through ball. We needed that momentum it gives us to carry us through.
“The ball was played in front of me and I saw the defender was short on the run. I had the chance to play a beautiful ball off my right foot and put it in the bottom right corner.”
In the 22nd minute, Joe Gomez buried a shot in the back of the net with an assist from Jake Busefink for a 2-0 Lakeview lead that stood until after the intermission.
“We really needed that one,” Gomez said. “One isn’t enough to seal the deal. They were still in the game. That second one set us ahead.
“Jake hit the ball, it deflected off a Champion defender and landed at my feet. I was able to place it in the back corner.”
The Golden Flashes had dug a deep hole in those early minutes.
“Those first 20 minutes were just rough,” Champion coach John Rable said. “We were playing their game and not ours. We were down, 2-0, and I think both were on mistakes by us. You start to worry, especially when you see the kids start to argue. But things turned around and that was when I didn’t see 2-0 any longer.”
Korey Dillon tipped the scales back toward the Golden Flashes (8-2-2) just after the break when he rebounded a shot off the crossbar and sent it past the goalkeeper to cut Champion’s deficit in half, 2-1, in the sixth minute of the second half.
“Anytime you get a goal to make it 2-1, you get a fire from it,” Rable said. “It was so important because everyone was so tired. When we got the goal, it rejuvenated everyone for us and we really started to push forward.”
Noah Busefink’s goal allowed the Bulldogs to extend the stiff arm and return to safer ground with a 3-1 in 29th minute of that second half.
“There was some sloppy defense, the ball bounced in the box and I just hammered it,” Busefink said. “It just came my way and I did what I had to do.”