BERWYN -- Morning soccer is a beautiful thing.

The kids get to play a game with the knowledge that the rest of the day is ahead of them, while the fans enjoy, hopefully, a great matchup.

Also, everyone gets to avoid the unrelenting afternoon sunshine and temps that continued to scorch the area on the last official day of summer.

No. 25 Benet and Lyons, which is the first team listed the honorable mention portion of the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, met up at 10 a.m. Saturday at Morton in the final round of the host school’s Premier Invitational.  

The Lions took down Lane 3-0 in LaGrange in their Homecoming and Senior Night game; Benet tied host Morton 0-0.

After about 13 hours off, Lyons took another win with 2-0 decision over Benet behind great defense and goalkeeping, and a persistent attack.

“It’s fun,” said Lyons junior forward Nick Reilly. “We had a game last night, a win, and now we can come out today and get more minutes.”

Lyons improved to 7-4-1 on the season after the two tournament wins. Benet fell to 6-3-1, with a draw and a loss in the Morton meet. There is no champion determined in the event.

“I think the early games are nice for the athletes,” said Morton assistant athletic director Maddie Geyer. "They can get out before the heat really hits, especially these days.”

This was the fourth edition of the invitational. Liberytville participated the first two years, and Lane took the spot the last two.

Geyer said there’s a reason why top-flight sides like Lyons and Benet continue to return to the event year after year.

“It’s a good chance for the teams to see where they’re at at this point in the year,” she added, “before it gets to the latter stages where they’re pushing for the postseason.”

Lyons coach Paul Labbato definitely enjoyed his weekend, to say the least.

“Two quality wins,” said Labbato, “and defensively we looked really good.

“We withstood some of the pressure that they (Benet) were putting on us, and our players are learning, when it matters, how to get in front of shots and how to make sure clearances are out.

“We’ve been locked in a little more lately.”

The Lions needed to be in top form early, especially on the backline as Benet tested them often after the opening kickoff.

Lyons sophomore midfielder Hayden McTigue deflected a quick salvo away from goal just in a minute in, then senior defender Devin Wong followed that up by heading away a Redwings attack in the box.

In the seventh minute, Benet midfielder Sergio Polanco had the first shot on goal of the game – the bending attempt from 24 yards was saved by Lyons keeper Joe Ratcliffe.

In the 13th minute the Lions started to make their presence felt on offense and netted the opening goal in the process. 

Junior forward Ryland Avants dribbled from midfield right up the middle of the pitch and laid off a great pass to senior teammate Kellin Bourjaily, who raced down the left flank.

After the perfect feed, Bourjaily sent the ball past Benet keeper Patrick Stasch from 20 yards.

“It was a great run by my striker, Ryland,” said Bourjaily. “I found myself open and banged it in with the left.”

Bourjaily added that the opening strike, in his opinion, turned the tide of the match.

“It felt like we were getting dominated the first 12 minutes of the game,” he said. “When we got that first goal, it gave us more confidence the rest of the way.”

In the fast-paced, up-and-down contest, Ratcliffe and Stasch each kept their respective side in the game with several outstanding saves.

Reilly picked off a Benet clearance attempt in the 18th minute, turned and fired from eight yards, but Stasch blocked it away.

The Lions kept on the attack. Ryan Siegel had an opportunity in the 25th minute, but curled it just wide left.

In the latter stages of the half, it was Benet’s turn to try and counter.

Their best hope came in the 36th minute when sophomore midfielder Jack Wesley fired on frame, but Ratcliffe came off the line to make a big save.

That enabled Lyons to go into the break clinging to a one-goal lead.

“We were playing our game,” said Reilly. “We’ve had a great start to the year and got some big wins under our belt.”

The junior added that due to the depth on his squad, the quick turnaround between Friday night’s game and Saturday morning’s start didn’t faze his club.

“We’ve got a lot of great players, so we’ve always got fresh feet coming into the game,” he said.

Benet once again had the upper hand after the opening bell rang in half number two.

In the 42nd minute, senior forward Brendan Bergnach, sent in a ball from the near sideline area that swerved at the last moment. 

It looked like it might fly past keeper Ratcliffe and into the goal. But Ratcliffe was able to leap high and make the stop to keep his team on top.

A few minutes later, Polanco came within a whisker of deadlocking the match

Ratcliffe, who was vigorous in net in the first period with four saves, mistakenly grabbed the ball outside the box on a rapid pass-back from one of his teammates.

The infraction cost him a yellow card and gave Benet a free kick from 18 yards. It also meant backup keeper Matt Peterson, a senior, had to enter the match cold off the bench.

Polanco lined up his free kick and sent a rocket through the Lyons wall, but it deflected off a leg and achingly rolled just millimeters beyond the far post.

The Lions counterattacked and quickly advanced into Benet territory, where senior forward Mason Burda clanged a hard shot off the post.

The ball ricocheted directly back to teammate Reilly, who directed it in from 10 yards to end the scoring in the 64th minute.

Reilly earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors for his insurance goal and his all-out relentless effort. He said teammate Julian Adviu, a sophomore midfielder, got the ball rolling on the play.

“It was a great start by Julian,” said Reilly. “He had a rough first touch, but then he was able to settle the ball outside to Mason.

“Mason hit it, and I was able to finish it. I actually hit it off my hip, and it went in.”

Benet generated a couple chances down the final stretch, the Lyons backline and the replacement keeper stayed strong.

Peterson had to come up big in the 69th minute.

Benet’s Teddy Nawrocki sent the ball into the box where teammate Will Khazen was waiting to head the ball toward the goal, but Peterson deflected the pass wide.

As the clock wound down, Bergnach chipped the ball directly on goal but Peterson grabbed the shot out of the air before any damage could be done.

After the match, Benet had an empty feeling that more could have been accomplished by their side.

“I thought we hustled a lot today,” said Khazen. “It was a tiring game. It was hot, but we played well.

“I just think we need to finish our chances at the end. We need to work harder and get guys up and get guys in the box.

“We just need to wake-up ready to go.”

Bourjaily credited the Lyons defensive third for leading the team to the victory.

“They played great defense today,” he said, “and we had good goaltending too. It was tough on the (Benet corner kicks), because they had all those big kids in the box, but we were very organized and just did our job.”

Despite the inspired effort of the Lyons goalkeepers, Benet’s coach felt that squad didn’t do enough to keep them busy.

“We didn’t have the start to the game that we were looking for,” said Klosterman. “Toward the end of the first half, we started to play a little harder and started generating some chances.

“In the second half we just needed to put more on frame. I thought we had a couple that came close. We hit the frame a couple of times but didn’t make their goalkeepers work hard enough. That happens sometimes.”

He added kind words for the opposition.

“I was really impressed with them (Lyons),” he said. “They played until (late) last night, and for them to come out and give the kind of effort they did today, they really deserve a lot of credit.

"We were a bit sluggish and didn't win many second-balls in the first half. It wasn't that we played bad, it was just that Lyons wanted it more."

Starting lineups

Benet
GK: Patrick Stasch
D: Danny Sterba
D: Jack Kuelthau
D: Jackson Mares
MF: Matthew Donaghey
MF: Sergio Polanco
MF: Jack Wesley
MF: Mateo Picha
MF: Uareme Edeki
MF: Ruslan Holubec
F: Will Khazen

Lyons
GK: Joe Ratcliffe
D: Fred Chen
D: Sean Dunne
D: Devin Wong
D: Johnny Rocha
MF: Chris Medina
MF: Hayden McTigue
MF: Victor Marinov
F: Ryland Avants
F: Kellin Bourjaily
F: Mason Burda

Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Nick Reilly, jr., F, Lyons

Scoring summary

First half
L: Bourjaily (Avants), 13'

Second half
L: Reilly (Burda), 64'