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Girls Soccer: Trevians caught up in early celebration
Palatine, 5/29/12 Glenbrook South's Keeley Nolan and New Trier's Jess Weaver battle for the loose ball during their supersectional at Fremd High School May 29. | Curtis Lehmkuhl~Sun Times Media
Updated: July 8, 2012 6:21PM
The Trevians may have felt their job was done when they defeated No. 1 seed Loyola 1-0 in the Niles North sectional final.
But New Trier, the second seed, still had one more hurdle standing in the way of a trip to the Class 3A state finals: conference foe Glenbrook South, a team that had won the Palatine sectional title as the No. 5 seed.
But the game stayed scoreless, and then 1:31 into overtime, GBS midfielder Carolyn Nash bent in a near-post corner that lodged itself into the back of the New Trier net. The Titans advanced to state with an improbable 1-0 victory.
“Our biggest thing is we got so caught up on the Loyola game,” New Trier junior midfielder Jess Weaver said. “It was too much, ‘We beat Loyola, we beat Loyola!’ In the end, that wasn’t our goal this season, the goal was to go to state, not to beat Loyola. We got too caught up on that.”
The Trevians (20-4-1) had edged the Titans during the regular season, and seemed poised to do so again in the May 29 Fremd supersectional. New Trier twice hit the goal post and found the crossbar.
A long-range shot by brilliant senior midfielder Rachel Shellenback with eight minutes remaining in the first was stopped by diving GBS goalkeeper Emma Sailer.
In the second half, the Trevians central midfield of Shellenback, Weaver and sophomore Emily Miller controlled play, while sophomore forward Maddie Mulford worked tirelessly alone up front.
“The key to controlling the midfield was playing the ball on the ground,” Weaver said. “When we connected and played simply and did the one-twos, we were on and had shots, especially in the second half when we had great energy and came out strong.”
It seemed just a matter of time for New Trier.
Then, on a corner kick that came off basically the first attack of overtime, it was all over, Nash’s left foot ending the Trevians’ dream.
“We always talk about the big five, the first five minutes of every game, half and overtime. It’s when you’re most vulnerable,” Weaver said. “It was a great (corner), a miscommunication on defense, and that’s it.
“We knew coming in they were good at restarts. We knew to mark tight and we were marking tight. It’s upsetting.”
A young team, New Trier loses just five seniors. There is little doubt the goal in 2013 will be the same as it was this year: a trip to state.
“(State) was something we were looking to try and do,” coach Jim Burnside said. “It stings, there is no two ways about it. It stings for me, but it stings more for the seniors, and that’s what hurts most for us coaches.
“(State) is the goal. (Supersectional) isn’t the goal. The (final) weekend is the goal. That’s really where we want to be.”
