Lemont's early goal holds up vs. Illiana

Lemont forward David Perez controls the ball against Illiana Christian.
(John Patsch/Herald News)

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For the third straight year, Lemont's boys soccer team will have the opportunity to win a sectional championship.

But Tuesday's Class 2A Lemont Sectional semifinal game with Illiana Christian was much closer than Indians coach Rick Prangen would have liked.

His squad scored just 13:37 into the match but then failed to convert on some other good chances against the scrappy Vikings.

Lemont made the goal stand and claimed a 1-0 victory over Illiana to advance to Saturday's 11 a.m. sectional title game against Bremen.

"To be fair, I thought it should have been 2-0 or 3-0 in the first half," Prangen said. "In the playoffs, if you don't convert on your chances, it comes back to bite you in the behind and it kind of did that big time.

"In the first half we had five good real good quality chances and one in the back of the net out of five isn't very good. Any time you leave a team in the game that believes and has heart like Illiana does, then you're looking for trouble."

Lemont (17-7-1), which fell in the Class AA quarterfinals last year and reached the Class AA supersectional the year before, had plenty of good chances during the first half.

But Illiana (19-5), which beat Lemont 3-1 earlier this season, hung tough and then made things suspenseful for the Indians down the stretch.

The Indians moved ahead for good when Kyle Spoo got free in front and placed a shot into the right side of the with 26:23 left in the first half.

Lemont nearly scored again with 17:10 remaining in the opening half but Joe Rehfus bounced a short shot off of the right post.

A short time later, Spoo set up Rehfus again for a short shot but his attempt went right to Illiana keeper Sam Vroom.

The Vikings got their first good chance with just 1:12 left in the half when Todd Bevan lined a short shot that Lemont keeper Jonathan Remiasz deflected away.

The Indians responded with a threat right before the break but Spoo's shot attempt was stopped to keep it 1-0 at halftime.

"We wanted this one bad," Spoo said. "The last two years we've made it to the supersectional and then state and right now we're just trying to get back there. We lost a a lot of guys from last year but we're doing a good job of replacing them.

"When you get chances like we did you have to put the other team away because then you're able to relax, move the ball better and just play the game. We need to be sharper against Bremen but we'll work on some things and be ready on Saturday."

Lemont looked to get a break about 13 minutes into the second half when a corner kick bounced around in front of an open net but it couldn't get a good shot.

With about 16 minutes remaining, Spoo got another good opportunity but his short shot was also stopped by the Illiana goalkeeper.

One final scoring chance also slipped away for the hosts when Kyle Russell was wide on a shot try after he got free on a one-on-one situation.

"We had several good scoring opportunities and it's unfortunate that they didn't go in," said Vikings coach Chip Bevan, whose squad established a school record for victories. "It was a very well-fought game both ways.

"Sometimes when you beat a team earlier in the season you come out a little overconfident. But I thought our boys played hard and it was just one of those nights where it was a game of inches and we couldn't capitalize and they did."