New Trier finds its edge vs. Evanston
Weaver strikes both times in Trevians' 2-0 win over Wildkits
By Gary Larsen
EVANSTON — For any team, giving New Trier’s Emma Weaver space with the ball at her feet is like leaving a lion’s cage unlocked. Things just aren't going to end well.
In Wednesday’s Central Suburban League South Division highly-ranked showdown in Evanston, Weaver got loose twice on the Wildkits and twice she made them pay for it in a 2-0 win that gave the Trevians the division title.
Weaver struck first at 14 minutes on a perfectly-placed shot from 22 yards that kissed
the underside of the crossbar on its way into the net.
“I just waited until it either hit the back of the net or went over and luckily, it went in,” Weaver said. “I take that shot a lot.”
Weaver’s second goal came at 55 minutes, a left-footed shot from the left side that snuck inside the far post to give her 22 goals on the year. On both goals, the junior had ample time and space to operate.
“All the girls know Emma Weaver and she’s obviously great on the ball,” Evanston coach Stacy Salgado said. “They took advantage of their chances and took advantage of our mistakes.”
Weaver’s two strikes earned her Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match honor.
New Trier (14-2-5, 4-0-1), ranked no. 4 in Chicagoland Soccer’s Top 25, earned its 11th shutout of the season and its sixth shutout in the last seven games. Keeper Courtney Charchut earned the clean-sheet.
“Our two backs, Josie (Crumley) and Heidi (Bianucci) have just been stellar all year long,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “And then you rely on Emma Weaver to put the ball in the back of the net.”
An athletic and skilled Evanston team slowed New Trier’s attempt at establishing possession for much of the game. With a 1-0 lead at halftime, the chief message New Trier received during the intermission came down to one vital ingredient that all the best teams have.
“Burnside talked to us at halftime and said we needed to come out tougher, with a chip on our shoulder,” senior midfielder Lily Conley said. “We didn’t play as tough as we could in the first half. When we came out after halftime we stuck it to them and didn’t give them a chance to breathe.”
A flurry of shots leading to corner kicks punctuated the Trevians’ increased effort to start the second half. The pressure paid off with Weaver’s second goal, after Conley headed a ball ahead on the left side and Weaver finished from 16 yards.
“Lily Conley is just a warrior in the midfield,” Burnside said. “She wins balls, she distributes, and Kate Sawdey did a good job in the midfield, too.”
Burnside was particularly happy with the way sophomore striker Alex Wirth played on Wednesday.
“To be honest, I challenged her a little bit, and she really rose to the challenge, creating chances and battling hard,” Burnside said of Wirth. “Tonight was kind of her night to find that chip on her shoulder. That says a lot about a sophomore who is going to lead us in years to come.”
Salgado agreed that New Trier’s competitive edge made all the difference.
“I don’t know why we didn’t come out playing the way I’ve seen us play. We weren’t tough enough,” Salgado said. “We were letting girls run through us, and we weren’t stepping up our game. We were kind of just letting it happen. We’ve seen (toughness) in moments and just have to make sure it’s more consistent because we’re very capable of doing it.”
A youth movement at Evanston, which is ranked 18th, was on full display with three freshmen and three sophomore starters.
“That was the first experience for a lot of our girls to play against New Trier,” Salgado said. “It’s funny because the older ones know it’s New Trier, but the younger ones are like, ‘Who cares? It’s just another game’.”
Salgado applauded the play of sophomore Ryann Lucas up top, and liked what she got from her trio of freshmen against the Trevians.
“We have a couple freshmen in the back that played pretty well in Carly (Menocal) and Sarah (Sollinger),” Salgado said. “Sarah is coming off an injury, and she gave us good minutes today, and we had another freshman, Nahla (Dominguez) whose probably one of the smallest players out there, but she was still able to put some pressure on them and not make things easy for them.”
The Wildkits have three games remaining on their regular-season schedule before opening the postseason as the no. 3 seed of this year’s Class 3A New Trier Sectional.
Host Evanston plays no. 14 Von Steuben on May14 in a regional semifinal game.
Wednesday’s win sent New Trier to a CSL title game on May 7 against North division champion Glenbrook North. The Trevians beat Glenbrook North 2-0 back on March 18 and will go into the rematch with nearly two months of growth under their belts.
“We’ve definitely improved,” Weaver said. “We work hard in practice and get a lot out of it. It’s definitely starting to show on the field, and I’m proud of my teammates.”
After the CSL title game, New Trier will play Fremd in a regular-season finale before opening the post-season as the no. 1 seed in its section. The Trevians open regional play at Maine West with a semifinal match on May 14 against the winner of a play-in game between no. 17-seed Schurz and no. 16-seed Taft.
Burnside just wants to see his girls continue to embrace the fighting spirit that helped the program appear in the last five Class 3A state championship games.
“You’ve got to have an edge -- a good, hard-nosed, competitive edge,” Burnside said. “Play clean, play smart, but have a little bit of an edge. It’s competition, and you have to want to compete at a high level.”
Starting lineups
Evanston
GK Caitlin Fitzpatrick
D Kathryn Petersen
D Ruby Rogers
D Carly Menocal
M Nahla Dominguez
M Ryann Lucas
M Callista O’Connor
M Katarina Seghal
M Keara Kerr
F Hadley Bushala
F Brealyn Viamille
New Trier
GK Courtney Charchut
D Heidi Bianucci
D Josie Crumley
D Jenna Birdsell
D Ava Shah
M Kate Sawdey
M Lily Conley
M Mia Sedgwick
M Fallon Warshauer
F Emma Weaver
F Alex Wirth
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Emma Weaver, jr., F, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
New Trier — Weaver (UA) 14 minutes
Second half
New Trier — Weaver (Conley) 55 minutes
Weaver strikes both times in Trevians' 2-0 win over Wildkits
By Gary Larsen
EVANSTON — For any team, giving New Trier’s Emma Weaver space with the ball at her feet is like leaving a lion’s cage unlocked. Things just aren't going to end well.
In Wednesday’s Central Suburban League South Division highly-ranked showdown in Evanston, Weaver got loose twice on the Wildkits and twice she made them pay for it in a 2-0 win that gave the Trevians the division title.
Weaver struck first at 14 minutes on a perfectly-placed shot from 22 yards that kissed
the underside of the crossbar on its way into the net.
“I just waited until it either hit the back of the net or went over and luckily, it went in,” Weaver said. “I take that shot a lot.”
Weaver’s second goal came at 55 minutes, a left-footed shot from the left side that snuck inside the far post to give her 22 goals on the year. On both goals, the junior had ample time and space to operate.
“All the girls know Emma Weaver and she’s obviously great on the ball,” Evanston coach Stacy Salgado said. “They took advantage of their chances and took advantage of our mistakes.”
Weaver’s two strikes earned her Chicagoland Soccer’s MVP of the Match honor.
New Trier (14-2-5, 4-0-1), ranked no. 4 in Chicagoland Soccer’s Top 25, earned its 11th shutout of the season and its sixth shutout in the last seven games. Keeper Courtney Charchut earned the clean-sheet.
“Our two backs, Josie (Crumley) and Heidi (Bianucci) have just been stellar all year long,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “And then you rely on Emma Weaver to put the ball in the back of the net.”
An athletic and skilled Evanston team slowed New Trier’s attempt at establishing possession for much of the game. With a 1-0 lead at halftime, the chief message New Trier received during the intermission came down to one vital ingredient that all the best teams have.
“Burnside talked to us at halftime and said we needed to come out tougher, with a chip on our shoulder,” senior midfielder Lily Conley said. “We didn’t play as tough as we could in the first half. When we came out after halftime we stuck it to them and didn’t give them a chance to breathe.”
A flurry of shots leading to corner kicks punctuated the Trevians’ increased effort to start the second half. The pressure paid off with Weaver’s second goal, after Conley headed a ball ahead on the left side and Weaver finished from 16 yards.
“Lily Conley is just a warrior in the midfield,” Burnside said. “She wins balls, she distributes, and Kate Sawdey did a good job in the midfield, too.”
Burnside was particularly happy with the way sophomore striker Alex Wirth played on Wednesday.
“To be honest, I challenged her a little bit, and she really rose to the challenge, creating chances and battling hard,” Burnside said of Wirth. “Tonight was kind of her night to find that chip on her shoulder. That says a lot about a sophomore who is going to lead us in years to come.”
Salgado agreed that New Trier’s competitive edge made all the difference.
“I don’t know why we didn’t come out playing the way I’ve seen us play. We weren’t tough enough,” Salgado said. “We were letting girls run through us, and we weren’t stepping up our game. We were kind of just letting it happen. We’ve seen (toughness) in moments and just have to make sure it’s more consistent because we’re very capable of doing it.”
A youth movement at Evanston, which is ranked 18th, was on full display with three freshmen and three sophomore starters.
“That was the first experience for a lot of our girls to play against New Trier,” Salgado said. “It’s funny because the older ones know it’s New Trier, but the younger ones are like, ‘Who cares? It’s just another game’.”
Salgado applauded the play of sophomore Ryann Lucas up top, and liked what she got from her trio of freshmen against the Trevians.
“We have a couple freshmen in the back that played pretty well in Carly (Menocal) and Sarah (Sollinger),” Salgado said. “Sarah is coming off an injury, and she gave us good minutes today, and we had another freshman, Nahla (Dominguez) whose probably one of the smallest players out there, but she was still able to put some pressure on them and not make things easy for them.”
The Wildkits have three games remaining on their regular-season schedule before opening the postseason as the no. 3 seed of this year’s Class 3A New Trier Sectional.
Host Evanston plays no. 14 Von Steuben on May14 in a regional semifinal game.
Wednesday’s win sent New Trier to a CSL title game on May 7 against North division champion Glenbrook North. The Trevians beat Glenbrook North 2-0 back on March 18 and will go into the rematch with nearly two months of growth under their belts.
“We’ve definitely improved,” Weaver said. “We work hard in practice and get a lot out of it. It’s definitely starting to show on the field, and I’m proud of my teammates.”
After the CSL title game, New Trier will play Fremd in a regular-season finale before opening the post-season as the no. 1 seed in its section. The Trevians open regional play at Maine West with a semifinal match on May 14 against the winner of a play-in game between no. 17-seed Schurz and no. 16-seed Taft.
Burnside just wants to see his girls continue to embrace the fighting spirit that helped the program appear in the last five Class 3A state championship games.
“You’ve got to have an edge -- a good, hard-nosed, competitive edge,” Burnside said. “Play clean, play smart, but have a little bit of an edge. It’s competition, and you have to want to compete at a high level.”
Starting lineups
Evanston
GK Caitlin Fitzpatrick
D Kathryn Petersen
D Ruby Rogers
D Carly Menocal
M Nahla Dominguez
M Ryann Lucas
M Callista O’Connor
M Katarina Seghal
M Keara Kerr
F Hadley Bushala
F Brealyn Viamille
New Trier
GK Courtney Charchut
D Heidi Bianucci
D Josie Crumley
D Jenna Birdsell
D Ava Shah
M Kate Sawdey
M Lily Conley
M Mia Sedgwick
M Fallon Warshauer
F Emma Weaver
F Alex Wirth
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Emma Weaver, jr., F, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
New Trier — Weaver (UA) 14 minutes
Second half
New Trier — Weaver (Conley) 55 minutes