After their match against Joliet Catholic, Providence Catholic boys soccer coach Mike Taylor expressed frustration with his team’s mistakes. He said he needs to see a lot of growth from the group over the next week.

If Monday was a reflection of Providence at a low point, buckle up for the kind of team they’ll be at their best.

While certainly not perfect, the result of Monday’s match for Providence was a 4-0 victory in which they rarely allowed the Hilltoppers on their side of the pitch. The expectations that Taylor has set for this squad, however, are higher than what he witnessed Monday.

“There were a lot of mistakes,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to get the win, especially the first game of the season. There were a lot of positives, too, but there was a lot to clean up.”

Taylor attributed some of the issues to the sheer number of players shuffling in and out of the lineup. Twenty-two players saw the field for Providence as Taylor tries to determine which 16 he feels comfortable using the most.

The good news for the Celtics is that they have five games this week to sort out the lineup. Taylor said he hopes to have it figured out within a week.

Taylor said he is taking a glass-half-full approach to Monday’s issues.

“Today showed me what we need to work on,” he said. “That’s a good thing because if you go through the first game and there’s nothing to work on, then you’re in trouble because you’re at your limit.”

The Celtics constantly applied pressure in the first half against JCA, but were unable to finish until Jovanny Gonzalez scored from the corner in the 33rd minute. Gonzalez added another goal to make it a brace for himself with 2.8 seconds left in the half, making it 2-0.

The Celtics kept the pressure on the Hilltoppers in the second half until Christian Hofferica scored on an assist from Aldo Dominguez in the 28th minute. Just three minutes later, it was Dominguez doing the scoring on an assist from John Kobylarczyk to make it 4-0.

“I like how we were doing what we’ve been doing in practice,” Gonzalez said. “We have to put up more effort and be more organized, but throughout the season, we’re going to get better and more conditioned. Expect more wins out of us.”

Taylor singled out goalkeeper Luke Rost as he kept a clean sheet. The senior hadn’t played organized soccer since middle school before Monday, but took soccer up this year to give the Celtics some size in the net.

Still, Taylor wants to see growth from his older players.

“I need them to lead,” he said. “I need more leadership, I need more talking, and I need them to listen. That comes with time, though.”

As for Joliet Catholic, there are several lessons to learn from the opener. After upsetting Providence last year during the regular season, they struggled to show the same speed as the Celtics on Monday.

“From the first whistle, we were too slow,” coach Tom Cranmer said. “It was really apparent from the get-go that we were moving too slow, and it took us from the 30-minute mark of the second half to the 12-minute mark, where we played well. We kept the pressure up, we were much more organized, and we were able to get good stuff going forward. ... We don’t want to do that when we’re already down 2-0, though.”

Providence Catholic hosts Westmont on Tuesday, while Joliet Catholic will visit Plainfield South on Thursday.