Jasso gives Lemont joy

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

LEMONT -- ­A year ago, the Lemont High School soccer team surprised some people when it won its own sectional title following a 2-1 win over Sandburg, a program that had won 9 sectional titles in 13 years.

On Thursday, the Indians proved that year's showing was no fluke as they again captured the title of their own Class AA sectional following a 1-0 victory over the Eagles.

As a result, Lemont (21-2-3) advances to the Tinley Park Supersectional at Toyota Park in Bridgeview for the second year in a row. Lemont plays at 7 p.m. against Minooka (16-4-2), a 2-0 winner over Andrew in the Lincoln-Way Central Sectional final.

The only scoring came just 3:49 into the game when Krystian Ustupski sent in front where Mark Jasso was there to head in a shot into the left side of the net.

"We knew that if we played them again that they would remember that we beat them last year," Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. "We wanted to make sure that we weren't one-hit wonders, so we wanted to make sure we maintained what we did last year, and we got back to the same place. That was one of the biggest goals for me and my boys.

"We talked about coming out strong, and four minutes in we get a great service and shot by Jasso. But in the first 20 minutes of the game we had a multitude of chances to make it 2-0.

"During the second 40 minutes, Sandburg really put us under pressure, but we hung in it. I thought their keeper played phenomenally and he kept them in the game."

The final outcome wasn't decided until the closing minute when the Eagles (13-8) got a throw-in that bounced around awhile near the goal before the Indians were finally able to clear it away to preserve the victory.

Jasso, a senior, established a great tone for the Indians when he slipped the ball past Eagle keeper Jake Kenny early in the game, following an assist from Ustupski. Little did anyone suspect at the time, but that would all of the scoring.

"This is a great feeling," said Jasso, who also scored the game-winner in his team's 2-1 triple -overtime sectional semifinal victory over Marist on Tuesday. "People didn't really know about us, but we showed small Lemont is coming up. Everybody thought that we were done after the one super year, but we came back and proved people wrong.

"We just started off early and never looked back. I got a great cross from Krystian and he put it right around everyone and I luckily got past my guy and put a head on it and it went in. The end of the game was the best playoff atmosphere I've ever played in. My heart was pounding and Tom McGuire made an amazing stop on the goal line."

The Indians had several other good scoring chances during the first half, but Kenny came up with several big stops.

Ustupski had a pair of corner kicks knocked away, Jasso was stopped on a short shot from the left side, McGuire was halted on a short attempt in front of the net and Kyle Spoo had a pair of shots stopped by Kenny and another good attempt cleared away by an Eagle defender.

Meanwhile, Sandburg didn't get its first shot on goal against Indian keeper Andrew Lisowski until just 9:00 was left in the opening half when Ross Tanzer fired in a long-range free kick.

It was a different story after the break, however, as the Eagles had more chances, although neither team had many.

Jeff Grotz and Fahad Nazir each had good shot tries, but Lisowski came up with saves. Lemont's best chance during the second half may have come with 2:20 to go when a good shot by Nathan Reeves was stopped by Kenny.

And following the final Eagle flurry in front of the Indian net, Lemont's players rushed onto the field after accomplishing something that few expected from their program, capturing back-to-back sectional championships.

"I'm unable to describe this feeling right now," said McGuire, a senior captain. "It's hard to win two sectional titles, especially against the same team. A lot of people doubted us this year, but we all had faith, and that's all that we needed. We only needed to have the 11 guys on our team to know that we could do it, and we did it.

"Getting back to the supersectional is great and it really brings up this program since not a lot of people know us. This is our first 20-win season and we're back at Toyota Park, so this shows that this program is improving a lot."