Seniors lead New Trier past Loyola
Kanellos, Nicholson help Trevians earn title berth with 2-1 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
GLENVIEW -- If New Trier is going to be successful this year, it's going to be thanks to the play of its seniors.
With 15 on the roster, experience and depth that will help determine how far the Trevians go. Thursday night it was two of them, Evan Kanellos and Aidan Nicholson, who led the way for the visitors in a 2-1 win over neighborhood rival Loyola at the Munz Campus in Glenview.
"It's always tough to come here and play," New Trier manager Matt Ravenscraft said. "This is the best thing about high school soccer -- an environment like this to play in. I liked that we improved our play in the second half; we grew throughout the game. We asked the guys to be braver, to want and command the ball, and they did that.
"Having depth is always ideal. There's a sense of urgency you can't replicate, but it's those returners who are there to lead the way. This was a huge deal for the whole team, but maybe a little more for the seniors. It's fun to see big-time players have big-time moments."
The victory kept the Trevians, who are ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, unbeaten not only in the Northside College Showcase, but on the season as well. By going 2-0-1 in their own tournament, and taking the second tiebreaker (goal differential) over no. 13 Grayslake Central, the team gets to face sixth-ranked Lyons for the title Saturday in Northfield.
Neither Loyola or New Trier were able to put much pressure on the other in the opening stages of the game. Neither team registered a shot on goal until Kanellos forced Ramblers’ keeper Jason Brunger to make a save.
Loyola's best chance of the first half came with around four minutes remaining when senior midfielder Olivier Szorc took a shot from distance that went just over the crossbar.
Something switched for New Trier in the second half. The Trevians (5-0-1) came out as the aggressors and put a number of shots on goal in the half's opening minutes.
Nicholson connected in the 49th minute to give the visitors the lead.
"It still doesn't seem real to me, to be honest," Nicholson said. "We'd just gotten the corner, and Aryan went to take it. One of the guys called me out of my normal corner kick spot, so I went to Matthew (Perchik) who talked to me and helped calm me down.
"I did my double step and kind of jumped off my guy and saw the ball floating over the goalie. I knew I had to get my head on it somehow."
The Trevians continued to keep the Ramblers' keeper on his toes for much of the half, forcing Brunger to come off his line and come out of the goal earlier than he may have liked.
The pressure came to fruition again when Kanellos, who was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, came down the right side of the pitch and took a pass from Karsten Segall.
"Karsten slipped the ball into the box, and it was a 50/50 ball," he said. "I slid into it on the ground by the guy. Another guy came, and I touched around him. Then I was 1-on-1 with the goalie, and I blasted it in.
"The goal was definitely a bit of insurance. They scored later, so without it, it's 1-1 and a tie game. Getting that second goal there was huge.”
The Ramblers (1-3-1) saw their offense stymied for much of the second half. It got going more in the latter stages.
It seems as if the Ramblers' offense has a tough time getting started early in the game. That’s witnessed by the fact that both their goals in the season-opener over Notre Dame came late, as did the home team's goal against New Trier.
With under eight minutes remaining, Loyola's Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson took a pass in the box and slotted it into the New Trier goal.
"We needed something; we needed a spark," he said. "We've got a great sophomore, Luke Ojala, who put in a great cross. As luck has it, I was waiting at the edge of the box. It trickled through uncontested, I put my foot to it.
"See ball. Hit ball."
The senior and his manager know that the goals will eventually come. Unfortunately, they are already taking longer than Loyola had hoped.
"We have to really work more on the attacking third, come together and put the passes and runs together," Loyola manager Dan Riskind said. "We need to create more chances."
"It's there," Echevarria-Robinson said. "We bring the intensity; it was there. We've got a lot of young guys on the team, a new coaching staff.
“Unfortunately it's clicked a little too late, but we just have to keep that intensity for the whole 80 minutes. That's what it is."
Even though his squad lost all three of its pool games and will play for seventh place Saturday, Riskind knows he has a good squad on his hands.
"I was moving guys around, so now I think we have a better idea of who we want to play where," Riskind said. "We're starting to possess the ball better. I think what we've really come away with from this week is playing more with possession."
One thing that he feels might help is that he now has an idea of who his starting 11 should be. Riskind’s been switching lineups to get a feel for the right combinations.
The Ramblers are also experimenting with their formation. New Trier players were thrown off at first when Loyola started the game in a new formation.
The win sets the Trevians up with an opportunity to win their second-consecutive Northside College Showcase title. They'll face a familiar opponent in Lyons, who the Trevians took down in the title game last year in penalty kicks.
"It's awesome to be going back; we won it for the first time ever last year," Nicholson said. "With me being a senior with some of the other guys, it means so much more being my last season and being able to go out and win things, it's really great."
"What's been fun is seeing the growth of some of the returnees, guys like Theo Franzen, Karsten Segall, Kevin Farina, guys that have a much bigger role this year," Ravenscraft said.
Starting lineups
New Trier
GK: Shafer Brahm
D: Wyatt McAlexander
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Kevin Farina
MF: Karsten Segall
MF: Theo Franzen
MF: Evan Kanellos
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Ian Vichnick
F: Matthew Perchik
F: Aryan Krishna
Loyola
GK: Jason Brunger
D: Andrew Newton
D: Liam Drehkoff
D: Clinton Birchard
D: Daniel Ryczek
MF: Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF: Luke Ojala
MF: Townes Robertson
MF: Olivier Szorc
F: Joseph Vehovsky
F: Jeremiah Gyorgy
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Evan Kanellos, sr., MF, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
New Trier - Aidan Nicholson (Aryan Krishna Corner kick), 49th minute
New Trier - Evan Kanellos (Karsten Segall), 66th minute
Loyola - Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson, 73rd minute
Kanellos, Nicholson help Trevians earn title berth with 2-1 win
By Michael Wojtychiw
GLENVIEW -- If New Trier is going to be successful this year, it's going to be thanks to the play of its seniors.
With 15 on the roster, experience and depth that will help determine how far the Trevians go. Thursday night it was two of them, Evan Kanellos and Aidan Nicholson, who led the way for the visitors in a 2-1 win over neighborhood rival Loyola at the Munz Campus in Glenview.
"It's always tough to come here and play," New Trier manager Matt Ravenscraft said. "This is the best thing about high school soccer -- an environment like this to play in. I liked that we improved our play in the second half; we grew throughout the game. We asked the guys to be braver, to want and command the ball, and they did that.
"Having depth is always ideal. There's a sense of urgency you can't replicate, but it's those returners who are there to lead the way. This was a huge deal for the whole team, but maybe a little more for the seniors. It's fun to see big-time players have big-time moments."
The victory kept the Trevians, who are ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, unbeaten not only in the Northside College Showcase, but on the season as well. By going 2-0-1 in their own tournament, and taking the second tiebreaker (goal differential) over no. 13 Grayslake Central, the team gets to face sixth-ranked Lyons for the title Saturday in Northfield.
Neither Loyola or New Trier were able to put much pressure on the other in the opening stages of the game. Neither team registered a shot on goal until Kanellos forced Ramblers’ keeper Jason Brunger to make a save.
Loyola's best chance of the first half came with around four minutes remaining when senior midfielder Olivier Szorc took a shot from distance that went just over the crossbar.
Something switched for New Trier in the second half. The Trevians (5-0-1) came out as the aggressors and put a number of shots on goal in the half's opening minutes.
Nicholson connected in the 49th minute to give the visitors the lead.
"It still doesn't seem real to me, to be honest," Nicholson said. "We'd just gotten the corner, and Aryan went to take it. One of the guys called me out of my normal corner kick spot, so I went to Matthew (Perchik) who talked to me and helped calm me down.
"I did my double step and kind of jumped off my guy and saw the ball floating over the goalie. I knew I had to get my head on it somehow."
The Trevians continued to keep the Ramblers' keeper on his toes for much of the half, forcing Brunger to come off his line and come out of the goal earlier than he may have liked.
The pressure came to fruition again when Kanellos, who was named the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, came down the right side of the pitch and took a pass from Karsten Segall.
"Karsten slipped the ball into the box, and it was a 50/50 ball," he said. "I slid into it on the ground by the guy. Another guy came, and I touched around him. Then I was 1-on-1 with the goalie, and I blasted it in.
"The goal was definitely a bit of insurance. They scored later, so without it, it's 1-1 and a tie game. Getting that second goal there was huge.”
The Ramblers (1-3-1) saw their offense stymied for much of the second half. It got going more in the latter stages.
It seems as if the Ramblers' offense has a tough time getting started early in the game. That’s witnessed by the fact that both their goals in the season-opener over Notre Dame came late, as did the home team's goal against New Trier.
With under eight minutes remaining, Loyola's Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson took a pass in the box and slotted it into the New Trier goal.
"We needed something; we needed a spark," he said. "We've got a great sophomore, Luke Ojala, who put in a great cross. As luck has it, I was waiting at the edge of the box. It trickled through uncontested, I put my foot to it.
"See ball. Hit ball."
The senior and his manager know that the goals will eventually come. Unfortunately, they are already taking longer than Loyola had hoped.
"We have to really work more on the attacking third, come together and put the passes and runs together," Loyola manager Dan Riskind said. "We need to create more chances."
"It's there," Echevarria-Robinson said. "We bring the intensity; it was there. We've got a lot of young guys on the team, a new coaching staff.
“Unfortunately it's clicked a little too late, but we just have to keep that intensity for the whole 80 minutes. That's what it is."
Even though his squad lost all three of its pool games and will play for seventh place Saturday, Riskind knows he has a good squad on his hands.
"I was moving guys around, so now I think we have a better idea of who we want to play where," Riskind said. "We're starting to possess the ball better. I think what we've really come away with from this week is playing more with possession."
One thing that he feels might help is that he now has an idea of who his starting 11 should be. Riskind’s been switching lineups to get a feel for the right combinations.
The Ramblers are also experimenting with their formation. New Trier players were thrown off at first when Loyola started the game in a new formation.
The win sets the Trevians up with an opportunity to win their second-consecutive Northside College Showcase title. They'll face a familiar opponent in Lyons, who the Trevians took down in the title game last year in penalty kicks.
"It's awesome to be going back; we won it for the first time ever last year," Nicholson said. "With me being a senior with some of the other guys, it means so much more being my last season and being able to go out and win things, it's really great."
"What's been fun is seeing the growth of some of the returnees, guys like Theo Franzen, Karsten Segall, Kevin Farina, guys that have a much bigger role this year," Ravenscraft said.
Starting lineups
New Trier
GK: Shafer Brahm
D: Wyatt McAlexander
D: Colin Gottshall
D: Kevin Farina
MF: Karsten Segall
MF: Theo Franzen
MF: Evan Kanellos
MF: Aidan Nicholson
MF: Ian Vichnick
F: Matthew Perchik
F: Aryan Krishna
Loyola
GK: Jason Brunger
D: Andrew Newton
D: Liam Drehkoff
D: Clinton Birchard
D: Daniel Ryczek
MF: Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF: Luke Ojala
MF: Townes Robertson
MF: Olivier Szorc
F: Joseph Vehovsky
F: Jeremiah Gyorgy
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Evan Kanellos, sr., MF, New Trier
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
New Trier - Aidan Nicholson (Aryan Krishna Corner kick), 49th minute
New Trier - Evan Kanellos (Karsten Segall), 66th minute
Loyola - Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson, 73rd minute