When Joliet West downed Joliet Central 7-0 on Tuesday, the talk was mainly about the senior class. After all, it was Senior Night and senior Julia Martinez got the game started with a goal 24 seconds in. She ended up with two goals for the Tigers as the class of 2024 earned a victory.

What can’t be lost in the celebration, however, is that while the present is bright for Joliet West, they made need to wear shades for the future.

The Tigers are 15-5-2 overall and 5-2-2 in Southwest Prairie Conference play. They beat West Aurora 3-1 on Thursday to give them three wins in a row and a record of 10-1-2 their past 13 games. Things have been going smoothly after building the program up since the end of COVID-19. Martinez has been a big part of that, as head coach Alan Stewart said after the Central game.

“We’ve had ups and downs coming out of [COVID-19] and stuff like that,” he said. “Our senior class has stuck with it, and we try to reward them by starting all our seniors today. We want to reward them for everything they’ve given to the program.”

But just as critical in that Central game were the non-seniors. The other five goals came from underclassmen with Alicia Casillas picking up a hat trick. So expect the freshmen to continue to build for years to come.

“This team is going to improve a lot every year,” Martinez said. “We just have more and more improvement each season. Having a freshman in Alicia scoring a hat trick on senior night shows the future for this team.”

Lockport and loaded

Twenty-one games and counting. That’s where Lockport’s win streak is at right now. The Porters are 21-0, including 4-0 in the Southwest Suburban Conference after their win over Lincoln-Way East. Lockport has been the standard that teams strive for this season.

Saturday, however, was their toughest test yet. The Griffins and the Porters actually finished regulation tied 1-1 before Lockport won on PKs. Lockport defeated Glenbrook-South 2-1 in overtime in the third game of the season and beat Northwest 1-0 two weeks ago. Add in the Lincoln-Way East contest, and those are the only matches that have been decided by one goal.

In other words, Lockport has dominated. What’s scary for other teams is that they may just be getting better.

“We’re always trying to get better,” head coach Todd Elkei said. “We’re trying every game, every week to keep going little by little and get ready for the playoffs.”

Lemont remains unbeaten

Speaking of unblemished teams, Lemont managed to remain undefeated in South Suburban Conference play this past weekend with a win over Blue Island Eisenhower.

Lemont dominated the Cardinals with a 7-0 victory with Ella Simpson and Sarah Shields scoring two goals each. It was Lemont’s 10th win in a row, 13th win in 14 matches and 10th conference win. Lemont is now 15-3 overall.

Lemont has been dominant after a 2-3 start to the season. Save a 5-1 loss to Wheaton North on April 9, Lemont has outscored their opponents 69-2 in the past 14 games. Their closest game was a 2-0 win, and they’ve won four games by a score of 7-0, a truly unbelievable run.

Andrew will be the next match for Lemont with one more game after that before the postseason starts. Once the playoffs come around, you wouldn’t want to be on Lemont’s side of the bracket.