Boys complete Spartan soccer sweep

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

OMAHA ã Time ran out and the tears took over the night. There was Byron Dacy, Omaha Creighton Prep soccer star, with tears streaming down his cheeks as he held up the state runner-up trophy. There was Lincoln East senior Nicko Fretes, his eyes scanning the crowd as he made the walk to claim his gold medal.

And then there was the young man in the yellow hard hat. He was crying the most. People would see him crying and they'd start crying, too.

That young man was Brady Beran, a goalkeeper for East last year. He suffered a football injury last fall that almost took his life.

Though he has made a remarkable recovery, he's now just a spectator ã but still an inspiration.

"God bless you. This one's for you," East coach Jeff Hoham said to Beran.

The young man hugged the coach and then the tears came.

It was just a signature snapshot in a game full of moments, a game won 2-1 by East before 4,000 loud,  blue-clad fans beneath a perfect blue sky at a big-time venue ã Creighton's Morrison Stadium.

"That was a classic state final," said Prep coach Tom Hoover. "It was remarkable to be a part of that. We were just privileged to have the best seats in the house."

East claimed victory on a goal by junior Quin Kilgore with just 4:10 left. The ball bounced back to him after teammate A.J. Dingledine had caromed a shot off Prep goaltender Jacob Moore.

With Moore on the ground, Kilgore hurried a shot that rolled slow enough to get beat to the goal line by any nearby earthworms.

That's a slight exaggeration. Slight.

"That seemed about 10 minutes long for how that ball was rolling," Michael Johnson said.

Fretes joked that Kilgore had passed it in the net.

Kilgore simply said: "I was just hoping I had enough oomph on it."

A Prep defender tried to kick save it about a foot before the goal line, but he couldn't quite reach it.

"God bless that ball. It rolled just fast enough, didn't it?" Hoham said.

The East fans went crazy. They had already seen the Spartan girls team win a state championship earlier in the evening on the same field on a goal in the last five minutes.

Kilgore's goal allowed them to celebrate something that's never been done. No Class A school has ever won both a girls and boys state soccer championship in the same year.

"I couldn't even hear anything on that field," Kilgore said. "It was just the craziest game I ever played in."

East (15-2) had grabbed the lead in only the fourth minute when Johnson made a slick shot just inside the far post off an assist from Pat Dingledine.

The Spartans carried that lead to halftime only to see Prep come out blazing in the second half.

The Junior. Jays (16-4) got an equalizer when Dominic Marasco connected on a header just 5:03 into the second half off a pretty ball from Mike Stillmock.

Prep, which lost 3-1 to East in the district final a couple weeks ago, almost scored the go-ahead goal in the 59th minute. Dacy nearly walked the ball into the goal after claiming a loose ball from the hands of East goaltender Anthony Reichwaldt.

But just before the ball got to the goal line, East defender Beau Cruse got in the way and kicked it out of bounds.

Despite that danger, Hoham said he felt like his team was still in command in the second half because of better conditioning.

"It's pretty clear that we play this game with all 11 and defend all 11," Hoham said. "Nobody has to be an expert on the sport to realize that means you're going to run teams down. I think (Prep) ran out of gas."

Even so, the man who has now directed East to two state titles in four years seemed to realize what he was up against in Prep, a program that has won six state titles.

Said Hoham: "That was a Herculean effort by my boys tonight."

Spartan boys slip past Prep for fourth soccer crown

BY STU POSPISIL

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

RELATED STORY

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Nebraska state soccer results

No one was quite sure just how slow Quin Kilgore's shot was moving as it crossed the goal line.

Lincoln East's Mike Johnson, left, fouls Omaha Creighton Prep's Timothy Kestel in the first half on Wednesday night. Johnson scored a goal in the Spartans' 2-1 win.

"It seemed like about 10 minutes long for that ball to roll in," said teammate Mike Johnson.

"God bless that ball," Lincoln East coach Jeff Hoham said. "It rolled just fast enough, didn't it."

Coming with just more than 4 minutes left, Kilgore's goal lifted the Spartans to a 2-1 victory Wednesday night over Omaha Creighton Prep and a first sweep of the Class A boys and girls soccer titles.

"We love that girls team," Hoham said. "We're with them all the time. It's all that much more special that we both won."

A Morrison Stadium crowd of 4,000, the largest all-time to watch high school soccer in the state, saw the No. 2-ranked Spartans (15-2) win their fourth state title in boys soccer and deny No. 3 Prep (16-4) its seventh.

"It was nuts," said Kilgore, a junior midfielder. "We couldn't hear each other on the field, it was so loud."

Joining in the celebration was Brady Beran, wearing a hard hat. The junior was East's starting goalkeeper until suffering a brain injury during a football game last fall.

"At the end of the first-round game, I ran up the wall to get to him and he said, 'Coach, win this state championship for me.'" Hoham said. "I told him tonight, 'God bless you, Brady. This is for you.'"

Johnson, the state's Gatorade player of the year, staked East to a 1-0 lead with a goal 31/2 minutes into the match. Dominic Marasco, who scored the winning goal in the semifinals for Prep, knotted the match on a header from Creighton recruit Mike Stillmock five minutes into the second half.

"We then played with a sense of urgency and we were just inches away from taking the lead," said Tom Hoover, Prep's co-coach. "Our effort was outstanding, to respond the way we did after a goal in the first five minutes."

Prep's best chance to go ahead was a shot by CU recruit Byron Dacy that was kicked away by defender Beau Cruse in the 59th minute.

On Kilgore's goal, Prep keeper Jake Moore came out on a shot by A.J. Dingeldine, falling down with the rebound getting to Kilgore.

"It was a very poised effort by him," said Jim Swanson, Prep's other co-coach." He saw a wide-open net and put it on the ground."

Before then, Hoham said he was getting frustrated with a lack of execution.

"We wanted to get that ball outside and spread the field more," he said. "So we'll probably take what we'd call an ugly goal."

Lincoln East (15-2).........................1 1-2

Omaha Creighton Prep (16-4).........................0 1-1

Ä Goals: 1, E, Mike Johnson (Pat Dingeldine), 3:32. 2, P, Dominic Marasco (Mike Stillmock), 45:03. 3, E, Quin Kilgore, 75:50.