The St. Viator Lions struck for a pair of goals late in the first half and added another just after halftime, going on to a 5-0 victory over Triad in the IHSA Class 2A soccer semifinals Friday afternoon at North Central College in Naperville.

Making its first state appearance, Triad (15-10-2) will meet another state first-timer, Freeport (22-3-4), in the third-place match this morning at 11. Peoria Notre Dame blew past Freeport 6-0 in Friday's other semifinal.

Defending champion Notre Dame (23-2-1) will meet St. Viator (23-4-1) for the title today at 1 p.m.

The Triad-St. Viator match was scoreless until the 26th minute, when the Lions' Trevor Wheeler scored an unassisted goal for a 1-0 lead. Brendan King converted a Billy Hamilton pass at 36:19, and Kevin Cavers picked up an unassisted tally at 37:31 to give St. Viator a 3-0 halftime advantage.

Cavers scored again, with Hamilton picking up his second assist, less than 4 1/2 minutes into the second half to make it 4-0. An unassisted goal from King at 60:17 closed out the scoring.

The Lions' Scott Faul was credited with one save in the shutout.

Triad coach Mike Villa led Vianney to Missouri titles and has guided the Triad girls to a pair of state appearances. In 2002, Triad lost 1-0 to eventual state champion St. Viator in the quarterfinals; the next year, in the Class A title match, the Lions beat the Knights 1-0 in overtime.

Lake Zurich 2, Edwardsville 0 — The Bears will face LaGrange for the Class 3A title at 7 p.m. today after blanking the Tigers in the semifinal Friday in Naperville.

Lake Zurich opened the scoring early in the second half, when Nick Janus scored an unassisted goal at 47:26.

Edwardsville appeared to score at 55:21, but the goal was disallowed because of offsides. Trevor Bickhaus and assistant coach Randy Chapman were issued yellow cards in the aftermath.

Lake Zurich (21-4) closed the scoring at 74:27, on an unassisted goal from Tim Kreutz.

Tigers goalie Daniel Brennan had a busy night, making seven saves. Lake Zurich's Tyler Raineri earned the shutout.

Edwardsville played without its No. 2 scorer, Sam Fink, who picked up a red card for excessive celebration after scoring in Tuesday's 4-1 victory over Eisenhower in the supersectionals in Peoria.

The Tigers (18-4-4) will play Winnetka in the third-place game at 5 p.m.

— Kathleen Nelson