Spartans successful in slop to advance

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BELVIDERE – Tyler Wallace wasn’t happy after he missed a great scoring opportunity in the second half of Sycamore’s Class 2A Belvidere Regional final match against Belvidere North.

Luckily for Wallace, he would get another opportunity to put the Spartans ahead.

The sophomore got another open look with just over a minute left in overtime, and this time he didn’t miss, giving Sycamore a 2-1 victory and the regional title on a muddy field at Belvidere High School.

“I’m feeling great, because I missed that easy goal earlier,” Wallace said. “It just feels really good to score.”

It’s the first regional title for the Spartans since 2005. Sycamore advances to the Freeport Sectional, where they will play at 4 p.m Tuesday.

“I’m happy to have a regional title back in our hands again,” Sycamore coach Dave Lichamer said. “It’s been a little while and it’s nice to capture it again.”

The Spartans (10-10-3) got down early in the match when Belvidere North’s Hugo Martinez scored with 37:02 remaining in the first half. But Sycamore would get on the board with a Mark Persson goal at 21:21, his fourth goal of the regional.

Sycamore caught a break when the Blue Thunder was forced to compete with one less player after Freddy Almaraz received a red card later in the first half.

“Advantage or not, they certainly didn’t play like they were a man down. They kept (pressuring). You wouldn’t know that we had an advantage there,” Lichamer said. “Certainly though, it helped in the long run. You start to wear down going into overtime. They’re worried about some of their legs.”

It has been an inconsistent season for the Spartans, but Lichamer knows the regional is what really matters.

“Regardless of what happens from here on out, regardless of what happened in conference, we’ve got something for ourselves,” said Lichamer, holding the regional championship plaque.

“We’ve put some things together, we got our victory, got it in overtime when it really mattered, and we showed great character and poise throughout the whole thing.”

The game wasn’t exactly played in the best of conditions. The middle of the field was basically mud by the second half, thanks to all the rain the area has had recently. A lot of players had their jerseys looking brown from the muddy field.

“It was really sloppy. A lot of us were complaining that we couldn’t run real well,” Wallace said. “It was just a mud pit out there.”

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