Lions dominate but settle for 1-0 victory over Wego

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF LYNN MAGNESEN

By Curt Herron
Photos courtesy of Ken Fox

There were a couple of different ways that Lyons Township could reflect on its Saturday match with West Chicago in the Pepsi Showdown.

One viewpoint would suggest that the Lions be should be disappointed about having so many great scoring opportunities and yet collecting only one goal.

And the other perspective would be to be pleased about having so many chances and to give the Wildcats their due for making it difficult for LT to score.

Lions coach Paul Labbato preferred the latter approach as he looked back on his squad's 1-0 victory over Wego at West Field in LaGrange.

West Chicago (2-3-2) had every reason to not put up much of a fight against the defending state champions considering what it had been through the previous two days.

On Thursday, the Wildcats beat Oswego on penalty kicks in the Showdown and then settled for a draw after two overtimes in Friday's conference match with Glenbard East.

But despite having played all of that soccer in the previous two days, Wego continued to fight and scrap throughout, making LT (6-0-2) have to sweat out the victory.

Complicating matters for the Lions was the fact that the Wildcats combination of keeper Adrian Porcayo and defender Daniel Hernandez turned in outstanding performances.

Porcayo made several great stops to prevent further scores and Hernandez covered up or broke up numerous scoring chances that could have led in a much bigger LT win.

As it was, the 1-0 triumph was good enough to advance the Lions to Thursday's quarterfinal round of the 32-team tournament, which ended pool play on Saturday.

LT meets up with Downers Grove North (8-0-1) on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at West Field for the right to move on to Saturday's semifinals, which will also be in LaGrange.

In a strange twist, the Lions and Trojans also meet on Tuesday evening in Downers Grove in the regularly-scheduled West Suburban Conference Silver Division match.

Click to hear coach Paul Labbato interview

The Lions were knocking on the door throughout the opening half but looked like they might after to settle for a scoreless draw through the initial 40 minutes.

That especially seemed to be the case after Hector Godinez was denied on a header and Horacio Sanchez directed another header just over the next in the late going.

But with 2:03 left in the first half, things finally clicked for LT when Kyle Kurfirst sent a corner kick in front of the net and Pete Gabrek headed the ball in.

Click to hear Pete Gabrek interview

It was more of the same after the break for the Lions as Elliot Borge and Kurfirst were sending balls from the midfield and Sanchez was applying regular pressure.

A glance at the opening 10 minutes of the final half is a good indicator of they type of challenges that the Wildcat defense had to face during the second half.

Kurfirst started things with a liner on a corner kick, Alex Economou followed with a long free kick that was denied and a shot from Sanchez that was deflected away.

A short time later, Gabrek had an attempt deflected by Hernandez before Kurfirst saw another one of his corner kicks get knocked away by the Wildcat keeper.

Then shortly before the midway point of the final half, Porcayo came up with his biggest save on an afternoon featuring a variety on nice stops.

David Ellis sent a cross toward Kurfirst, who headed it toward the net but the Wego keeper leaped and deflected the ball off the crossbar to prevent a goal.

Kurfirst, Sanchez and Borge all had good chances to connect after that but their efforts were either denied or else went just wide of the net.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats managed to get the ball into some threatening situations before being shut down by LT's defense before they could get off a good try.

As as result, Matt Thomas and his teammates collected their second shutout in three matches as well as their fourth overall in eight matches this season.

Click to hear Matt Thomas interview