Lisle a small school with big ambitions

No one on Lisle's boys soccer team is looking to put the cart before the horse, but this year's Lions clearly carry the most promise of the program's six-year history.

"This is by far the best team I've ever coached," said Lisle coach Paul Kohorn.

"It's the best team I've been on at Lisle," said four-year varsity player and the program's all-time leading scorer, Konrad Raclawski. "We want to play for a championship this year."

The Naperville-area has long been a soccer stronghold in Illinois. Now it's smaller neighbor to the east might be ready to join in the fun.

With an enrollment listed at 565 students on the IHSA Web site, Lisle remains in Class A of the new three-class system for boys' soccer in Illinois. Thus far the Lions have gone 4-1, with shutout wins over Class A teams in Indian Creek, Manteno and Grant Park, and a 4-1 win over Class AA Danville.

Lisle's lone loss might be its most telling game yet, a 2-0 loss to Class AAA Normal during play in the Bradley-Bourbonnais tournament.

"I thought we controlled the pace of that game," said Kohorn, whose Lions outshot Normal 12-9 for the game. "We had a defensive mistake cost us a goal in the first half, and they scored late in the game after we pushed players up into the attack.

"Once we get our defense sorted out, I really think the sky's the limit. That game showed us that we can compete against those (larger) programs."

"We played really good in that game. We just didn't score," Raclawski said.

Lions attack

The marquee element of this year's squad is its attack, spearheaded by Raclawski and sophomore Grant Fitzgerald, who led last year's 16-4 team with 23 goals.

"Our strength is our offense. There's no question about that," Kohorn said. "We can possess with all 10 guys on the field."

Raclawski netted 21 goals last season and slides from forward to attacking midfielder this year. Fitzgerald and freshman Cole Collins will play up top, senior Viktor Vajda will steer the midfield with Raclawski and his younger brother Arkadiusz, a gifted and physical freshman that plays at a high club level in the off-season.

Ryan Donahue has been relentless on the outside at midfield, and talented freshman Pat Webb will see time both in the middle and on the outside. Donahue may have been the team's most valuable player at the Bradley tournament this year. "He was just out there hustling the entire weekend," Kohorn said.

With as much talent has the Lions have this year, on those occasions when Kohorn sees fit, he'll switch to a 3-4-3 formation and slide a defender with attacking capabilities in Alec Blechschmidt to a forward spot.

"With three in the back we get a better offensive push," Kohorn said. "The newcomers we have this year will give us the flexibility to try it."

The defensive trio of Max Boheme, Kyle Leonard and John Soukup are all returning varsity players from last year's crew, and Blechschmidt joins the fold after playing golf for Lisle the past two seasons.

All of Lisle's back line players have an attacking mentality, and when added to the midfielders and forwards on the team, this year's Lions have the makings for one high-pressure, field-wide attack.

"The younger players all have speed and skill, and they play traveling soccer in the off-season," Raclawski said. "And Viktor, Grant and I have been playing together for a while now."

The engine

Raclawski's transition from pure scorer to scorer/distributor this year showed well in a recent win over Grant, in which he had a 2 goals and 3 assists. Of Lisle's tri-captains, Fitzgerald's skill, smarts and maturity have him playing a major role again this year, and Vajda's play at central midfield will be key, but it may be Raclawski's capacity to lead that will determine how far the Lions go this year.

"As he goes, so goes the team," Kohorn said. "Viktor's a great leader on the field, and Grant is the most mature young player I've ever had, but Konrad is the personality of this team."

For his part, while Raclawski understands that this year's team is a far cry from the team that upset Timothy Christian in the postseason three years ago as a heavy underdog, he also knows it still needs to get better.

"This is our best team yet, but we've got to work on being more physical," he said. "All the teams in the postseason are (physically) tough, and we need to be able to play that way."

Kohorn can go five or six players deep on his bench with no drop in the Lions' level of play, so with a bevy of quality subs also featuring Kyle Zomick and T.J. Hendzel, "it's the strongest bench we've ever had," Kohorn said.

Collins, Arkadiusz Raclawski and Webb headline a strong core of freshmen varsity players that also includes Jacob Soukup, Matt Gill and Kazim Khan this year.

"They've already made an impact," Kohorn said of his younger playoffs. "Cole Collins scored the goal against Manteno for the 1-0 victory."

Second-year Lisle goalkeeper Jay Osika set up that game-winning goal against a solid Manteno team, disrupting a play outside the penalty area and then retreating to pounce on a ball before Manteno could pull the trigger on a shot.

Osika quickly punted the ball over the Manteno defense, where Collins used his speed and quickness to run it down and score.

Lisle squares off with a team that also figures to make a run to a Class A downstate berth in Morgan Park Academy on Friday at Morgan Park, and the Lions will take on a pair of top Class A teams in Somonauk on Sept. 23 and Timothy Christian on Oct. 7, with both games to be played at Benedictine University in Lisle.

Lisle will finish its regular season at the two-day Glenbrook North tournament on Oct. 10 and 11, which is heavy with Class AAA teams.

"We'll play in that tournament right before the Class A playoffs start, so that will get us to the level we'll need to be at for the playoffs," Kohorn said.

The pieces of the puzzle are in place at Lisle this year, and if the Lions improve to season's end, the program's first downstate berth is within reach.

"We have to be careful about not being too cocky," Raclawski said. "We like to have fun, but we're trying to be as serious as possible this year. This is my last year, and I want to see us win the whole thing."

"I'm enjoying this," Kohorn said. "The team might not think I'm enjoying it, but I'm just trying to get the seniors to understand the mental aspect of things out there."

"But we're getting closer and closer. This should be a fun year."