LT Sports Roundup: Boys Soccer Team Shares Third Consecutive Silver Title

Senior defender Kevin Shaw’s first goal this season for the boys soccer team proved to be a big one Tuesday.

The early second-half tally gave the Lions a 1-0 victory at Oak Park-River Forest and a share of their third consecutive West Suburban Conference Silver Division title.

Elliot Borge and Kovas Zygas were given credit for assists. Goalie Max Hadley made 10 saves to help the Lions (12-4-3) record their fourth straight shutout and ninth overall.

LT and Glenbard West both finished 5-1 in the Silver. The Lions lost at Glenbard West 1-0 Sept. 13, but the Hilltoppers lost at Proviso West 3-1 Sept. 20. Glenbard West, which beat Hinsdale Central 2-1 Tuesday, had defeated OPRF (16-3-1, 4-2 in Silver) Sept. 22 in Glen Ellyn 1-0 on penalty kicks.

The Lions, who won their past two Silver titles outright, have been Silver champs six out of the last seven seasons. This is Glenbard West’s first Silver title since 1999.

“Winning the Silver is always a goal of ours,” LT coach Paul Labbato said. “The Silver is very difficult and being successful against our rivals is important to the success of our season. Every one of those games has a playoff atmosphere, and each team wants to beat LT because of our long tradition. We are very proud of our team to defend the title again.”

The Lions are the No. 3 seed in the Class 3A Hinsdale Central Sectional behind OPRF and Morton. LT begins York Regional action at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 18) in Elmhurst against the 14th-seeded Dukes. The winner plays No. 6 Mt. Carmel or No. 11 Downers Grove North for the regional title at 3 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 22) in Elmhurst.

The Lions completed their regular season by beating Lockport 4-1 Wednesday (Oct. 12). Borge had a goal and assist, Jon Jakob Lauser, Frankie Kocimski and Hector Godinez also scored and Emilio Godinez and Piers Clarke added their first assists of the season.

Borge, a senior who leads the team with 10 goals and nine assists, has had assists in the past four games and scored in seven of the past eight games.

LT blanked Argo 3-0 Oct. 7 and Proviso West 3-0 Oct. 6.

Jack Thomas scored twice against Proviso West. Borge had one goal and one assist and Brett Heimerdinger added an assist.

Against Argo, Zygas, Borge and Hector Godinez had goals with two assists from Borge and one from Heimerdinger.

Sharing the shutouts were goalies Rob Brunner (4 saves) and Hadley (save) against Proviso West and Hadley (4 saves) and Brunner (3 saves) against Argo.

LT football

The LTHS football team (4-4) dropped its last home game of the year on Friday, being blown out 41-17 by the Proviso West Panthers (4-4).

The loss ended the Lions' chances of forcing a playoff berth, but due to strength of schedule (having had to face off against the undefeated Downers Grove South and Glenbard West behemoths) and two game-winning long Jake Elliott kicks, the team still has a good shot at getting in with a victory over a medicore Leyden Eagles squad next week.

But the team will have to perform better than their miserable Friday, when they mustered only 119 total offensive yards (and only 79 minus offensive penalties.) Meanwhile, the defense surrendered a whopping 430 yards to the Panthers, about a half-half split between ground (210) and air (220).

Neither of LT's quarterbacks Connor Onion and Zachary Mahoney were tremendously effective against a tough Proviso West defense. Onion was 5-of-13 for 45 yards and an intercetpion; Mahoney was 5-of-10 for 28 yards. Each was also sacked twice, and Mahoney lost a fumble.

Star running back Jaime Jones ran for 61 yards on 14 attempts and a fourth-quarter touchdown, and also caught four passes for 20 yards, but also coughed up an early fumble that the Panthers returned 48 yards to go up 7-0. They would lead 21-0 at the half.

LT got life with 8:58 left in the third quarter when junior Matthew Harris blocked a punt and senior Michael Thomas took it to the house, making it a 14-point game. But just over five minutes later, the Panthers opened it back up to 20 on a 42-yard run, and would tack on two more TDs to the Lions' one in the fourth quarter.

Harris also had three receptions for 33 yards.

On defense, senior Robert Mitchell had a pick for the Lions, and both Thomas and lineman Jason Plagens recovered fumbles. Senior Will Konstant had five tackles and five assists, and senior DL Adam Rogers had three tackles and five assists, two in the backfield. Junior linebacker Billy Cramsie had two tackles and six assists.

LT girls swimming and diving

The Lyons Township varsity girls swimming and diving team finished fourth at the Barrington Invitational Saturday (Oct. 8).

Loyola Academy (338 points) won the meet, followed by Fenwick (307), Barrington (275), the Lions (224) and Lockport (179).

The Lions’ Elly Vitek was third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:57.05) and 100 free (54.80) and was part of the 400 free relay with Jennifer Weigand, Kristine Rosenberger and Lizzy Kosin (3:44.53).

LT pulled out the junior varsity title 329-327 over Fenwick with event victories from Kelley Garrow (200 free), Lizzie Everett (500 free) and the 200 free relay of Megan Isaacson, Shea Dufficy, Everett and Lauren Rosenberger.

Barrington Invite
Varsity team scores: 1. Loyola 338, 2. Fenwick 307, 3. Barrington 275, 4. LT 224, 5. Lockport 179, 6. Schaumburg 57, 7. Rockford Guilford 11, 8. Resurrection 1
LT top-five finishers
Diving: 4. Kelly Ryser (287.05 points)
200-yard freestyle: 3. Elly Vitek 1:57.05
100 free: 3. Vitek 54.80
500 free: 5. Jennifer Weigand 5:15.92
200 free relay: 5. Kristine Rosenberger, Louisa Hoffman, Vitek, Weigand 1:41.74
100 breaststroke: 4. Maddie Naughton 1:10.88
400 free relay: 3. Jennifer Weigand, Kristine Rosenberger, Lizzy Kosin, Vitek 3:44.53

Junior varsity team scores: 1. LT 329, 2. Fenwick 327, 3. Loyola Academy 257, 4. Barrington 256, 5. Lockport 145.5, 6. Schaumburg 73.5, 7. Rockford Guilford 5, 8. Resurrection 2
LT top-three finishers
Diving: 3. Allie Johnson 135.05 points
200-yard medley relay: 3. Marie Zahorik, Elizabeth Clark, Molly McDonnell, Sarah Cordell 2:01.50
200 freestyle: 1. Kelley Garrow 2:02.76
50 free: 2. Katherine McGill 26.84
100 butterfly: 2. Kristen Young 1:02.77
500 free: 1. Lizzie Everett 5:25.38
200 free relay: 1. Megan Isaacson, Shea Dufficy, Everett, Lauren Rosenberger 1:46.13
100 backstroke: 3. Kirby Kaptur 1:06.94

LT girls volleyball

The Lyons Township girls volleyball team lost to rival Hinsdale Central 26-14, 19-25, 25-21 Tuesday (Oct. 11) in La Grange in a key West Suburban Conference Silver Division match.

Top performers for the Lions (16-6,3-2 in Silver) included Alexis Viliunas (10 kills, 18 assists), Laura Williams (10 kills, 5 assists), Megan Miller (20 digs) and Alyssa Keeve (5 kills).

University of Michigan recruit Ally Davis had a single-match career-high 24 kills for Hinsdale Central (16-12, 4-1), which will try to earn a share of the Silver title by beating top-ranked York (22-2, 5-0) Tuesday (Oct. 18) in Hinsdale.

The Lions are the No. 2-seed at this weekend’s Maine West Pumpkin Invitational. They meet Maine West and Belleville West in pool play Friday.