Lions fall victim to Lyons' set pieces
By Matt Le Cren

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Perhaps the fourth time will be the charm for Lyons Township.

The Lions advanced to their fourth Pepsi Showdown championship match by knocking off Saint Viator 3-0 in a semifinal match Saturday in LaGrange. They will be seeking their first Pepsi title when they face reigning Class 3A state champion Morton in the Sept. 23 final at Toyota Park.

“It’s amazing,” LT junior forward Frankie Kocimski said of the opportunity to play at the Bridgeview stadium. “To play on any professional field you just get so excited.

“I’m so glad we made it back there, especially because we get to play Morton now. Last year we lost a heartbreaker to Morton and I’ve been wanting to [avenge] that game for a long, long time.”

Morton, which won the 2010 Pepsi title, edged LT 4-3 in double overtime in last year’s sectional semifinals and went on to win their first state championship. The Mustangs (12-0) blanked Larkin 3-0 in the other semifinal.

The Lions (8-2-1) have plenty of experience playing at Toyota Park, none of it good in terms of wins and losses. LT is 0-3 in Pepsi finals, having lost to Warren in 2006, Neuqua Valley in 2009 and Libertyville in 2011, so for seniors like Brett Heimerdinger, the match provides a sense of urgency.

“We’re looking for revenge because we haven’t won it and we lost to Morton last year in the sectional,” Heimerdinger said. “We want this game bad.”

The Lions reached the final with an impressive performance on their home field, shredding Saint Viator for three goals in a six-minute span in the first half. All three came on consecutive re-starts, which ironically have not been a strength for LT.

“We struggled at the beginning of the year with set plays and we’ve been spending a lot of time on them just getting our runs down, making sure we have players in the right spots and there just happened to be guys there at the right time today,” Heimerdinger said. “A lot of it is the delivery of the ball, getting it into the right spot.”

Heimerdinger certainly got his 30-yard free kick into the right spot in setting up the first goal. The senior midfielder’s serve from the right wing found the head of Jack Thomas in the box. Saint Viator goalie Mike McGrath made a diving save on the resulting header, but Kocimski was there to pounce on the rebound to give the hosts a 1-0 lead with 17:34 left in the first half.

The Lions struck twice more off set pieces to take a commanding lead. First, Ben Larson sent a corner kick bouncing in front to defender Joe Lupano, who headed the ball home from two yards out on the back post for a 2-0 lead at the 13:26 mark.

Just 1:51 later, Larson set up the third score with a 35-yard free kick. That boot was popped up in the air by Emilio Godinez and Matt Murphy jumped and back-headed it over the head of McGrath, who had come off his line, and into the net.

“I certainly didn’t expect it,” Kocimski said of the flurry of goals. “They are really good in the air - they scored [on] two free kicks off Warren, so I was really surprised when [LT scored]. But we’ve practicing on our free kicks and throw-ins and all that and I felt that we were going to at least get one today.”

Conceding one goal off a set piece probably wouldn’t have been fatal for the previously unbeaten Lions (6-1-2), but three proved to be too many to overcome and showed Saint Viator coach Mike Taylor where his team needs improvement.

“They came out with more urgency than we came out with,” Taylor said. “I look at the three goals come from set pieces out here. You’re looking at a judgment call on every one of them but you’ve still got to defend set pieces no matter what … you’ve got to stay with your runners. To come back three goals against a team like this, it’s too hard.”

But other than those three plays, Saint Viator played LT tough in a chippy game that saw multiple yellow cards as well as a red card that forced LT to play with 10 men for the final 14:19. Saint Viator did generate some chances in the second half, the best of which came five minutes in when a 25-yard shot by Mateo Leudo clanged off the top of the crossbar.

Troy Wheeler twice got his noggin on the ball in the box but sent the first attempt high and had the other saved by LT goalie Peter Nolan, who did not have to make another stop in recording the shutout. Nolan did give up a rebound on that play but Godinez cleared the ball off the line.

Saint Viator was playing its third game in as many days, which included Thursday’s 3-0 quarterfinal upset of top-seeded Warren, and making its first Pepsi semifinal appearance.

“I’m proud of them,” Taylor said. “This is the first time we’ve got past the first round. We battled all the way to the end and had some good opportunities at the end.

“I thought Spencer [Moore] played a good game. We’re missing two outside fullbacks in this game – one’s sick and one had a red card in the last game – and we substituted two other guys in there and I thought they did a great job.

“I thought [Ryan] Henry played a helluva game. He usually plays outside midfield but I put him back on defense and the kid’s solid. He gave some nice balls out of the back and I thought he did well.”

Ultimately, the game was decided in the midfield, which for years has been a LT strength.

“Today I think our center midfielders were lacking and my strikers, someone besides Spencer has to step up in front,” Taylor said, “because after a while they just keep hammering and hammering him.”

LT had one other advantage: a large home crowd that Larson was heard to call the best fans in the state.

“[An] outsider [can be] saying it’s a home field but there’s so many good teams here,” LT coach Paul Labbato said. “We do go on the road and have to win within the tournament, but we like having the semifinals, if we’re lucky enough to be in it, at our field with our fans and a lot of that support from the community.”