Spartans grab pair of city titles

by robin washut

Two wins, two city titles and two Heartland Conference championships.

Tuesday sure was a good day for Lincoln East soccer.

After its boys and girls teams each walked away with victories over Lincoln High at Seacrest Field, the Spartans remained the only undefeated teams in Class A and added more hardware to an already-stacked trophy case.

The first game of the day pitted the Spartan boys (11-0) against a Lincoln High (7-5) team that had lost four of its last six games.

Make that five of seven.

East's Brandon Langer scored exactly two minutes into the game to spark a three-goal first half that all but ended any chance of a Links' upset and the Spartans went on to win 4-0.

Mike Johnson and Pat Dingledine scored the Spartans' other two first-half goals, and Dan Popp headed in a beautiful cross pass by Ross Miller to put the finishing touch on East's final regular-season contest.

"For us, having the bragging rights in this game is more important than winning these championships," Johnson said. "It's real personal when we play these guys because we all know each other. To win city and conference against them makes it that more special."

The closest Lincoln High came to spoiling the Spartans' shutout was a shot by Tanner Hamby that hit the crossbar early in the second half.

"We worked the ball really well and got a couple of breaks early on," Miller said. "Coach (Jeff Hoham) told us before the game that we could win the city and conference championships if we won, and we just came out and got it done."