Immaculate Conception 2, Lisle 1

As she stood surrounded by celebrating teammates, Immaculate Conception forward Danielle Remy repeated over and over, "it's so ironic."

The irony, literary fans, wasn't in the nature of the Knights' 2-1 come from behind victory over Lisle, which was a plot twist of which O. Henry would have been proud.

Nor does irony come close to describing Remy's long dash with 10 minutes left. Remy latched onto a ball from Catherine Guido and scored the game-winner, a moment around which the rest of the match could be framed given the Knights ability to soak up considerable Lisle pressure before scoring -- first with 30 seconds left in the first half and then with 10 minutes to play.

No, Remy had something else in mind when she brought irony to the proceedings in the Class A Hinckley-Big Rock sectional title game.

"Soccer's kind of a new program at our school and not very many people think we can go very far," Remy said. "The fact that we did go far is kind of ironic. Some people have faith in us and then there's people who don't have any faith. It's nice to have something to show that we can do it."

Doubters of the Knights program take note: Immaculate Conception (10-9-3) heads to the state quarterfinals on Friday.

"It feels really great because soccer's not a really serious thing for a lot of people at our school," IC goalie Kelly Mulligan said. "We've never really gone far. But this is exciting for us."

Mulligan had to come up strong many times in Monday's match.

"I have a lot of faith in my defense," Mulligan said. "They mark up well. You also have to have confidence in yourself."

The loss ends the most successful girls soccer season in Lisle history. The Lions (17-7-3) broke nearly every school record this spring.

"We knew that if we played our game, we'd take care of business," Lisle coach Paul Kohorn said. "It didn't work out that way."

Although Lisle held the early edge in possession, Immaculate Conception nearly took the lead. Olivia Vatch took a right-wing free kick that was only half-cleared as far as Danielle Remy. The Knights junior forward put the ball back toward goal and was denied by the crossbar.

The suddenly end-to-end action continued until Nicole Urban put the Lions ahead with 15 minutes left in the half. Urban took a left-wing corner kick and the ball went untouched into the right side netting of the Knights goal.

With time running out in the half, Immaculate Conception from through on the right wing and scored. Natalie D'Agostino moved right to left in the penalty area and squeezed in a shot at the right post.

The first 10 minutes of the second half belonged to Urban and Lisle as the Lions searched for the go-ahead goal.

Three minutes into the half, Urban had a shot saved by Mulligan. Two minutes later, Urban dribbled into the penalty area and pulled her shot just wide of the left post.

Eight minutes into the half, Urban shot and Vatch cleared for the Knights. The flurry ended when Urban moved right-to-left and took a low shot that Mulligan saved.

"I wasn't real happy with the first half," Kohorn said. "We didn't play Lisle soccer. We emphasized that at halftime. We dominated the second half but we couldn't get the ball in."

Lisle's attack continued to move forward but with less menace as the half progressed. And then Guido found Remy for the climactic moment of the story.

"I tried to think about everything my coach taught me, which is to shoot low, far post so the goalie couldn't get it," Remy said.