Lions Are One Step Away from State

boys soccer head coach Kevin Perez calls it “the Kohorn factor.”

Every time , now an assistant women’s coach at Aurora University, has attended one of the Lions’ games this season, they’ve won.

Kohorn—who still coaches Lisle’s girls team but resigned from coaching the boys earlier this year to take the AU job—was on the sidelines Friday afternoon when the Lions squared off with Interstate Eight rival Peotone for the Lisle sectional championship.

And true to form, the Lions were victorious, defeating Peotone, 2-1, to take the title and reserve a spot in next Tuesday’s Class 1A supersectional at Naperville Central.

"He’s like our lucky charm,” said Perez, in his first season as head coach after taking over for Kohorn. “Every time he’s out here, we do well.”

Kohorn, who coached Lisle to the state championship last fall, also showed up Wednesday and caught the last few minutes of the third overtime against Chicago Christian—just in time to watch Eric Osika score the game-winning goal.

“It’s great having him out here,” Perez said. “The kids love him and I love him.”

On Friday, Osika picked up where he left off Wednesday. At the 26-minute mark of the first half, the junior center-midfielder curled a 30-yard shot on a free kick just over the head of Peotone’s goalkeeper and into the goal for a 1-0 lead.

But with 9:35 to go, Blue Devil senior forward Christian Thompson tied it with a 25-footer just past a diving Lisle goalkeeper Kazim Khan.

Going into the game, Thompson was on Lisle’s radar as someone the team needed to shut down.

“He’s their best player,” Perez said. “Before the game started, we said, ‘Number 10 will not beat us.’ And what happened? Number 10 scored. We dominated the first half and we let Number 10 take that shot.”

However, Lisle’s own No. 10, senior center-mid Cole Collins, provided the Lions (17-5) with their margin of victory when he headed one in off a throw-in by Osika with 27:35 remaining in the second half.

“Eric threw the ball up there, and I thought it was going to be out for a second, but I got the curl in,” Collins said. “It felt great.”

Collins played soccer his freshman year at Lisle, didn’t suit up his sophomore and junior years but re-joined the squad this fall. He said he would like nothing better than to win a state championship.

“After this I’m going to college,” said Collins, who has 10 goals. “I’m pretty pumped and pretty motivated.”

So is Khan, who was in the nets when the Lions won it all in 2010. He believes this year’s club is better than the state title team.

“We’re a more complete team than last year,” Khan said. “Last year, we had a couple of aspects that carried us, and this year, we’re more of a complete team. We have players that can play every position, not just one position.”

The Lions will face Hinckley-Big Rock at 6 p.m. Tuesday, with the winner advancing to the state finals in downstate Normal next Friday. Hinckley-Big Rock hosted its own sectional and won the championship by ousting Earlville-Leland, 2-1, on Friday.

“We’re senior heavy, and these seniors don’t want to end their game yet,” Perez said.