Their is no question that C. Milton Wright senior Axel Lorentzen is the most experienced player on the Mustangs’ front line, but he has also proven to be the most dangerous.
Lorentzen scored two of the Mustangs’ four first-half goals and led them to a 5-1 victory at Catonsville on Wednesday night.
The senior didn’t start the Mustangs’ scoring barrage until after goalie Dylan Sander kept the Comets off the board with two standout saves in the first five minutes.
The first shot was a rocket by Anthony Argueta from 20 yards out that Sander deflected just over the crossbar. Less than a minute later, a corner kick from Toby Tracht was driven low by Dylan Stevenson and Sander repelled it away.
Lorentzen’s first goal off a cross by Brooks Benson came less than four minutes later.
“Brooks really just played a perfect ball to me and I was just at the right spot at the right time and I put it in,” Lorentzen said. “It was just the flow of the game. We practice crosses in practice, but that’s just really a perfect situation. It was on a platter for me.”
Shortly after, the Mustangs extended the lead to 2-0 when Owen Davis’ perfect free kick from 40 yards out was redirected into the goal off the head of Luca Barker. Lorentzen made it 3-0 with under 16 minutes left in the first half when he was free for a long ball from Liam Bender just past midfield and lofted a shot over onrushing keeper Mark Michaelson.
“I just picked my head up and the ball was bouncing and I just took it,” Lorentzen said.
Lorentzen, who had four goals earlier this season in a win over Havre de Grace, nearly had a hat trick in the second half when he received a ball about 10 yards out, but was thwarted by Michaelson.
“It got a little stuck under my feet and the goalie got a piece of it and it got away from me,” he said.
His dominance on the front line has not been a surprise to coach Eric Riedlbauer.
“Axel was a big-time leader up front,” Riedlbauer said. “We do start four sophomores, the other two guys up front are sophomores around him, so he’s got to be the leader up there.”
Zach Griffin scored the fourth goal of the first half off an Evan Gross assist and Myroslave Biliaiev scored an unassisted goal in the second half.
“We’ve been producing very well all year. I think this is an exceptional showing. We really did well in this game especially, but I think we can produce at this level pretty much every game,” Lorentzen said.
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“We knew we were going to have a tough battle here. We got a couple early that really helped set the tone for us and we kind of kept going from there,” Riedlbauer said. “This was one of our best games of the year so far, just kind of a full offensive and defensive effort, we were able to control possession quite a bit.”
Catonsville had numerous chances to cut into the lead even after the first two golden opportunities. With four minutes left in the first half, Argueta hit the middle of the crossbar from inside 10 yards. In the second half, a flick on goal by Nate Holub-Smith was saved by Sander and a header by Holub-Smith off a corner kick hit the corner post. Ten seconds later, Jeff Orellano’s rebound shot was saved by Sander.
“Their keeper was good,” Catonsville coach Brendan Kennedy said. “We knew that going in that his distribution was really strong and he could really put the ball out far. I don’t think that really got on us too much, but on their follow through, there were times when they wanted it more to win a loose ball, to win a 50-50 and they won them and we didn’t.”
The frustration continued when Isaak Powell’s shot from the doorstep with 16 minutes left was just wide. The only chance the Comets converted came in the final minute when Matt Carlson scored off Stevenson’s assist.
“We’ve definitely been a bit snakebitten when it comes to trying to finish and you can tell that by just looking at our results,” Kennedy said. “We are generating a lot of attacking opportunities, we are just a little again snakebitten to try to put it in the back of the nest. But in terms of that score line just not our best, not good enough. We made mistakes and they capitalized.”
C. Milton Wright 4 1 — 5
Catonsville 0 2— 1
Goals: CMW-Axel Lorentzen 2, Lucas Barker 1, Zack Griffin 1, Myroslav Biliaiev 1; Cat-Matt Carlson. Assists: CMW: Brooks Benson 1, Owen Davis 1, Liam Bender 1, Evan Gross 1; Cat-Dylan Stevenson 1. Saves: CMW-Dylan Sander 6; Cat-Mark Michaelson 2.
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