Dedicating second half to fallen teammate inspires Lone Star College-CyFair Men’s Soccer Team to win finals and earn title of Lone Star League Champions.
The LSC-CyFair Men’s Soccer Team ended the regular season in second place behind Houston Community College-Northwest with 4 wins 2 ties and 1 loss. This allowed the team to advance to the playoffs as the number two seeded team. The three other teams were HCC-NW as the #1 seed, LSC-Tomball as the #3 seed and University of Houston as the #4 seed.
“I knew the playoffs were going to be difficult because of the caliber of teams that reached the playoffs,” said Ronnie Nespeca, head coach.
LSC-CyFair played LSC-Tomball at 11 a.m. in the semifinals game and were victorious with a 3-1 win. Christopher Lindanger scored two goals and Herson Rivas one. UH beat HCC-NW in their semifinal match to reach the finals for a 3 p.m. game against LSC-CyFair.
“I was excited to face UofH again after a tie game in the regular season,” said Nespeca. “I knew this was going to be an excellent matched game.”
Jimmy Delao, assistant coach, told the LSC-CyFair men to just stay calm and maintain what they normally do, which got them to the finals.
“If we play our game of passing and control, we can win,” he said.
It was a hard fought match with LSC-CyFair striking first. Lindanger scored a goal in the first half, said Nespeca. Defender David Mejia made a slide tackle to save a goal, but collided with a UofH player, suffered a broken leg and was rushed to the hospital.
At half time, the score remained the same with a 1-0 edge to LSC-CyFair. The team decided to dedicate this game to injured teammate Mejia.
“They were going to give everything they had to ensure a win,” said Nespeca. “In the second half, they did just that with two more goals by Lindanger and also from Rivas.”
The final score of the game was 3-0. Nespeca said both teams played an excellent game and showed tremendous sportsmanship on both sides.
“After the game, the team went as a group to the hospital to visit and celebrate with David,” said Nespeca. “They brought the trophy in for David to hold and it made all the pain in his leg go away - for a while.”
For information on the LSC-CyFair Men’s Soccer Team, call Nespeca at 218-290-3289.