New Trier's shootout experience
pays off against Niles North
Aidan Crawford save, Eli Drake kick power Trevians to CSL title
By Patrick Z. McGavin
NORTHFIELD -- Eli Drake must have felt as though Sept. 4 was superimposed over his waking existence, like a dream, only marked by the right kind of happy ending.
On that date last month, Drake provided the dramatic end to the championship match of the Northside College Showcase by converting his penalty kick against Lyons.
His game-winner was preceded by an athletic stop by Trevians’ keeper Aidan Crawford.
History repeated itself, not as farce or tragedy, but as a glorious reminder of the crazy turns and twists of the game.
Drake drilled a penalty kick Wednesday night that gave the Trevians, ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, a 6-5 shootout victory in the championship game of the Central Suburban League before a crowd of about 400 Wednesday night.
“When I go up there, I want to score and do it for my team,” Drake said. “It was a huge win, definitely, Niles North … came out and played today.
“I really respected the way they played.”
The victory marked the fifth-straight conference title for New Trier (13-1-1).
Crawford’s block of the Vikings’ seventh shooter set the stage for Drake’s game-winner.
That Northside College Showcase final against Lyons game went 10 rounds in the penalty phase.
Drake was the seventh shooter Wednesday night.
“What was going through my mind was if I have to take a penalty kick, I am going to score it, and I did,” Drake said. “The circumstances were perfect again. That is definitely nerve wracking, but I don’t let it get to me.
“Whenever I go up to take a penalty kick, I tell myself I can’t let anything get to me. It’s just me and the ball in front of the keeper and the goal, and I have to put it in the back of the net.”
Timothy Keegan, Emir Heto, Colin Graham, Alejandro Bucaro and Tony Sticlaru converted for the North Division champion Vikings (15-3-2).
New Trier was down twice to its final shooter. Kevin Farina and Peter Kanellos each converted. Evan Kanellos, Ronan O’Neill and James Paden also stepped up for the Trevians under pressure.
The shootout marked a furious conclusion to a dramatic and incident-packed game that saw the teams trade goals 30 seconds apart and end even at 2-2 at the end of regulation. The game went straight to the shootout.
The tension was palpable.
“There was a ton of pressure,” Sticlaru said. “We were practicing penalty kicks yesterday for moments like this.
“I’m the striker, and usually the striker is the one who wants to be up there and take all the kicks. I was the sixth man, because I didn’t want all of that pressure. Being sudden death, there was a lot more pressure.”
Niles North also played down a man for the final 12 minutes after defender Vasilis Callas was issued his second yellow card.
“We were playing with a striker and more of a center forward,” Graham said. “We had to drop the striker role, and the center forward had to drop back.
“We had to accept that we were going to be under pressure and not necessarily getting into the attack. We played for the draw.”
Made up of the larger schools like no. 5 Evanston, Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South, the South Division tends to overshadow the teams such as Niles North that make up the North division.
The Vikings showed they belonged. New Trier held the advantage in possession and meaningful shots. Niles North led for more than 45 minutes of game time after Graham scored in the 15th minute.
Working off a counter, Peter Chavez drove the ball down the right edge and worked a cross that Graham finished from about eight yards for the stunning early score.
“Crawford is a great keeper, but we noticed right away that he was really aggressive,” Graham said. “I knew he might be off his line. That’s what happens when you follow the shots.
“There’s a chance it is going to fall in, and it did.
Thanks to the superb play of Vikings keeper Colin Schnabel, that goal held up until the 61st minute. The athletic and wiry keeper finished with nine saves.
He used his height and length extraordinarily well, cutting off angles and elevating inside his box to continually thwart the Trevians.
New Trier midfielder Aidan Nicholson appeared to have a certain goal in the 60th minute off a rapid volley inside that box that caught Schnabel out of position.
Vikings’ defender Christopher Araujo made an incredible recovery for the clearance.
New Trier’s pressure finally wore the Vikings down, and reserve midfielder Theo Franzen finished a beautiful pass from Will Pasia from 14 yards in the 61st minute.
Niles North picked its spots. Even after going down a player, the Vikings used the threat of the counter to keep the Trevians guessing.
Events seemed on their side in the 72nd minute after Graham generated a foul about 25 yards from the goal.
The team’s free kick specialist, Sticlaru stepped up and smashed a laser that appeared to surprise Crawford for the 2-1 Niles North advantage.
“We saw in the beginning of the game that the keeper was off his line a lot,” Sticlaru said. “In club games, I’ve done the same type of shots against keepers who come off their line a lot.
“He was on the top of the six. I just thought, he is not going to expect this, a crack on target. I hit it as hard as I could, and luckily it hit the back of the net.”
But New Trier is made of stern stuff.
“Even if we get scored on with 15 seconds left, we don’t let it affect us,” Drake said. “We are going to go out, and we are going to try and give it our all. That’s exactly what we did.
“This was one of the few times this year where we were down, and we had to come back. I think we’ve done a great job of getting together after the other team scores.”
Teams are often at their most vulnerable after a goal. The Trevians pushed the ball quickly down the left flank, forcing Niles North off balance and creating a foul.
Off the restart, Paden played a beautiful ball that Peter Kanellos smashed home with a quick left-footed blast from about 16 yards in the 73rd minute.
“That’s just what our team does,” Peter Kanellos said. “We never give up. We’ve been down games, 1-0 or 2-0, down early, down late, it doesn’t matter. We always come back.
“After we get scored on, we talk as a group. We go back out there and try to score. James is like a brother to me. We sit next to each other in the locker room, and we have that connection, just the quick eye contact.
“He played a perfect ball.”
It was a melancholy end to a great night for Niles North. They lost, but they gained something important.
“New Trier is an amazing team and an amazing program,” Niles North coach Filip Cejovic said. “We are an up-and-coming program, and we have been for many years.
“We are just happy that we were able to perform to our level. It is always a challenge to play as well as they can. We played a good game today. We had a game plan in mind. The boys executed it perfectly.
“Even though they had the majority of the possession, I will say that I thought we got a little unlucky at times. It was a great night for soccer, for spectators and players alike.”
New Trier was taken to the brink.
“It’s a privilege to play in this game,” New Trier coach Matt Ravenscraft said. “We had to earn (the right) by winning the CSL South, which I think is an incredibly difficult task given the quality.
“I wanted to credit Niles North. I think what Filip has done over the last seven years as a head coach is absolutely fantastic. It’s a quality program, and it’s a bunch of class coaches and players who give everything. We knew we were going to be in for a battle tonight.
“This was a playoff game. That’s how we viewed it.”
Starting lineups
Niles North
GK: Colin Schnabel
D: Peter Chavez
D: Christopher Araujo
D: Ian McNulty
D: Vasilis Callas
MF: Kyle Pham
MF: Emir Heto
MF: Victor Ore
MF: Alejandro Bucaro
F: Anthony Sticlaru
F: Colin Graham
New Trier
GK: Aidan Crawford
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Ely Wilson
D: James Paden
D: Ronan O’Neill
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Eli Drake
MF: Will Pasia
MF: Evan Kanellos
F: Peter Kanellos
F: Matthew Perchik
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Peter Kanellos, sr., F, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
Niles North—Colin Graham (Peter Chavez), 15th minute
Second half
New Trier—Theo Franzen (Will Pasia), 61st minute
Niles North—Anthony Sticlaru (free kick), 72nd minute
New Trier—Peter Kanellos (James Paden), 73rd minute
Shootout (New Trier wins 6-5/7)
Niles North (makes): Timothy Keegan, Emir Heto, Graham, Alejandro Bucaro, Sticlaru
New Trier (makes): Evan Kanellos, Ronan O’Neill, James Paden, Kevin Farina, Peter Kanellos, Eli Drake
pays off against Niles North
Aidan Crawford save, Eli Drake kick power Trevians to CSL title
By Patrick Z. McGavin
NORTHFIELD -- Eli Drake must have felt as though Sept. 4 was superimposed over his waking existence, like a dream, only marked by the right kind of happy ending.
On that date last month, Drake provided the dramatic end to the championship match of the Northside College Showcase by converting his penalty kick against Lyons.
His game-winner was preceded by an athletic stop by Trevians’ keeper Aidan Crawford.
History repeated itself, not as farce or tragedy, but as a glorious reminder of the crazy turns and twists of the game.
Drake drilled a penalty kick Wednesday night that gave the Trevians, ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, a 6-5 shootout victory in the championship game of the Central Suburban League before a crowd of about 400 Wednesday night.
“When I go up there, I want to score and do it for my team,” Drake said. “It was a huge win, definitely, Niles North … came out and played today.
“I really respected the way they played.”
The victory marked the fifth-straight conference title for New Trier (13-1-1).
Crawford’s block of the Vikings’ seventh shooter set the stage for Drake’s game-winner.
That Northside College Showcase final against Lyons game went 10 rounds in the penalty phase.
Drake was the seventh shooter Wednesday night.
“What was going through my mind was if I have to take a penalty kick, I am going to score it, and I did,” Drake said. “The circumstances were perfect again. That is definitely nerve wracking, but I don’t let it get to me.
“Whenever I go up to take a penalty kick, I tell myself I can’t let anything get to me. It’s just me and the ball in front of the keeper and the goal, and I have to put it in the back of the net.”
Timothy Keegan, Emir Heto, Colin Graham, Alejandro Bucaro and Tony Sticlaru converted for the North Division champion Vikings (15-3-2).
New Trier was down twice to its final shooter. Kevin Farina and Peter Kanellos each converted. Evan Kanellos, Ronan O’Neill and James Paden also stepped up for the Trevians under pressure.
The shootout marked a furious conclusion to a dramatic and incident-packed game that saw the teams trade goals 30 seconds apart and end even at 2-2 at the end of regulation. The game went straight to the shootout.
The tension was palpable.
“There was a ton of pressure,” Sticlaru said. “We were practicing penalty kicks yesterday for moments like this.
“I’m the striker, and usually the striker is the one who wants to be up there and take all the kicks. I was the sixth man, because I didn’t want all of that pressure. Being sudden death, there was a lot more pressure.”
Niles North also played down a man for the final 12 minutes after defender Vasilis Callas was issued his second yellow card.
“We were playing with a striker and more of a center forward,” Graham said. “We had to drop the striker role, and the center forward had to drop back.
“We had to accept that we were going to be under pressure and not necessarily getting into the attack. We played for the draw.”
Made up of the larger schools like no. 5 Evanston, Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South, the South Division tends to overshadow the teams such as Niles North that make up the North division.
The Vikings showed they belonged. New Trier held the advantage in possession and meaningful shots. Niles North led for more than 45 minutes of game time after Graham scored in the 15th minute.
Working off a counter, Peter Chavez drove the ball down the right edge and worked a cross that Graham finished from about eight yards for the stunning early score.
“Crawford is a great keeper, but we noticed right away that he was really aggressive,” Graham said. “I knew he might be off his line. That’s what happens when you follow the shots.
“There’s a chance it is going to fall in, and it did.
Thanks to the superb play of Vikings keeper Colin Schnabel, that goal held up until the 61st minute. The athletic and wiry keeper finished with nine saves.
He used his height and length extraordinarily well, cutting off angles and elevating inside his box to continually thwart the Trevians.
New Trier midfielder Aidan Nicholson appeared to have a certain goal in the 60th minute off a rapid volley inside that box that caught Schnabel out of position.
Vikings’ defender Christopher Araujo made an incredible recovery for the clearance.
New Trier’s pressure finally wore the Vikings down, and reserve midfielder Theo Franzen finished a beautiful pass from Will Pasia from 14 yards in the 61st minute.
Niles North picked its spots. Even after going down a player, the Vikings used the threat of the counter to keep the Trevians guessing.
Events seemed on their side in the 72nd minute after Graham generated a foul about 25 yards from the goal.
The team’s free kick specialist, Sticlaru stepped up and smashed a laser that appeared to surprise Crawford for the 2-1 Niles North advantage.
“We saw in the beginning of the game that the keeper was off his line a lot,” Sticlaru said. “In club games, I’ve done the same type of shots against keepers who come off their line a lot.
“He was on the top of the six. I just thought, he is not going to expect this, a crack on target. I hit it as hard as I could, and luckily it hit the back of the net.”
But New Trier is made of stern stuff.
“Even if we get scored on with 15 seconds left, we don’t let it affect us,” Drake said. “We are going to go out, and we are going to try and give it our all. That’s exactly what we did.
“This was one of the few times this year where we were down, and we had to come back. I think we’ve done a great job of getting together after the other team scores.”
Teams are often at their most vulnerable after a goal. The Trevians pushed the ball quickly down the left flank, forcing Niles North off balance and creating a foul.
Off the restart, Paden played a beautiful ball that Peter Kanellos smashed home with a quick left-footed blast from about 16 yards in the 73rd minute.
“That’s just what our team does,” Peter Kanellos said. “We never give up. We’ve been down games, 1-0 or 2-0, down early, down late, it doesn’t matter. We always come back.
“After we get scored on, we talk as a group. We go back out there and try to score. James is like a brother to me. We sit next to each other in the locker room, and we have that connection, just the quick eye contact.
“He played a perfect ball.”
It was a melancholy end to a great night for Niles North. They lost, but they gained something important.
“New Trier is an amazing team and an amazing program,” Niles North coach Filip Cejovic said. “We are an up-and-coming program, and we have been for many years.
“We are just happy that we were able to perform to our level. It is always a challenge to play as well as they can. We played a good game today. We had a game plan in mind. The boys executed it perfectly.
“Even though they had the majority of the possession, I will say that I thought we got a little unlucky at times. It was a great night for soccer, for spectators and players alike.”
New Trier was taken to the brink.
“It’s a privilege to play in this game,” New Trier coach Matt Ravenscraft said. “We had to earn (the right) by winning the CSL South, which I think is an incredibly difficult task given the quality.
“I wanted to credit Niles North. I think what Filip has done over the last seven years as a head coach is absolutely fantastic. It’s a quality program, and it’s a bunch of class coaches and players who give everything. We knew we were going to be in for a battle tonight.
“This was a playoff game. That’s how we viewed it.”
Starting lineups
Niles North
GK: Colin Schnabel
D: Peter Chavez
D: Christopher Araujo
D: Ian McNulty
D: Vasilis Callas
MF: Kyle Pham
MF: Emir Heto
MF: Victor Ore
MF: Alejandro Bucaro
F: Anthony Sticlaru
F: Colin Graham
New Trier
GK: Aidan Crawford
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Ely Wilson
D: James Paden
D: Ronan O’Neill
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Eli Drake
MF: Will Pasia
MF: Evan Kanellos
F: Peter Kanellos
F: Matthew Perchik
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Peter Kanellos, sr., F, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
Niles North—Colin Graham (Peter Chavez), 15th minute
Second half
New Trier—Theo Franzen (Will Pasia), 61st minute
Niles North—Anthony Sticlaru (free kick), 72nd minute
New Trier—Peter Kanellos (James Paden), 73rd minute
Shootout (New Trier wins 6-5/7)
Niles North (makes): Timothy Keegan, Emir Heto, Graham, Alejandro Bucaro, Sticlaru
New Trier (makes): Evan Kanellos, Ronan O’Neill, James Paden, Kevin Farina, Peter Kanellos, Eli Drake