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Sports

De Smet Outlasts Vianney in CBC Tourney

De Smet improves to 4-1 after beating CBC, 2-0, in the CBC Soccer Tournament.

Spartans Soccer coach Greg Vitello felt his team could have performed better against the Vianney Golden Griffins Saturday in the CBC Soccer Tournament on Saturday. But the Spartans still did enough to manage a 2-0 victory.

The game, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., was delayed for 45-minutes due to rain. From time to time a small amount of rain hit the field during the contest.

“We had a 45-minute rain delay so I guess we must of went into sleep mode,” Vitello said. “It was a poor game. I think (Vianney coach) Dave (Gauvain) feels the same way. It was a poor effort on the part of both teams. Maybe it was because we weren’t under the lights at 7 p.m. but that was unentertaining soccer.”

The Spartans improve to 4-1 with the win while the Golden Griffins drop to 3-2.

Both team’s offenses pushed the ball up and down the field in the first 19 minutes of the first half, but neither team could set up a shot. The Spartans’ Pat Conroy scored at the 20:43 mark in the first half on a header. Conroy was just feet from the goal when he scored.

“It was a bit of a lift, especially after the horrible play that was going on,” Vitello said. “So now we’re ahead 1-0 during the horrible play.”

The game continued to be played on both sides of the field in the second half. De Smet had three shots on goal in the second half, as Prince Kabadeh, Tommy Russo, and Louis Berra all had shots on goal. However, Vianney goalkeeper Conner Sparrow caught the ball each time.

“The intensity was a little higher after halftime,” Vitello said. “But I think the problem is that these kids play too many games and not next game means more than the previous game. When you have your school’s name on your shirt it has to be all out all of the time. Today, it was unacceptable.”

Kabadeh scored at the 3:08 mark in the second half to give the Spartans a 2-0 advantage. Kabadeh fired off a shot from six-yards out from the west side of the field. The ball landed in the east side of the goal.

Gauvain also said his team played without an appropriate level of intensity.

“This is two nights in a row,” he said. “We didn’t want to be here Thursday (against St. Louis University High School) either. This is the crazy part of the year where you go through the gauntlet. Everyone starts to question ‘how good are we?’ and ‘what are we going to do?’”

Gauvain said the Golden Griffins, who had three shots on goal in the contest, have yet to find “the finishing touch” in scoring.

“When we need to take a few extra touches to get ourselves in an open place, we don’t,” he said. “When we pass it, we pass it to them, or to a teammate who has to beat a defender. We’re not bringing players up in behind the defenders. I like what we have but right now it’s not clicking.”

De Smet defeated SLUH on Tuesday 2-1 in the first round of play in the CBC Soccer Tournament, but lost 2-1 to CBC on Thursday. Vianney tied CBC 2-2 on Tuesday and tied SLUH 0-0 on Thursday.

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