On a beautiful late afternoon for soccer, the Bellarmine Bells soundly defeated the visiting Valley Christian Warriors by a final score of 4-0 Wednesday in WCAL action. Forward Evan Helkowski had a hat trick and forward James Esteban added the other goal for the Bells (11-4-3, 6-4-3, 15 points) moved into a second-place tie in the WCAL with St. Francis (10-3-3, 6-3-3).
The Lancers tied Mitty, which clinched the regular-season title. The loss hurt the CCS playoff chances for the Warriors (5-8-4, 3-5-4), who need to win their final two regular-season games or the WCAL tournament to have any shot at the playoffs.
After the game, Helkowski was more than appreciative of his teammates.
“I would like to say thanks for the passes. My teammates really set me up for success today and it was a team effort for my great game,” he said.
These two teams had one previous matchup on January 8 that ended in a 1-1 draw. Bellarmine captain Matt DeQuiroz was pleased his team was able to pull through.
“For me, it’s a little bit of relief. We came out to their field last time and I feel like we should have had the win," DeQuiroz said. "It feels good to come back here and show everyone how we play.”
The Bells, who have now won five straight league matches, tried to build on their last game, a 4-0 victory over Riordan.
In that game, Ben Hughes had an impressive hat trick to lead Bellarmine to the win. Bellarmine coach Patrick Lowney acknowledges how the goals are coming more naturally to his team and can’t believe there have been two hat tricks in two straight games.
“I can’t remember the last time we had even one hat trick on varsity. It’s probably close to a decade," Lowney said. "I think our guys are in a good place right now and we’re looking forward to the WCAL tournament.”
Valley Christian, coming off a 2-1 loss to Serra last Saturday, has won just once in its last 10 WCAL matches. Helkowski started the game with some excellent moves around a couple of defenders and found JB Bruggeman, but Bruggeman was offside by a couple of steps.
The Warriors also tried to apply pressure early with Kody Kroening shooting over the crossbar in the 15th minute along with a couple of strikes towards the net from captain forward Jacob Gronlund throughout the first half.
After multiple scoring chances from both teams, Bellarmine opened up its eventual barrage of goals midway through the half with a scramble to the ball and Helkowski putting it away for a 1-0 Bells lead. Esteban and captain midfielder Marco Saglimbeni assisted on the play. Even with playmaker Saglimbeni being substituted out for a mild ankle injury near the end of the first half, Bellarmine maintained a strong attack.
During first-half stoppage time, forward Alex Cadena had a great scoring chance that was saved, but the rebound found Esteban and was hammered into the back of the net for a 2-0 Bells lead.
Valley Christian desperately tried to get back into the game, but the Bells proved too much to handle. In the 62nd minute, Saglimbeni came down the left side of the field, crossed the ball into Bruggeman, who found Helkowski for a 3-0 Bellarmine lead.
Bellarmine closed the scoring when DeQuiroz crossed the ball to Helkowski who knew exactly what to do to make it a 4-0.
Lowney believes his team has greatly improved since the rocky start in the first half of the season.
“We had a rough first half of league," Lowney said. "Our team had two huge extremes. We were in seventh place in WCAL, yet we won a national tournament in San Diego. The big idea is erasing all of those mistakes in the first half of the season and fixing them in the second half.”
Next up for Bellarmine is a Saturday home game (11 am) against Serra. Saglimbeni knows it will be a battle, but feels his team is more than ready.
“Last time, we lost to Serra 2-1 at the last minute, so I think we’re going to focus on what we didn’t do," Saglimbeni said. "We did a lot of good things today and we need to bring that to the game on Saturday.”
Valley Christian also has a Saturday morning home game against Riordan (11 am).
