Lyons finally solves Wildcats
LISLE -- Neuqua Valley's quest for a perfect season and a state championship has come to an end.
Lyons Township ruined everything with a 1-0 victory against Neuqua in a Class 3A supersectional match played Tuesday night at Benedictine University.
(Jon Cunningham/For Sun-Times Media)
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• Benedictine ends Neuqua's perfection
It was Neuqua's first loss of the season and second time the Wildcats were held without a goal in regulation. The Wildcats had not lost a match since losing last season's third-place contest to Rockford Boylan on Nov. 8, 2008.
The Wildcats players sat on their bench in disbelief and watched as the Lyons players celebrated before Neuqua gathered one final time for a lengthy post-match huddle.
"Does one game define your season? No. I am proud of these guys," Neuqua coach Tony Kees said. "I told the boys they played really good, but they didn't make a play -- end of story."
Neuqua (27-1-1) was attempting to beat Lyons (24-3) for a third time this season.
"I don't know what it was tonight," Neuqua defender Keegan Balle said. "Maybe they outworked us and outplayed us. I thought we did a lot of things right and a lot of things good, but we didn't make enough plays and they capitalized when they got their opportunity and that is what beat us."
The match was scoreless at intermission and midway through the second half when Lyons broke through with its goal.
The goal was put in motion when Neuqua was whistled for a foul deep inside its own territory, which resulted in a free kick for Lyons. Zach Pearsall took the restart and bended the ball to teammate Horacio Sanchez, who broke hard toward the Neuqua goal. Sanchez managed to get his head on the ball and redirect it past Neuqua goalie Jack Turanchik in the 60th minute.
"We were just ready to play," said Sanchez, who also scored the game-winner for Lyons during its sectional championship win against Hinsdale Central this past Saturday. "We knew what we had to put up with and we did it. We knew we had to capitalize on that one chance that we got because we weren't going to get many."
The Wildcats, who hadn't trailed that late in a match all season, did not go away and turned up the pressure.
Neuqua's best chance to forge a tie came in the 75th minute when the Wildcats were awarded a free kick just outside the Lyons penalty area, but a Balle attempt sailed beyond the net.
Lyons' defense did a tremendous job of hounding Neuqua's offense. The Lions pretty much suffocated the Wildcats' top offensive threats.
"They really did a nice job with their pressure defense," said Neuqua's Scott Davis, who finished with 24 goals. "One of the most aggravating things playing forward is when you get the ball and you have a guy right on your back because you have to think of two things: possessing the ball and wondering where the defender is. I never had a chance to move or turn on them. Their defensive shape was very, very good. We couldn't get anything going."
Kees felt his team played good enough to win, but it didn't make things happen when it mattered.
"It is not that Lyons came in and ran over us," Kees said. "I thought we were the better team in terms of moving the ball, but our sport is cruel sometimes and it doesn't always reward the better team, and Lyons is good enough where I'm not going to say they didn't deserve to win because they did."
