Lyons length the difference
in title win over New Trier
Lions are victorious for 1st time in 8-year history with 2-1 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
NORTHFIELD -- Height is a big advantage for soccer teams who are proficient at corner and free kicks, and throw-ins.
This season, it will definitely provide an edge for Lyons, which used one of its bigs to great advandtage against host New Trier in the championship game of the Northside College Showcase on Saturday.
After a scoreless first half, Lyons earned a corner kick just under two minutes after halftime.
"In practice, we work on where everyone should go," Lyons' 6-foot-2-inch Collin Sullivan said. “When it's a corner, I'm usually floating toward the back post and Haris (Sarajlija) knew where to put it. And it put us in the lead, which was great."
"We have three-to-five dominant players in the air," Lyons manager Paul Labbato said.
"We feel like we're going to put five guys in the box and if you pick one guy to make your priority, that next guy will hurt you.
“We know it's an advantage having five guys six-foot and over and all being really good at reading the ball and where it's going to go."
The opener helped get the Lions offense in gear. It earned another corner shortly after before putting in another goal off of a Sarajlija bomb from around the 30-yard line in the 46th minute. Sarajlija was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match for his game play.
The final Lyons goal gave it the cushion it needed to hold off the host Trevians and pull out a 2-1 win to bring home its first Northside College Showcase title.
"I checked my shoulder, and there was nobody on me," Sarajlija said. "So I turned, beat their center back, hit it as hard as I could, and it went top corner. It gave us some comfort, knowing we had those two goals scored."
"I liked that after the first 10 minutes, we settled in and figured out what they were trying to do," Labbato said. "because the first 10 minutes they were moving the ball well and we were certainly guessing where they were going.
“Then we were able to make better decisions about where they were going with the ball, and we were able to press in good spaces, forcing them to either play in big space or hit over the top."
The Trevians and Lions are two of three teams that have played in every showcase since its inception in 2014.
The Trevians looked to repeat as champions after taking down Lyons in penalty kicks last year. Lyons, ranked sixth the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, hoped to win its first showcase title after falling in the title game in 2014, 2019 and 2021.
To say Lyons had a little bit of revenge on its mind would be a fair statement.
"We had a similar situation last year when we played these guys here, and we didn't want to repeat what happened then," Sullivan said. "So that was a big thing we talked about at halftime, not letting it happen again. It's a great feeling walking out of here with a win. It feels really good and gets us ready for our next games."
"We haven't won this tournament or beaten New Trier in almost 10 years, so it gives everyone a bunch of confidence," Sarajlija said. "We haven't lost this year, and I don't think we will. New Trier's a great team but we came out to win, and I think we can beat anyone this season."
While falling behind 2-0 was less ideal for the no. 4 Trevians, it lit a fire under them.
After Sarajlija's goal, New Trier earned three free kicks, a corner kick and forced Lyons keeper Connor Schmitt to make two saves.
About midway through the half, all the pressure by the Trevians was about to pay off when Kanellos stepped up to take a free kick from the left hash just outside the box.
"Earlier in the game I had a free kick from pretty much the same spot and I crossed it, so I think the goalie was thinking cross," he said. "Honestly, I heard someone behind me say 'Look at the goalie, the goalie's kind of off his line, try to put it in the back corner.' I wasn't really planning on shooting it, because it wasn't a great shooting angle. But the goalie was off his line, so it had a chance."
"When we went down 2-0, we knew the worst was already behind us. It wasn't going to get worse, so we just gave it our all. We generated chance after chance but just couldn't finish."
The Trevians continued to press toward the goal, putting more pressure on the Lions' defense and came close to an equalizer with two minutes remaining when Aidan Nicholson released a shot from the left side about five yards outside the box that went just over the crossbar and the outstretched arms of the Lions' keeper.
Both teams know that they can't dwell on the result, or in Lyons' case celebrate it too much.
Both managers felt like they learned a lot about their squads throughout the tournament and like what they've seen in the season's first two weeks, but know that there's still much time left in the season.
"Today, specifically, we learned that we're able to deal with adversity," New Trier manager Matt Ravenscraft said. "Chasing a good team is a challenge. I thought that after the exception of the second goal we conceded, we locked in and got a response. We were right at the doorstep a few times, we just didn't get the equalizer.
"But I think that's something we can learn. There will be games where things don't go your way. We just have to relax, play our game, and it will come. We just ran out of time. But we're going to fight for 80 minutes. Any opponent, if they're watching this game, they're going to see we have a lot of heart; and we're going to play 80 minutes of our brand of soccer."
"We're looking for growth in each game and fixing small mistakes while getting better at bigger-picture things," Labbato said. "With the kind of talent we have, we have to get better on our set pieces. We should be scoring one a game; that's a goal of ours.
"We can see growth there. We've started to make the right runs, figure out where the ball is supposed to be, predict early and be on the spot.
"How you build off of a game like this is to go out and play well in your next game. You can't just fall apart, because we beat a good team and think we're great. We know every single game is difficult and the test is just making sure we know each game means something, and we try to build."
Kanellos said that while playing in these big games is great at the beginning of the season, they're trying to build for games later in the season and hopefully a deep run in the postseason.
"It's early September and the postseason doesn't start until October, so we've got plenty of time to still grow," he said. "This is a game where it hurts to lose, but there's a lot to take away. That was a playoff environment type of game."
Starting lineups
Lyons
GK: Connor Schmitt
D: Collin Sullivan
D: Liam Carolan
D: Daniel Svelnis
D: Will Swicionis
D: Igor Chrobotowicz
MF: Owen Suda
MF: Haris Sarajlija
MF: Larry Martinez
MF: Patrick Kracker
F: Brian Salvino
New Trier
GK: Thomas Terry
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Liam Myers
D: Kevin Farina
MF: Wyatt McAlexander
MF: Ian Vichnick
MF: Karsten Segall
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Evan Kanellos
MF: Theo Franzen
F: Aryan Krishna
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Haris Sarajlija, jr., MF, Lyons
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Lyons - Collin Sullivan (Haris Sarajlija), 42nd minute
Lyons - Sarajlija (Daniel Svelnis), 46th minute
New Trier - Evan Kanellos (Free Kick), 58th minute
in title win over New Trier
Lions are victorious for 1st time in 8-year history with 2-1 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
NORTHFIELD -- Height is a big advantage for soccer teams who are proficient at corner and free kicks, and throw-ins.
This season, it will definitely provide an edge for Lyons, which used one of its bigs to great advandtage against host New Trier in the championship game of the Northside College Showcase on Saturday.
After a scoreless first half, Lyons earned a corner kick just under two minutes after halftime.
"In practice, we work on where everyone should go," Lyons' 6-foot-2-inch Collin Sullivan said. “When it's a corner, I'm usually floating toward the back post and Haris (Sarajlija) knew where to put it. And it put us in the lead, which was great."
"We have three-to-five dominant players in the air," Lyons manager Paul Labbato said.
"We feel like we're going to put five guys in the box and if you pick one guy to make your priority, that next guy will hurt you.
“We know it's an advantage having five guys six-foot and over and all being really good at reading the ball and where it's going to go."
The opener helped get the Lions offense in gear. It earned another corner shortly after before putting in another goal off of a Sarajlija bomb from around the 30-yard line in the 46th minute. Sarajlija was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match for his game play.
The final Lyons goal gave it the cushion it needed to hold off the host Trevians and pull out a 2-1 win to bring home its first Northside College Showcase title.
"I checked my shoulder, and there was nobody on me," Sarajlija said. "So I turned, beat their center back, hit it as hard as I could, and it went top corner. It gave us some comfort, knowing we had those two goals scored."
"I liked that after the first 10 minutes, we settled in and figured out what they were trying to do," Labbato said. "because the first 10 minutes they were moving the ball well and we were certainly guessing where they were going.
“Then we were able to make better decisions about where they were going with the ball, and we were able to press in good spaces, forcing them to either play in big space or hit over the top."
The Trevians and Lions are two of three teams that have played in every showcase since its inception in 2014.
The Trevians looked to repeat as champions after taking down Lyons in penalty kicks last year. Lyons, ranked sixth the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, hoped to win its first showcase title after falling in the title game in 2014, 2019 and 2021.
To say Lyons had a little bit of revenge on its mind would be a fair statement.
"We had a similar situation last year when we played these guys here, and we didn't want to repeat what happened then," Sullivan said. "So that was a big thing we talked about at halftime, not letting it happen again. It's a great feeling walking out of here with a win. It feels really good and gets us ready for our next games."
"We haven't won this tournament or beaten New Trier in almost 10 years, so it gives everyone a bunch of confidence," Sarajlija said. "We haven't lost this year, and I don't think we will. New Trier's a great team but we came out to win, and I think we can beat anyone this season."
While falling behind 2-0 was less ideal for the no. 4 Trevians, it lit a fire under them.
After Sarajlija's goal, New Trier earned three free kicks, a corner kick and forced Lyons keeper Connor Schmitt to make two saves.
About midway through the half, all the pressure by the Trevians was about to pay off when Kanellos stepped up to take a free kick from the left hash just outside the box.
"Earlier in the game I had a free kick from pretty much the same spot and I crossed it, so I think the goalie was thinking cross," he said. "Honestly, I heard someone behind me say 'Look at the goalie, the goalie's kind of off his line, try to put it in the back corner.' I wasn't really planning on shooting it, because it wasn't a great shooting angle. But the goalie was off his line, so it had a chance."
"When we went down 2-0, we knew the worst was already behind us. It wasn't going to get worse, so we just gave it our all. We generated chance after chance but just couldn't finish."
The Trevians continued to press toward the goal, putting more pressure on the Lions' defense and came close to an equalizer with two minutes remaining when Aidan Nicholson released a shot from the left side about five yards outside the box that went just over the crossbar and the outstretched arms of the Lions' keeper.
Both teams know that they can't dwell on the result, or in Lyons' case celebrate it too much.
Both managers felt like they learned a lot about their squads throughout the tournament and like what they've seen in the season's first two weeks, but know that there's still much time left in the season.
"Today, specifically, we learned that we're able to deal with adversity," New Trier manager Matt Ravenscraft said. "Chasing a good team is a challenge. I thought that after the exception of the second goal we conceded, we locked in and got a response. We were right at the doorstep a few times, we just didn't get the equalizer.
"But I think that's something we can learn. There will be games where things don't go your way. We just have to relax, play our game, and it will come. We just ran out of time. But we're going to fight for 80 minutes. Any opponent, if they're watching this game, they're going to see we have a lot of heart; and we're going to play 80 minutes of our brand of soccer."
"We're looking for growth in each game and fixing small mistakes while getting better at bigger-picture things," Labbato said. "With the kind of talent we have, we have to get better on our set pieces. We should be scoring one a game; that's a goal of ours.
"We can see growth there. We've started to make the right runs, figure out where the ball is supposed to be, predict early and be on the spot.
"How you build off of a game like this is to go out and play well in your next game. You can't just fall apart, because we beat a good team and think we're great. We know every single game is difficult and the test is just making sure we know each game means something, and we try to build."
Kanellos said that while playing in these big games is great at the beginning of the season, they're trying to build for games later in the season and hopefully a deep run in the postseason.
"It's early September and the postseason doesn't start until October, so we've got plenty of time to still grow," he said. "This is a game where it hurts to lose, but there's a lot to take away. That was a playoff environment type of game."
Starting lineups
Lyons
GK: Connor Schmitt
D: Collin Sullivan
D: Liam Carolan
D: Daniel Svelnis
D: Will Swicionis
D: Igor Chrobotowicz
MF: Owen Suda
MF: Haris Sarajlija
MF: Larry Martinez
MF: Patrick Kracker
F: Brian Salvino
New Trier
GK: Thomas Terry
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Liam Myers
D: Kevin Farina
MF: Wyatt McAlexander
MF: Ian Vichnick
MF: Karsten Segall
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Evan Kanellos
MF: Theo Franzen
F: Aryan Krishna
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Haris Sarajlija, jr., MF, Lyons
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Lyons - Collin Sullivan (Haris Sarajlija), 42nd minute
Lyons - Sarajlija (Daniel Svelnis), 46th minute
New Trier - Evan Kanellos (Free Kick), 58th minute