Lakeland Christian Academy poses after winning the school’s first-ever sectional championship Saturday in beating Westview 4-2. (Photos by Mike Deak)

EMMA – It was so new, they almost didn’t know how to act.

Lakeland Christian Academy seniors Lauren Starrett and Anna Reimink didn’t know what to do when their names were called to receive the soccer sectional trophy Saturday afternoon. Hiding in the back of the team mob as Westview athletic director Darlene Mathew brought the trophy out for the Cougars, a 4-2 winner over Westview in the championship match at the Class 1-A Westview Girls Soccer Sectional, the two almost didn’t go get it.

Lauren Starrett, left, and Anna Reimink start the celebration after being presented the sectional trophy.

It was a fitting sequence as Lakeland Christian Academy won its first-ever IHSAA championship in any sport in dethroning the host Warriors in stunning fashion.

Westview, coming in having won the last seven sectional titles, certainly were the favorites against the upstart LCA side. It looked like history was repeating itself in the first half as Westview came out the aggressor while LCA fell into familiar patterns. A notoriously slow starting team, LCA fell behind 1-0 quickly when Julie Miller found herself open and sent a shot inward that LCA keeper Maddie Paris couldn’t catch up to.

After Tori Calizo tied it up on a stolen back pass and finish, Westview claimed the lead when Miller again took a pass, created space, and made good on the finish.

It wasn’t insurmountable at 2-1 at the half, but LCA coach Nat Raber had his reservations.

“The first half, obviously, things didn’t go well for us,” stated Raber. “We came out slow, we weren’t hustling to the ball, we had a couple shots hit the post and then gave up a couple goals to a really good Westview team. I really started to wonder if we were going to snap out of it.”

LCA came out a completely different team in the second half, displaying a championship form it lacked in the first 40 minutes.

The Cougars took the first 13 shots of the second half, its second another Calizo finish to tie matters on a smart breakaway. LCA, which hammered a pair of shots off the posts in the first half, peppered keeper Leanna Miller at will from there. Miller made a fantastic save on a one-on-one against Jessi Calizo and pulled in a header destined for glory by Tori Calizo in the 50th minute with the score still tied.

Members of the LCA team pray following their championship win.

Anna Reimink then went solo on Miller two minutes later, the Westview keeper blocking the shot point blank. But that was the end of the Miller magic, as Reimink found Jessi Calizo wide open in space and the finish was true for the lead at 3-2 in the 55th. The Calizo sisters then connected, Jessi finding Tori open in the box for the winner and a suddenly comfortable lead at 4-2.

“As a team we used that chemistry to work together and finally got some shots to go in,” Tori Calizo said. “Jessi being my sister, we were talking in the second half about where we were at, and we kind of had that telepathic thing going on. I just felt like I knew where she was at, and she knew where I was at. Worked out.”

LCA would put 17 shots on goal, with Miller working admirably in defeat with 10 saves. Her counterpart, Paris, did what she had to do in the second half in making two late saves. Dealing with flu-like symptoms coming into the match, Paris didn’t even ride the team bus, but stayed alert enough to make four saves.

“I told myself I had to get through it, I had to push through it,” Paris said. “I wasn’t doing this for myself, I was doing this for my team. But really this is like a dream, it’s incredible. I couldn’t be more excited to win today and celebrate with my team.”

With the win, LCA becomes the first team in school history to win an IHSAA sectional championship in any sport after becoming a member in 2013. The program, which is in only its second IHSAA soccer tournament after being defunct for 10 years, moves to 14-3-2. The 14th win is the sweetest.

“I wish I could have taken credit for a big halftime speech, but we’ve been a second half team all season and I wanted them to go out and have fun,” Raber said. “I reminded them we are here to have fun playing soccer, and that’s what they went out and did.”

The good news for LCA is it will play in its first regional tournament next Saturday afternoon at LaVille’s Newton Park. The bad news, awaiting them will be Class 1-A No. 1 Wheeler (19-0), which dismantled Hammond Bishop Noll 10-2 in its championship game Saturday afternoon. The showdown will be the second game of the regional with an approximate start time of noon.

“It feels great, yes we are,” Tori said of being sectional champions and moving on. “To put in all the work, glory to God, but we still have games to play, so we have to mentally get back to being ready again.”