LT wins in overtime on Sanchez-to-Kocimski goal
By Matt Le Cren

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Lyons Township did not control its own destiny on the final day of West Suburban Conference Silver Division action, but the Lions controlled what they could.

With a chance at forging a three-way tie for the Silver championship at stake, the Lions took care of business when Frankie Kocimski’s goal gave LT a 1-0 overtime victory over Oak Park and River Forest Tuesday night at Bennett Field in Western Springs.

But the Lions needed Glenbard West to beat Hinsdale Central in Glen Ellyn. That didn’t happen, as 30 minutes after the LT game ended, Hinsdale Central secured a 1-0 win over the host Hilltoppers to capture the title outright.

Hinsdale Central, which finished 6-0 in league play, won the championship for the first time since 2006. LT, which had won or shared the previous four titles, finished second at 5-1, with Glenbard West third at 4-2. OPRF was fourth at 3-3.

“We definitely got it done. It was very important getting the win just in case Glenbard does win,” Kocimski said before the Hinsdale match was completed. “But Oak Park is a great team. They came out, played hard, had the best of us first half, but during the halftime speech our coaches said you got to get it and this is for conference. So we went out and did what we had to do.”

But it was far from easy for the Lions (16-3-1), who were outplayed at times by the Huskies as both sides battled fierce winds.

Kocimski ended it in the 83rd minute when he knocked home a crisp cross from freshman Christian Sanchez with 7:47 left in overtime.

It was the seventh goal of the season for Kocimski but the first game-winner and it came on a play that nearly didn’t happen.

LT had been putting pressure on the OPRF defense when the Huskies cleared the ball and appeared to have a chance at a 3-on-2 counterattack. But LT defender Emilio Godinez stuck his foot out and deflected the ball to Sanchez on the right wing.

Sanchez quickly took it back up the field and served the ball to the penalty spot, where Kocimski ran onto it and one-timed a shot past Huskies goalie Liam Sorensen.

“I think it was Emilio who played it back to Sanchez and just put a great move on them,” Kocimski said. “[He] took it to the endline past the second six and we work on it every day and I just got a touch on it. Fortunately it got in the goal.”

LT coach Paul Labbato was pleased to see Godinez take a risk in trying to create something because he didn’t want the game to go to penalty kicks.

“When you have these opportunities to not go to penalty kicks, you’ve got to get into the box and make the most of your chances,” Labbato said. “We talked about trying to get the keeper onto one of the posts and slide the ball back across the middle and that’s exactly what happened. That’s how you beat a good keeper and the kid was a hot keeper in goal there, doing his job.”

Sorensen had to make only one save in a match that produced only 14 shots, but he did well to punch away several long free kicks and a couple of corner kicks.

His counterpart, Peter Nolan, was even better, making four saves, including two on shots that easily could have won the game for the Huskies in the second half.

The first came with 33:40 remaining when Noe Espinoza broke in alone on the right side of the penalty area. Espinoza fired from 12 yards out but a charging Nolan went down to deflect the ball away.

Nolan was faced with another tough challenge, this one of his own making, at the 21:58 mark when he was called for touching the ball just outside of the box. That gave the Huskies (11-7-1) an 18-yard free kick at the tip of the right circle. Okker Verhagen’s shot was ticketed for the upper right corner of the net but Nolan used two hands to nudge it over the crossbar.

“I set the wall so it would cover half of the goal,” Nolan said. “And then right before he shot it I kind of sensed that he was going for that side, so I moved over a little bit and just barely got enough to get it over.”

Aside from a long throw-in from Kocimski that Sorensen had to punch up in the air twice before clearing with 1:30 remaining, those were the only dangerous opportunities either side had.

“I thought we had five or six better chances than they did the second half that we just couldn’t finish,” OPRF coach Paul Wright said. “And we’ve talked about that all season where at least we’re making some solid contact on the ball. We created some opportunities. Their keeper came up big on two of those shots.”

Labbato agreed that the Huskies had the better of the action at times.

“We came out very flat,” Labbato said. “Oak Park, of course, comes out hard and well-coached and possessing the ball a lot. They did a nice job. Hat’s off to them, but it’s a funny game. They had the two clear opportunities that our keeper ends up saving.”

The stops by Nolan seemed to rejuvenate the Lions, who gradually took control toward the end of the second half.

“We got progressively better as the game went on,” Nolan said. “We didn’t really take many chances in the beginning of the game, but we finally got that one in the end.”

The victory was the sixth straight and 13th in the last 14 games for the Lions, who wrap up the regular season with a game at Argo on Thursday. LT is seeded second at the Class 3A Argo Sectional and will face the winner of Saturday’s play-in game between No. 14 Hinsdale South and No. 18 Kenwood on Tuesday in a regional semifinal at Hinsdale South.

Despite the loss, OPRF is going into the playoffs on a roll, having won 9 of its last 11 games, with the only other defeat being a 2-1 decision to Hinsdale Central on Sept. 25.

“Really [Kocimski’s] goal was pretty much the first shot they had the last 60 minutes and it goes in, so I can’t fault us,” said Wright, whose squad ends the regular season on Thursday against Nazareth. “Even though it’s a loss, it is a pretty solid confidence-builder. We’ve got to play Morton maybe in a regional final and these guys knocked off Morton, so we’re at that level. We can compete at this level.”

The Huskies are the eighth seed at Argo and will open regional play against No. 9 Argo on Oct. 17 Wednesday at the Morton Regional. Top-seeded Morton, the defending state champion, is the probable regional final opponent two days later.

“We’ve played some better competition the last four or five games,” Wright said. “We went on a team trip and really cleared the air on some stuff. They’re starting to come together at the right time.

“We’re battling hard. It’s going to be really interesting to see how this shakes out. If we show up and play like this, we’ll go far.”