Senior Benicio Lacerda approached the south end of the field at Lane Stadium to attempt a penalty kick for the Lane Champions. After 23 total shootout attempts the senior center back was tasked with the opportunity to win the City Championship with one kick on Oct. 16.

The rest of the team, including junior goalkeeper Evan Burgess, who just stopped the sudden death penalty attempt from Whitney Young, stood watching quietly. Lacerda had successfully converted his first attempt in the game-deciding shootout 15 minutes earlier, and would avenge the shootout loss to Whitney Young in the 2023 City Championship with a score.

Lacerda made his approach and shot middle left, past a diving Whitney Young goalie, bagging his second penalty of the night and winning the game for the Champions.

After a tied 3-3 regulation time, the Lane Champions defeated the Whitney Young Dolphins 11-10 in the shootout. This rematch of the 2023 Varsity Boys City Championship lasted 100 minutes of game time and 24 penalty kicks before the Champions could be awarded the City Championship plaque.

“Coming into it, we knew it was gonna be a hard game, a tough, tough battle,” Senior Captain Andre Hwu said. “But I really placed a big emphasis on this Portuguese word raça. It’s called raça. It’s most closely defined as, you know, grit, passion, guts, doing it the hard way, and it’s really had a big emphasis on the entire season.”

The Champions entered the physical and fast paced game with a 6-0-1 record in conference play and riding a five game win streak. Their opponent, Whitney Young, also entered the game 6-0-1 in conference play — but as defending Chicago Public League champions.

Lane took an early lead in the game when senior Leo Vera scored 6 minutes into the first half. Vera would have to leave the game early due to an injury to the head/neck area in the first half and was not able to return.

“He was rocking it,” Coach Ricks on Vera’s impact said. “Yeah, he was awesome. He’s a senior. He’s one of our forwards. He was dominant. He was playing really well.”

Whitney Young evened the score with a Champions own goal, deflected off defender William Huge while attempting to redirect a cross box pass with 12 minutes left in the first half. The game entered halftime tied 1-1. 

Thirty seconds into the second half senior Grayson Trinter brought the ball up field off the opening kick and got past three Whitney Young defenders before firing a shot on goal. The shot was blocked, but Adrian Szkolnik buried the rebound for a goal.

When asked about the strategy involved in the early goal Coach Ricks replied “We were gonna dump it into their left defender, for sure. But you know, when you’re doing something for many yards in this, it’s not easy to script something, but we definitely said kick it long to that corner and press and it worked.”

The early goal would lead to the Champions gaining momentum and controlling possession for most of the first twenty minutes of the second half. Kanan Kraus added to the Champions’ lead nine minutes later with a goal assisted by William Huge, giving the Champions a 3-1 lead and 30 minutes left in regulation time.

Defensively, the Champions are centered by senior Captain Andrew Hwu, who focused on defending their turf as they were given the chance to play the game at Lane Stadium. Lane did their best to defend against Whitney, whose star player John Stanton both scored and had an assist in the game.

With the injury of Sebastian Basti in the second half and Leo Vera being inactive from his injury in the first, the Dolphins went on to score with 21 minutes left and cut Lane’s lead to 3-2.

With 13 minutes left in the second half, Whitney Young was awarded a penalty kick after a long offensive possession on the Lane half. 

“I really had to get into his head,” goalkeeper Evan Burgess said. “So I was talking with him as he put the ball down, and I’m moving side to side, and as he starts shifting his body to shoot, I felt that I knew exactly where he was going. So I just guessed that way, and it [his shot] happened to be that way, and that uplifted our entire team, and that made me so happy.”

This feeling didn’t last long, as with 1:30 left in the game, Whitney Young stretched out the Champions’ defense with a long pass up field and two passes in the box to give Dolphin’s John Stanton an uncontested shot and game tying goal.

“No one’s gonna give you the title,” Head Coach Andrew Ricks said. “And you gotta play 80 minutes. You don’t play 78 minutes to get champion, right?” Coach Ricks emphasized the team was expecting a “razor thin” game.

The Chicago Public League overtime format consists of two 10-minute periods. If a team is ahead at the end of either period, they win. If neither team is ahead after the end of an overtime period, the game goes to a best of five shoutout.

Whitney Young controlled possession for the majority of the first overtime period with multiple dangerous attacks and three corner kicks. 

The second overtime period was much slower-paced, mostly as a result of multiple injury timeouts to manage cramping players from both sides. With neither team scoring in the second 10-minute period, the game would be decided by a shootout — the same way the Chicago Public League soccer championship was decided in 2023 where Whitney Young defeated the Champions 5-3.

“When playoffs started, I said we are going to practice penalty kicks every single day, and we did every practice we could,” Ricks said.

The Champions performed accordingly to preparation, missing only one kick attempt in the 12 rounds of shootout penalty kicks. The first miss of the shootout rounds did not come until round 8 when the Dolphins hit the crossbar and gave the Champions a chance to win the game — but a save from Dolphins’ goalie Tommy Lyons resulted in the shootout cycling through the entirety of both teams. All players who were on the field, goalkeepers included, would have a chance to kick.

“Our first shooter also scored the last penalty kick,” Coach Ricks said. “He did step up, and he missed it early in the season twice against York, our first game of the season. So it’s kind of funny. First game of the season, misses a PK. The goalie moved early. Retakes it, misses again, we tie 0-0. And he gets the bookend before the state tournament on the final game, he stepped up twice.”

That bookend would come from Lacerda, who buried the game-winning goal in the 12th round of the shootout giving Lane Tech a 11-10 shootout win.

The Lane Champions won the Chicago Public League Championship and were honored with a plaque.