Lemont reaches Class 2A championship

NAPERVILLE -- Even before the spring season started, Lemont High School had enjoyed a great 2008-09 sports season.

It got much better on Friday.

The Indians advanced to a state championship game in a girls sport for the first time since 1988 in the Class 2A soccer finals at North Central College.

Jasmin Nunez scored following an assist from Shelley Hadlock at 33:03 of the first half for the game's only scoring in a 1-0 win over Chatham Glenwood.

Coach Rick Prangen's squad, which is making its first state appearance, takes a 21-5 record into today's 1 p.m. title game.

They'll face off against Wheaton Academy (21-3-2), which defeated Sycamore 5-2 in Friday's other semifinal match.

Earlier this season, Lemont won the medium school state championship in cheerleading and finished second in Class 6A in football.

The only other Indian girls team to reach the state title game was the softball squad, which finished second in Class A 21 years ago.

"This is a little numbing and I don't think it's set in for me or for the girls right now," Prangen said. "This was a great accomplishment for our program, our girls and our senior class in particular. They deserve it since it's that senior leadership that gets you through. It was just a great day for Lemont High School soccer.

"In the second half we expected them to push numbers ahead forward, which they did. I thought we had a couple of chances on our counterattack to make it 2-0. I thought defensively our back three of Amy Skowronski, Courtney Smalarz and Elise Cody played really well and our center midfielders -- Megan Krull and Tammy Contorno -- did a wonderful job.

"We've talked all through the playoffs about the fact that we can't control winning and losing all of the time. But what we want to make sure of is that our last game is our best game. So since tomorrow is our last game we're going to stick with that philosophy. If it's our best game and also a win, then it's a state championship."

Lemont, which recorded its 17th shutout of the season and has allowed only three goals during the last 16 games, won its second-straight 1-0 playoff game.

While the Indians finished with more total shots (12-10), the Titans (17-4-1) had the upper hand in shots on goal (5-3).

Both squads had good early chances but came up empty before Lemont finally connected late in the first half.

Glenwood's Dani Torry and Ali Traina both got off shots that were stopped by Indian goalkeeper Erin Stahurski (4 saves).

Lemont's other best first-half scoring chance came with about 11 minutes left before the break when Megan Krull lined a long shot off of the crossbar.

The Indians collected their goal with 6:57 left in the half when Hadlock sent a pass from the left side that went to Nunez, who put in a short shot.

"I'm super excited about getting to play for the state title," Nunez said. "I kept to my run and got a pass from Shelley and finished it. After we got the goal we just relaxed and played our game.

"This is a good opportunity for our team and hopefully we can win the title. We know that the other team is good, so we'll come out tomorrow and try our hardest and see what happens."

After the break, the Titans kept the pressure on Stahurski with good shot attempts by Erin Egolf and Traina.

Lemont's best scoring chance in the second half came shortly after the break when Megan Johnson sent a long floater to keeper Cara Moody (2 saves).

Glenwood looked like it might have tied things up with 8:35 remaining when Bree Gardner connected from close range.

But the goal was disallowed due to a handball and the Indians held off the Titans the rest of the way to claim the victory.

"We know that Saturday will be our last game so we'll give it our best," Stahurski said. "I knew that I had to stay mentally ready the whole game because I don't touch the ball that much so when it came to me I was ready and stopped their shots.

"I love this group of girls and it's probably my favorite team I've been on. This group of seniors is awesome and we've all played together since I was little. So it will be awesome for us to be able to play for a title in our last game."