AN UN-FORTUN-ATE END

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June 7, 2009

By RON KREMER rkremer@scn1.com

NAPERVILLE -- Leah Fortune played with an athletic bandage wrapped around her bum left ankle.

She also played with an idea etched in the back of her mind, that of making memories in her last high school soccer game.

Good fortune smiled on her cause despite the presence of a pesky shadow.

Fortune, a University of Texas recruit and Brazilian National Team player, scored one goal and set up another in Wheaton Academy's 3-0 victory over Lemont in the girls 2A state championship game on Saturday afternoon at North Central's Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.

Fortune worked a give-and-go with Crystal Thomas on a corner kick to help the Warriors take a 1-0 first half lead on a goal Lemont coach Rick Prangen disputed. The play started with Fortune standing out of bounds and tapping the ball in to Thomas.

Fortune raced back onto the playing field and took a return pass from Thomas before mounting a run on goal. Fortune encountered traffic from the Indians' defense in the crease. She fired a right-footed shot from point-blank-range that Lemont keeper Erin Stahurski batted away with one hand before tumbling down on the turf.

Wheaton Academy's Jenn Lee jumped on the rebound and booted the ball into an empty net for an unassisted goal at 19:22.

"Actually, she got fouled on it," Prangen said of Stahurski. "Oh, yeah, absolutely. She got absolutely taken down in the box. As she was going down, there was a girl that helped her down, which they missed. But all year long, we've said, 'We can't control that.' I can't control an official's call.

"And, you know what? My girls didn't get bogged down on that. You saw how we responded at the start of the second half. It wasn't a pity party, like, 'Oh, it's shouldn't have been a goal.' Hey, those things happen. We let them know we thought they missed one. Then, we go on from there.

"I'm a little disappointed we gave up two goals on set pieces in the second half. That's just execution and having a little awareness about you in terms of what's going on around you. So, in essence, all three goals came on set pieces. Nothing came during the run of play. That's a bit frustrating because that means -- on a set piece you can dictate a lot more than in the run of play.

"But good teams score on set pieces in big games."

Fortune is accustomed to playing in big games. She was born in Brazil and retains citizenship in her native country. She played on the Brazilian U20 Team in the World Cup and trains now in the off-season with the full Brazilian National Team.

She wasn't about to let a high ankle sprain prevent her from playing in her final high school soccer game. She suffered the injury in practice a few days ago. The pain of the injury limited her to 23 minutes -- one goal and one assist -- in Wheaton Academy's 5-2 semifinal victory over Sycamore on Friday. The title for the Warriors (22-3-2) was their second in the last five years.

Wheaton Academy won the Class A state championship in 2004. Lemont (21-6) took home a second-place trophy in its first girls soccer state tournament appearance.

"We've worked on short corners a lot this year," Fortune said. "We've actually struggled in the air for some reason. So, me and Crystal (Thomas) -- she has a ton of skill. And that's something we're both strong at. We have fun when we're on the field. We play with joy and happiness. We worked around them, and I actually had a shot for my left foot. But it was the beginning of the game and we hadn't scored yet, so I didn't want to go ahead and hit it.

"I cut back to my right and took a shot. And Jenn Lee's just an animal. She played phenomenal soccer today. She was there. She put it in. She had heart and passion. And that's something you look for in a best friend and a teammate."

Fortune saw the play a little differently than Prangen.

"I actually thought there was a handball," Fortune said. "But it was bouncing around. It's soccer. It's a game. You've got to play until the whistle blows. And Jenn (Lee) was just an animal. So, it was exciting."

Fortune extended Wheaton Academy's lead to 2-0 at 50:17. She fielded a long direct kick off the leg of teammate Christi Dithrich on a bounce and deftly tapped the ball up and over Stahurski. Lee connected for her second goal off an assist from Thomas a few minutes later.

The Warriors finished with an 11-2 edge in shots on goal and a 10-2 margin in corner kicks.

Stahurski made nine saves and her work in the nets helped Lemont hang within striking distance much of the way. The Indians' Tammy Contorno put a shot on goal about 1 minute into the second half. Colleen Regan fielded a pass in the air from Brianna Wojnowski a little later but was unable to control the ball and get off a shot from right in front of Wheaton Academy's goal.

"We worked really hard to get here as a team, and this group of girls is tight-knit," Lemont co-captain Megan Krull said. "We love each other so much. We deserve this right now. Our back defender Smalarz (Courtney Smalarz) was put on (Fortune) and she did a great job. She busted her butt for us and she definitely shut her down, didn't give her as many looks as she usually gets.

"I didn't know any of that about her in the background. I just came into the game hoping to play my best. This was my last 80 minutes as a soccer player in an official game. So, I wanted to leave my heart out there with my team and these girls. I've played with these seniors since I was 9 years old. That's a big deal. It meant a lot to me."

Smalarz -- the Indians' designated shadow -- limited Fortune to five shots on goal and two more off goal.

"Throughout the playoffs, our whole philosophy was not about winning," Prangen said. "It was about trying to play your best game in your last game. That's what it was -- don't get so focused on the win. If you play your best game and you don't win, 'Oh, well.'

"Today -- Wheaton Academy is a very good team. Leah Fortune is a very good player. She's a special kid. We kept all of that stuff away from our players in terms of her credentials for a reason. We didn't want them to be overly star-struck by a player of her caliber.

"And, that being said, I thought Courtney Smalarz did a great job on her. What we were trying to do was slow her up and then when the opportunity arose try to double-down on her once she stopped moving with the ball. For the most part, I thought the girls did OK with that. Going forward, we were trying to spring Bri (Wojnowski) or Shelley (Hadlock) or Jasmin (Nunez) and use our pace up top. It just never happened because we never got good services forward."