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NEW LENOX – Connor Pate scored the breakthrough goal Thursday night, and Aidan Byrne secured the insurance that would be needed.
The sophomore duo lifted Lincoln-Way Central to a 2-1 win over previously unbeaten Bolingbrook in a SouthWest Suburban Conference crossover and a battle of two teams who came into the game red-hot.
“We realized at halftime that this team is undefeated. We’re right with them, so why not go and beat them?” Byrne said. “We figured let’s put in the extra step and take them out, ruin their record.”
They’ve always been a good team and when good teams come around, you want to have that extra motivation to do what you have to do and, in this case, get the game-winning goal.”
— Aidan Byrne, Lincoln-Way Central sophomore
Aiden Montes scored for Bolingbrook (6-1-4), while Diego Guzman made three saves.
The Knights (8-1-1), who are 6-0-1 over their past seven games after an opening-week loss to rival Lincoln-Way West, controlled play for much of the first half, but the game went to halftime scoreless.
Lincoln-Way Central broke through on a corner kick as Pate crashed the far post to head in Jamison Stockrahm’s cross with 23 minutes, 54 seconds to go.
“That’s one of the first things we do in practice,” Pate said. “It’s always stacking the tall guys at the back. As soon as I saw ‘Jamo’ put that ball in and saw it coming toward my head, I knew it was going in.
“That’s what everyone dreams of. You see the pros do it and it’s just a great feeling. The knee slide [celebration], everyone running into the corner, the lights going off and on. It’s hard to think. It’s awesome.”
It was the seventh goal of the season for Pate, who cracked the varsity roster as a freshman last season and is becoming one of the Knights’ go-to scorers.
“We have guys who have been great leaders for me,” Pate said. “They’ve led me through everything. It’s great to be around them and get to play with them every week.
“The coaches told me they wanted me to step up this year and it feels good to finally be that guy that people look to to score.”
Just over a minute later, Byrne came through with his first goal of the season, volleying a deflected ball out of the air and ripping it into the back of the net on a hard shot from 20 yards.
“I saw Luca [Rotondi] put in the ball and I saw Jackson [Meyer] go up for it,” Byrne said. “I figured I’d go for the second ball, just in case, and it fell right to me. I hit it as hard as I could. and luck went with me. It went straight in, straight off my foot. I felt it, like, “Bang!’”
Byrne, who split time between junior varsity and varsity as a freshman last season, now has two career varsity goals. Both are against Bolingbrook.
“They’ve always been a good team and when good teams come around, you want to have that extra motivation to do what you have to do and, in this case, get the game-winning goal,” Byrne said.
Lincoln-Way Central coach Dave Brown has leaned on both sophomores, Pate and Byrne, to be important pieces of the puzzle this season.
“Both of those guys play huge roles for us,” Brown said. “[Pate] has been scoring goals for us lately, which is huge. He’s kind of coming into a rhythm offensively. We’re starting to find a little something with him up top.
“Aidan’s kind of one of our glue guys who does everything in the middle, and he finds a great goal on a full volley. That was a huge moment for him. We made him a captain for the game and it paid off.”
Byrne’s goal was needed as Bolingbrook got on the board with 4:57 to go when Montes tapped in a rebound after Aaron Palacios-Chaves’ shot was saved by Theodore Utz.
“I’m proud of the way they stayed together and went after that last one,” Bolingbrook coach Nick Trotter said. “I think this moment was coming and it was just a matter of the way we responded. I think they responded positively.”