Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Tigers fall just shy at soccer championship game

NAPERVILLE -- There are some teams who treat the third-place match as a glorified exhibition and don't make every effort to win.

Edwardsville isn't one of them. The Tigers brought effort and emotion in abundance into their Class 3A third place game against (Winnetka) New Trier on Saturday at North Central College.

But despite outshooting the Trevians 11-7 and nearly scoring several goals in the early going, Edwardsville dropped a 2-1 decision to the same squad that beat them in the state championship match a year ago.

"That's the character of our kids," Edwardsville coach Mark Heiderscheid said. "They really wanted to win the game. Some teams don't really want to play a third-place game but we (relished the) chance to play a program like New Trier. I wanted to make sure to get in all of our players, but the players were like, 'We want to win the game.'

"You could tell by the intensity and the emotion that they really wanted to win, that they weren't going to walk through it."

For the first 30 minutes, the Tigers (18-5-4) appeared to be on their way to victory. Edwardsville peppered the New Trier net with several dangerous shots, but the Trevians (19-7-3) were saved by backup goalie Chris Neuhaus, who replaced a gimpy John Secaras in the second minute.

Neuhaus made two diving stops on Sam Fink and one on Cameron Lauchner. Lauchner hit the crossbar with a shot with 1:05 left in the first half before finally scoring his team-leading 18th goal of the season with 1:10 left in the contest. It was the only goal Edwardsville scored in its two matches in Naperville.

"We really could have and probably should have (scored) but it just didn't happen," Heiderscheid said. "We figured if it was their regular (goalie) we would score because he was kind of gimpy and he wasn't as fast as the other one."

New Trier drew first blood at the 12:03 mark of the first half. Gavin Craig scored from five yards out off assists from Ben Beaver and Matt Hickey. Beaver made it 2-0 with 34:08 left in the second half by converting a penalty kick for his 13th goal of the postseason and 40th of the season.

"We were hoping to come out for some revenge, but they scored that goal late in the first half, which kind of put us on our heels," Lauchner said. "We came out really strong, seeing it was our last time playing together, and you expect that from a group of kids like this. We took it to them for a little while, got one off the crossbar but couldn't find the back of the net."

But the Tigers did bring home their fourth state trophy this decade and fifth overall, something that makes Lauchner and fellow senior starters Adam Moeller, Adam Flaugher, Nick Marshall, Trevor Bickhaus, Zach Tongay and Gregg Flores proud.

"Our seniors have been together since third grade, so we were playing for each other and trying to get Coach (another) state championship," Lauchner said. "We started off slow (3-3-3 before winning 15 of 16 to reach the semifinals) and moved some things around and things started going our way in the middle of the season."

Though the season ended with two losses, Heiderscheid was proud of his club.

"Getting to the Final Four validates you as a team and as a program," he said. "It's really a testament to the kids we've had and this group was a great way to put a capper on the decade. They are the neatest kids. I couldn't ask for a better group to end things because they are so classy and so much fun to be around."