Tomcats claim conference crown

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:24PM

East Aurora's soccer coaches, players and fans knew they had made history with Tuesday night's 2-0 victory over Metea Valley.

"It's awesome," coach Jason Rollins said with a huge smile. "Soccer was started at East Aurora in 1985 and this is the first time we can claim a share of a conference title. There isn't a banner in our gym. There's not even a picture of a soccer team anywhere, so this is a huge deal. It means a lot to our guys knowing that they will be remembered in Tomcat history."

The win boosted East Aurora's overall ledger to 15-2-5 and its 5-0-1 record within the Upstate Eight Conference's Valley Division assured it at least a co-championship with No. 3-ranked Neuqua Valley. Later, the Tomcats claimed the title outright when Neuqua Valley (4-0-2 UEC) played to a 0-0 draw with Lake Park.

"I'm honored to be on the first championship soccer team in school history. We started this season with the slogan ‘Play to be remembered' to describe our goals and to honor Jason (Ventura)," Eddie Llamas said referring to a former teammate who died last winter.

As a hard-fought opening half was coming to a close, East Aurora's Juan Bustamante blasted a shot that Metea Valley goalie Derek Carothers was able to block but not catch, and Llamas booted it home from nine yards.

"I saw it bounce away from the keeper's hands and just positioned myself for the shot. It felt great," Llamas said.

With Metea Valley seemingly always one touch away from a clear opportunity, the Tomcats' defense didn't even yield a true shot on goal for the final 40 minutes. Jose Vasquez worked the initial 54 minutes and Norberto Sanchez came on for the final 26 as the two goalies shared the team's ninth shutout of the season.

With the Mustangs trying to attack, East Aurora's Abraham Kanneh was able to flick the ball forward to teammate Ramon Camacho, who got just the right touch on a 14-yard floater over the outrushing Carothers for an insurance strike with 43 seconds left.

"This means a lot," Kanneh said. "But as good as it feels, we need to continue to go strong in regional play. That's our next goal."

Senior co-captain Ruben Torres echoed those sentiments: "It feels amazing knowing that we made history, but now we have to keep the hunger alive in regional play."

As a first-year varsity program, Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson was still proud of his Mustangs compiling an 8-11-1 overall mark and 0-4-1 league record.

"I'm happy with the way we worked and it was a close match until they got the lead," Robinson said. " That made it easier for them to settle in and took some of the pressure off them with all they had at stake. Give them credit for their accomplishment, they deserve it. We need to realize we're a No. 14 seed with nothing to lose in our first varsity season and just go into regionals enjoying the opportunity because crazy things can happen in the postseason."

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.