Scoring Storm – St. John's Prep scores 5 times in final 33 minutes

It wasn't exactly Yankees-Tigers, but for 47 minutes Christ the King was on the verge of pulling off a monumental upset.
They led St. John's Prep, the defending CHSAA Class A boys' soccer champions, by a goal, and were harassing the Red Storm, unable to score in the first half despite chance after chance in the box, all over the field. &#8220I was getting frustrated,” Red Storm striker Steven Reyes admitted.
Reality and the talent gap between the two teams, however, finally began to take effect after halftime. It started with Reyes finally getting the Red Storm on the board, taking advantage of Nick Viaggio's through ball, and drilling it home. Thirteen minutes later the duo struck again, this time Reyes heading in Viaggio's perfectly placed free kick from the right flank 35 yards out. One minute later, Viaggio struck on a rebound in front of the CTK net. Two more goals would follow, capping the blurring barrage in a 5-1 St. John's Prep win at Con Edison Field Friday afternoon.
&#8220I knew once we got our first goal, it would keep coming,” said Reyes, who has yet to lose to the Royals in four years. &#8220The first goal was the icebreaker.”
Many of the players credited first-year coach Fabian Chong's halftime speech as a reason for the turnaround. Calmly, he relaxed them. &#8220I told them at the half, ‘is there any concern on my face?' They said no,” recalled the former soccer coach at Bergen Catholic in Oradell, N.J. &#8220[I said] ‘Let's get it together, settle in. You know the chances are there, we are just getting unlucky.' ”
&#8220We had to play quicker, move the ball around, get some crosses,” explained Viaggio of the game-plan.
Now 3-0, the Red Storm added a come-from-behind win to their unblemished record. &#8220This is a learning experience,” Chong said. &#8220We needed to be down.”
It was a startling tailspin for the Royals. After playing so well early, they fell apart, undone by a bad call which Coach Michael Alesi drew a Yellow Card for arguing. The whistle set up the second tally for the Red Storm.
Afterwards, Alesi was still upset, citing inconsistencies in the officiating - in the opening half the referee had overruled the linesman, but on the play in question, he did not, although he initially signaled the play was a foul on St. John's. &#8220The ref should make the call,” he said. &#8220That completely changed the whole game.”
That a simple turn of events could send the Royals into such a downward spiral was upsetting to Alesi. &#8220It's very frustrating, very. … I believe it was amore of a mental thing, and just everybody being nervous, myself being nervous.”