By Bryan Bloodworth
NORMAL – University High School celebrated the school’s second state title in two weeks Monday with an assembly for the boys’ soccer team, which won the Class 1A state championship over the weekend at East Peoria.
The Pioneers 3-1 win over Westchester St. Joseph in the Saturday title game came on the heels of the boys’ golf team winning a Class 2A state championship two weeks ago at Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington.
PODCAST: Listen to Coach Stanton interview here.
“It’s a great accomplishment for these kids,” said coach Jeremy Stanton. “They did it for themselves and for the team from last year. It’s the first state championship in soccer in school history and there’s a great tradition at U High in soccer. It’s just an unbelievable achievement.”
The Pioneers, who finished with a 17-6-5 record and were making their fourth appearance in the state finals, defeated Waterloo Gibault, 1-0, in the semifinals.
With eight new players in the starting lineup, Stanton said consistency was a problem for the Pioneers early in the year.
“The way we were playing at the end of the year, it was such a high level, compared to throughout the course of the season when I thought we were a little inconsistent,” he said.
“The defense really stepped up. Our offense continued to put goals up. That was ultimately the difference. As soon as we started locking down defensively, we went from a good team to a very good team.”
The Pioneers starting lineup consisted of sophomore goalie Christian Lopez; senior defenders Ryan Poland, Matt Mosele and Jason Lenz along with junior Matt Mier. The midfielders included junior Jett Jenkins, sophomores Clayton Redd and Mason Wittman along with freshman Camden Brown. Forwards were sophomores J.D. Kelley and Nathan Clay, who had two goals in the championship game.
“When we started to lock down defensively, ultimately you can say, that won us the championship,” added Stanton. “I told the team three-fourths through the season if we would just lock down defensively and even just give up one goal a game, we’d be in great shape. We were able to put seven solid games together (in the postseason).
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
