Latin restarts
sting North Shore Country Day
Raiders fall 2-1 to Romans in Independent School League tilt
By Gary Larsen
WINNETKA — Despite not playing its best soccer, North Shore Country Day was in position to get a win against a quality side in Latin on Wednesday. The Raiders led 1-0 early in the second half against a Latin team that had them back on their heels for much of the match.
That position changed when Latin turned two set piece chances into goals and exited Winnetka with a 2-1 win in Independent School League action.
“They’re a good team, and we knew that,” North Shore coach Kyle Jones said. “We just didn’t defend a long throw-in and a corner and that cost us. When you give them time and space, and they’ve got some big players, that’s going to cause you trouble.”
Sam Gibson and Joe Kennedy finished on Latin’s set piece chances. North Shore’s Tae Won Lillig gave his side a 1-0 lead early in the second half.
Lillig's goal surprised just about everyone. At 44 minutes, the freshman outside mid had a ball at his feet on the left side of the box and lofted it up towards the upper 90 at the far post. Lilig’s shot had Latin keeper Charlie Bryant backing up as the ball fell softly under the bar behind him.
Whether Lillig was crossing or shooting on the play might have been up for debate, but Jones quickly settled any confusion.
“I told (Lillig) ‘When anyone asks, always tell them you (shot) it,’” Jones joked.
North Shore Country Day (5-2-1, 2-1-1) kept the slate clean from there in the run of play but failed to defend a pair of restarts and walked away with its first loss in ISL play.
The Raiders struggled to find many dangerous scoring chances Wednesday, an atypical occurrence from a team with a solid midfield and a solid finisher in forward Cole Sabia.
“We’ve been doing great,” Raiders keeper Nick Potter said. “We’ve been training hard in practice and giving it our all in games. Today I think we were just lacking in our pace of play. We were caught on our heels, and we weren’t playing quick enough.
“But I think this (loss) will be beneficial to our season because we’re going to learn from it and use to fix our mistakes. We stayed with them the whole game, and it was just unfortunate to get the loss.”
Sabia was fouled in the box in the game’s first minute but North Shore missed the ensuing penalty kick. From there to the 25th minute, Latin applied solid pressure to the Raiders’ backline.
Latin (5-2-1, 3-0-0) ultimately finished with 12 shots for the game, 10 of which were on frame. Potter finished with eight saves for North Shore and his aggressive play off his line was pivotal in keeping the slate clean through 40 minutes.
Twice in the first half, Latin players streaked behind the Raiders’ backline on the dribble and went in alone on Potter. Potter made a sliding kick-save on Latin’s Armaan Shah at 15 minutes, and at 18 minutes he raced out to the 18 to take a shot off the foot of Kai Lugo.
“He made some big saves in the first half,” Jones said. “Our possession suffered just from not playing quick enough and he came up big. He’s a great goalie, and it’s nice to have him behind us. He’s capable of making all the easy (saves) and the tough ones as well.”
Potter’s aggression off his line wasn’t always a strong suit. The sophomore had to learn to abandon his previous habit.
“I had to grow into that,” Potter said. “Last year I was a little timid off my line. I wasn’t coming out after balls and stayed on my line for the majority of the game. So that was my main focus during the offseason.”
North Shore Country Day continued to hunt for a second score. Sabia blistered a shot from the right side in transition that Bryant saved at 25 minutes and his left-footed shot tore over the bar from the left side two minutes later.
The freshman Sabia has been consistently dangerous for North Shore in the final third.
“He’s been terrific,” Jones said. “He’s a constant threat with his movement and his ability to finish.
“He’s dangerous all game long, and he’s our leading goal-scorer. He had the game-winner on Friday at Northridge, a hat-trick against Guerin. He scored against Elgin and had the assist against Notre Dame on the game-winner.”
North Shore’s Nico Sabia sent a pair of corner kicks that Bryant handled before halftime, and the Raiders were able to apply some attacking pressure in the final 15 minutes before intermission.
Adam Terhaardt, Axel Garcia and Vince Luglio battled in the middle of the park, and brothers Tyler and Finn Doornweerd fought hard in the middle of the backline Wednesday.
But the Raiders struggled to find cohesion in the attack and spent the larger percentage of play defending against Latin. Bryant was only credited for two saves in the Romans’ win.
“I told the boys afterwards that even if we’d won 1-0 I still would have been disappointed with our performance,” Jones said. “It was about as poor a performance as we’ve had all season. So if there’s a positive to take from that, it’s that we didn’t play well, and we still had a chance to beat a good team like Latin.
“We’ve played eight games and this is the first one where I go home and I’m kind of disappointed. So I’ll take that because they’ve played well.”
North Shore Country Day plays five-consecutive ISL foes beginning Friday, when the Raiders travel to play Parker. They’ll play Elgin Academy and University (Chicago) next week, before rematches against Northridge and Latin the week after.
Jones knows his Raiders will bounce back from Wednesday’s loss and give him what they’ve given all year.
“The boys have been brilliant all season,” Jones said. “I’m just a little disappointed today.”
Starting lineups
Latin
GK: Charlie Bryant
D: Cole Fuller
D: Ascher Caan
D: Reed Rasmussen
D: Joe Kennedy
M: Colin Campbell
M: Cameron Woan
M: Ethan Mullens
M: Sam Gibson
F: Zachary Wenger
F: Armaan Shah
North Shore Country Day
GK: Nick Potter
D: Tyler Doornweerd
D: Finn Doornweerd
D: Riley Jones
D: John Sprenger
M: Axel Garcia
M: Vince Luglio
M: Adam Terhaardt
M: Mason Roberts-Jones
M: Tae Won Lillig
F: Cole Sabia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Nick Potter, so., GK, North Shore Country Day
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
North Shore Country Day — Lillig (UA)
Latin — Sam Gibson
Latin — Joe Kennedy
sting North Shore Country Day
Raiders fall 2-1 to Romans in Independent School League tilt
By Gary Larsen
WINNETKA — Despite not playing its best soccer, North Shore Country Day was in position to get a win against a quality side in Latin on Wednesday. The Raiders led 1-0 early in the second half against a Latin team that had them back on their heels for much of the match.
That position changed when Latin turned two set piece chances into goals and exited Winnetka with a 2-1 win in Independent School League action.
“They’re a good team, and we knew that,” North Shore coach Kyle Jones said. “We just didn’t defend a long throw-in and a corner and that cost us. When you give them time and space, and they’ve got some big players, that’s going to cause you trouble.”
Sam Gibson and Joe Kennedy finished on Latin’s set piece chances. North Shore’s Tae Won Lillig gave his side a 1-0 lead early in the second half.
Lillig's goal surprised just about everyone. At 44 minutes, the freshman outside mid had a ball at his feet on the left side of the box and lofted it up towards the upper 90 at the far post. Lilig’s shot had Latin keeper Charlie Bryant backing up as the ball fell softly under the bar behind him.
Whether Lillig was crossing or shooting on the play might have been up for debate, but Jones quickly settled any confusion.
“I told (Lillig) ‘When anyone asks, always tell them you (shot) it,’” Jones joked.
North Shore Country Day (5-2-1, 2-1-1) kept the slate clean from there in the run of play but failed to defend a pair of restarts and walked away with its first loss in ISL play.
The Raiders struggled to find many dangerous scoring chances Wednesday, an atypical occurrence from a team with a solid midfield and a solid finisher in forward Cole Sabia.
“We’ve been doing great,” Raiders keeper Nick Potter said. “We’ve been training hard in practice and giving it our all in games. Today I think we were just lacking in our pace of play. We were caught on our heels, and we weren’t playing quick enough.
“But I think this (loss) will be beneficial to our season because we’re going to learn from it and use to fix our mistakes. We stayed with them the whole game, and it was just unfortunate to get the loss.”
Sabia was fouled in the box in the game’s first minute but North Shore missed the ensuing penalty kick. From there to the 25th minute, Latin applied solid pressure to the Raiders’ backline.
Latin (5-2-1, 3-0-0) ultimately finished with 12 shots for the game, 10 of which were on frame. Potter finished with eight saves for North Shore and his aggressive play off his line was pivotal in keeping the slate clean through 40 minutes.
Twice in the first half, Latin players streaked behind the Raiders’ backline on the dribble and went in alone on Potter. Potter made a sliding kick-save on Latin’s Armaan Shah at 15 minutes, and at 18 minutes he raced out to the 18 to take a shot off the foot of Kai Lugo.
“He made some big saves in the first half,” Jones said. “Our possession suffered just from not playing quick enough and he came up big. He’s a great goalie, and it’s nice to have him behind us. He’s capable of making all the easy (saves) and the tough ones as well.”
Potter’s aggression off his line wasn’t always a strong suit. The sophomore had to learn to abandon his previous habit.
“I had to grow into that,” Potter said. “Last year I was a little timid off my line. I wasn’t coming out after balls and stayed on my line for the majority of the game. So that was my main focus during the offseason.”
North Shore Country Day continued to hunt for a second score. Sabia blistered a shot from the right side in transition that Bryant saved at 25 minutes and his left-footed shot tore over the bar from the left side two minutes later.
The freshman Sabia has been consistently dangerous for North Shore in the final third.
“He’s been terrific,” Jones said. “He’s a constant threat with his movement and his ability to finish.
“He’s dangerous all game long, and he’s our leading goal-scorer. He had the game-winner on Friday at Northridge, a hat-trick against Guerin. He scored against Elgin and had the assist against Notre Dame on the game-winner.”
North Shore’s Nico Sabia sent a pair of corner kicks that Bryant handled before halftime, and the Raiders were able to apply some attacking pressure in the final 15 minutes before intermission.
Adam Terhaardt, Axel Garcia and Vince Luglio battled in the middle of the park, and brothers Tyler and Finn Doornweerd fought hard in the middle of the backline Wednesday.
But the Raiders struggled to find cohesion in the attack and spent the larger percentage of play defending against Latin. Bryant was only credited for two saves in the Romans’ win.
“I told the boys afterwards that even if we’d won 1-0 I still would have been disappointed with our performance,” Jones said. “It was about as poor a performance as we’ve had all season. So if there’s a positive to take from that, it’s that we didn’t play well, and we still had a chance to beat a good team like Latin.
“We’ve played eight games and this is the first one where I go home and I’m kind of disappointed. So I’ll take that because they’ve played well.”
North Shore Country Day plays five-consecutive ISL foes beginning Friday, when the Raiders travel to play Parker. They’ll play Elgin Academy and University (Chicago) next week, before rematches against Northridge and Latin the week after.
Jones knows his Raiders will bounce back from Wednesday’s loss and give him what they’ve given all year.
“The boys have been brilliant all season,” Jones said. “I’m just a little disappointed today.”
Starting lineups
Latin
GK: Charlie Bryant
D: Cole Fuller
D: Ascher Caan
D: Reed Rasmussen
D: Joe Kennedy
M: Colin Campbell
M: Cameron Woan
M: Ethan Mullens
M: Sam Gibson
F: Zachary Wenger
F: Armaan Shah
North Shore Country Day
GK: Nick Potter
D: Tyler Doornweerd
D: Finn Doornweerd
D: Riley Jones
D: John Sprenger
M: Axel Garcia
M: Vince Luglio
M: Adam Terhaardt
M: Mason Roberts-Jones
M: Tae Won Lillig
F: Cole Sabia
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Nick Potter, so., GK, North Shore Country Day
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
North Shore Country Day — Lillig (UA)
Latin — Sam Gibson
Latin — Joe Kennedy