Two highly ranked Southland Boys soccer teams entered Lyons Township Soccer Complex early Sunday afternoon. The Lincoln-Way Central Knights and the Minooka Indians were set to battle for the cup. Sophomore midfielder, Connor Pate put the Knights on the board just 48 seconds into the game with a beautiful left-footed shot to put the team up 1-0.
Pate shared: “Scoring 48 seconds in, you can’t even put it into words. The team obviously goes through a super dynamic warmup, and we were definitely the more ready team. It was a huge momentum boost for us and set the tempo for the game.”
“Stepping out into a championship environment, obviously emotions were already extremely high. For a ball to land on my foot in the 18-yard box, and for me to just be able to slot it was an amazing feeling that just truly happened so quick,” Pate said.
The Knights (9-1-1) tallied two more second-half goals compliments of sophomores Aiden Byrne and Derick Rafacz. Central was able to close the game out 3-0 against a very solid Minooka (6-4-4) side. Diego Escobedo and Patrick Koenig were dangerous at times for the Minooka Indians, however, the Knights held strong in the back with Theodore Utz recording his 5th clean sheet of the year.
“Honestly, feels great to record yet another clean sheet. The backline has been playing fantastic in front of me lately. Personally, I feel like I am playing very confident in net right now and hopefully the boys can keep things rolling. Since I didn’t play much when we won this tournament my sophomore year, it was truly an amazing feeling to win it as a starter this year.” Utz shared.
