Defending Champs Hand Trojans First Soccer Loss

The Trojans just could not finish on Tuesday, yet Downers Grove North is far from finished.

Defending 3A state champion Lyons Township came to Carstens Field and struck twice early in the contest en route to handing the host Trojans (8-1-1) their first loss of the season, a 2-0 blanking.

Downers Grove North was not thrilled at all about allowing Lions star Horacio Sanchez to beat them first with a header and then with a low shot just inside the left post for a 2-0 lead less than 9 minutes into the match. But the Trojans, who get another shot at their conference rivals in quarterfinal play of the Pepsi Shooutout Thursday afternoon at Lyons, can at least feel better about the way they played after falling behind, especially in the second half.

Collen Cummings had a header off the post and fellow sophomore Anthony Jeffries also had some golden chances to score in the second half.

"We came out too soft at the beginning and LT is too good a team to do that against," said Jeffries, who helped create several threats, but none of them came to fruition on Tuesday. "We played much better in the second half. We just have to take that into Thursday. We also have got to finish. If we finished our chances, we'd  be talking about a different game."

Downers North coach Brian Gervase hopes his Trojans learn a thing or two from Tuesday's sluggish start. But he also wants his talented team not to get down after dropping the key league showdown with the Lions (7-0-2).

"We were very lackadaisical the first 20 minutes. We're letting (them) outjump us. I think we're bigger than them, but they were getting all the jump balls," Gervase said.

After the Lions held a big 9-2 edge in shots on goal in the first half, the Trojans limited LT to just a pair of shots on goalie Matt Paprocki (nine saves) over the final 40 minutes, while recording three shots on net in the second half to go along with some near misses.

"That was certainly a positive," Gervase said. "We played better in the second half and we'll build on that into Thursday. We're not going to let this get us too down."

Lyons Township coach Paul Labbato knows his team will need to be on top of its game for the next matchup between the two powers.

"That (start) certainly helped," Labbato said of Sanchez's two strikes. "When they (Trojans) finally settled in, they're a very good team. They had the better of the play in the second half and they're very good. Did I say that?"