Boys soccer: Lyons Township can’t catch up, finishes runner-up in 3A to New Trier

HOFFMAN ESTATES – Lyons caught lightning in a bottle before running into a team seemingly destined for its first state championship since 2008.

New Trier scored two early goals and Lyons never recovered, falling 3-1 in the Class 3A state final Nov. 4 at Hoffman Estates.

“At 2-0 at halftime, I’m looking at them and we can go get one and make this a game,” Lyons coach Paul Labbato said. “And I wouldn’t be shocked if they could do it at the end. But at the end, New Trier did a great job. They’re deserving champs.

“It was a pleasure to be out on the field with such a good team and put ourselves in that exact same spot as a great team that had a chance and we took our chance.”

The Trevians (23-1-2) finished the season by winning their final 16 games, outscoring opponents 74-20 over the course of the year.

“It feels awesome,” Trevians senior Kevin Farina said. “My [three older] brothers played here, but never got the job done. So it’s nice to finally get it done.”

Ian Vichnik ripped in a 30-yard blast with 23:40 left in the opening half to put New Trier ahead 1-0. About four minutes later, the Trevians struck again with Cole Driscoll burying an 18-yarder.

Lyons (20-7-2) again was down, but not out. After surviving hard-fought thrillers in the playoffs against Young, Morton, Stagg and Naperville North, the Lions would need to rally again.

“I truly believed we could get one in that second half and maybe a little earlier when it was 2-0 to get into something where it could come down to the end,” Labbato said. “I knew these guys had it in them to fight until the very end, but that third goal kind of pushed it too far with the time that was [remaining] when it happened.”

Lyons kept battling, but New Trier stayed tough as it has all season. The Trevians’ lone loss was to Glenbrook North on Sept. 11 and they beat the Spartans in the state semifinals Nov. 3 to advance to play Lyons.

Lyons was a modest 11-6-2 and had just lost back-to-back games to Proviso West and Oak Park-River Forest before turning it on and finishing with nine straight wins before the state championship game.

“[The run] was a bit surreal. It felt like everyone played for each other,” Lyons senior midfielder Haris Sarajlija said. “There was doubt against us after losing to Proviso West, so we tuned everyone out and had to do it for each other. We just locked out the noise and we did it and made it this far, so I’d have to say it’s surreal.”

“Every team in the area has real good soccer players, but nobody has had our heart and grit,” Lyons senior defender Declan Kracker said. “I think that’s what brought us so far.”

The Trevians’ Farina blasted in a shot in the 53rd minute to make it 3-0.

Lyons finally was able to break the shutout with 14:06 remaining when senior defender Mason Santos drove in a header off a corner kick from sophomore forward Mason Burba.

Once again, Lyons was fighting its way back, but this time came up short.

“I think they had [this run] inside of them all year and just needed this moment to come together,” Labbato said. “They spun it into this run that they had and it really had a lot to do with them.”