Lake Park senior Jonathan Ademi really wanted to gift his coach Argirios Gouriotis something special for his first birthday with the team.

A win over St. Charles East to extend their lead in the DuKane conference.

“It’s his first year here, and we really appreciate him a lot,” the senior captain said. “We wanted to win for him, the team and the program.”

And it didn’t take long for him to get the celebration going.

Ademi ended up with two goals and an assist, all before the 18th minute of play as the Lancers went on to get a 4-0 victory over the Saints.

“Ademi wears the band everyday for us, not just on the pitch but also in training and in the classroom,” Gouriotis said. “He’s just a leader on and off the field, and it showed out there. The two goals couldn’t have happened to a better kid.”

Ademi got the Lancers (10-3-3 overall, 4-0 DuKane) on the board in just the fourth minute of play. After a free kick in the box got away from the Saints’ keeper, the senior ended up getting a foot on the ball for the score on a second-chance effort.

He got his second goal of the night in the 15th minute of play. With the team driving down the pitch, the senior fielded a pass from senior Jakub Nowicki from outside the box before drilling it into the bottom corner for the score.

“I just wanted to win the ball, won the ball and then tapped it in for a lucky goal, but just had to be there for it,” Ademi said on his first score. “The second one, I had all the space in the world, so I took a rip and sent it in.”

The Lancers found success on a familiar play just two minutes later. This time, it was Ademi who sent the ball back to senior Andrew Donato, who sent another low-flying shot into the bottom corner to give them a 3-0 advantage in just less than 17 minutes of play.

“That was just a phenomenal feeling,” Gouriotis said. “We feel like the lid has been on lately and we really wanted to get that lid off in this game. We always talk about just quick combination play, let the ball do the work. And that’s exactly what the guys did.

Senior Jose Lozano had the only goal in the second half, scoring in the 77th minute of play to finish out the night.

“Records wise and team wise, St. Charles East is always a team that you need to be concerned about,” Gouriotis said. “We knew we needed to have a perfect performance and go bell-to-bell, and that’s exactly what the guys did in this game.”

The early onslaught ended up being more than enough for St. Charles East (8-4-3, 2-1-2), who finished with just one shot on goal for the night.

“We were just outplayed in every facet of the game, and it was very evident from the first 10 minutes that we weren’t prepared,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “They throw a lot of players into their attack and it caused us a lot of problems in terms of tracking marks.

“A lot of the things that happened were very uncharacteristic from our kids, so it’s tough to point one finger. But I think it’s all about holding us and each other accountable and moving on to the next one.”