Loss can't take away from Lemont's season

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NAPERVILLE -- The Lemont High School boys soccer team was in uncharted territory Friday when it stepped onto the field at North Central College for the first state quarterfinal game in school history.

Unfortunately for the Indians, their initial trip didn't turn out too well as Rockford Boylan ran to a 4-2 victory ending Lemont's 12 game unbeaten streak.

Boylan (24-3), which was making its eighth state quarterfinal appearance, will play Neuqua Valley, a 3-2 winner over Champaign Centennial, in the semifinals at 9 a.m. today.

The Titans, who advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time in the past 11 years, finished second in Class AA in 1998 and 2005.

Lemont (22-3-3) surrendered a season high in goals scored and lost for the first time since dropping a 3-1 match to Argo on Sept. 29, bowed out from its best soccer season in school history.

"We were pumped to come out and play here and we were pumped when we played (on Oct. 29 in the supersectional) at Toyota Park," said Lemont sophomore forward Kyle Spoo, who tallied the Indians 'first goal. "I don't think the field had anything to do with it, we just had a breakdown."

Spoo, who had key assists in the 2-0 supersectional victory over Minooka and a 2-1 triple-overtime win against Marist in the sectional semifinals, scored on an assist from senior midfielder Tom McGuire at the 57:19 mark of the game. That was his team leading 19th goal of the season and drew the Indians within 2-1.

But Boylan countered with two goals, first with 12:24 to play and then with 1:36 left to grab a 4-1 advantage. McGuire scored on an assist from senior midfielder Krystian Ustupski with 28.8 seconds remaining to round out the scoring for Lemont.

Ustupski, who had both goals in the supersectional victory over Minooka, finished his stellar season with 18 goals and 12 assists. Senior forward Mark Jasso, who had the game winning goal against Marist in the sectional semifinals and the lone goal in a 1-0 victory over Sandburg in the sectional final, finished the year with 16 goals and 2 assists.

Lemont senior midfielder George Brew added 9 goals and 9 assists on the season.

"To lose is upsetting because it's my senior year," Brew said. "We wanted to make it to the final four.

"Still this was the best we did in my four years here. My freshman and sophomore seasons we got beat in the first game of the regionals before making it to the supersectional (where Lemont lost 1-0 to Lincoln-Way Central) last year."

"I'm just really proud of the senior class of boys that we had and how they came through for us," Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. "They were sectional champions last year and super-sectional champs this year, so it's just a great group of young men.

"These guys set the standard of getting to the Elite Eight. So every team who wants to surpass that needs to get to the semifinals, which is a great thing to have."

The Indians entered the Elite Eight with the smallest total enrollment of the schools with 1,432 kids. Boylan actually has less with an enrollment of 1,274, but it is an all-boys school. Lemont and Centennial were the only two schools who had never been in the quarterfinals before.

"Our program has been amazing," Brew said. "We were the smallest school in here and all tournament long people said that we weren't going to do anything.

"It will be interesting to see where Lemont goes from here. I think they will win many more regionals and sectionals."

Lemont will graduate 12 seniors, but with people like Spoo and sophomore goalie Andrew Lisowski, who had 15 shutouts, returning, the Indians could contend again.

"I think we are going to come back and do well again next year," said Spoo.

"For a school our size and with the history of our program, this was all uncharted waters for us," Prangen said. "Last year's team started it up and this year's team finished it through, so hopefully we can continue on this."