Kits Deny New Trier, Advance To Sectional

Field position is a sports term usually more associated with American football.

But the ability to win the field position battle is what helped keep Evanston’s soccer season alive on Saturday.

Denying rival New Trier a chance to launch too many dangerous attacks on offense, the Wildkits captured the championship of the Class 3A Evanston Regional tournament with a 2-1 triumph over the Trevians at Lazier Field.

Evanston avenged a regular season loss to New Trier behind Matt Gilroy’s two first-half goals and will take a 12-6-1 record into the DePaul Prep Sectional semifinals on Tuesday at 5 p.m. They’ll meet top-seeded Chicago Taft and the winner will advance to Friday’s sectional title contest.

Gilroy’s goal in the final seconds of the first half proved to be the game-winner as the Kits kept a tactical advantage against New Trier’s lethal throw-ins from the sidelines. New Trier’s strength in boys soccer has always been its set pieces (restarts), but ETHS head coach Franz Calixte and his staff have seen that movie before and learned a lesson from that 2-0 regular season defeat.

“This time we were not taken by surprise by their long throw-ins. We were prepared for it,” said Calixte. “Our mentality was that we had to clear balls (kicking out of bounds) better up and out, not just out, so we could eliminate those dangerous throws. We wanted to make those throws go sideways so New Trier couldn’t attack directly, like they usually do.

“It was all about field position for us. New Trier did have quite a few throw-ins, but not where they could do any real damage. In the second half, we made sure we always had someone back (to protect the lead on defense) so they didn’t have a chance to go downhill against us.”

Gilroy netted his team-high 10^th goal on a header, courtesy of junior teammate Josh Geevarghese. Gilroy initiated the offensive surge, but instead of shooting at the goal himself after receiving a pass, Geevarghese chipped the ball to the back post and Gilroy knocked it in.

“Guys like Kemmar Leigh and Daniel Melinkov were so solid for us. Our defenders were just relentless, winning head balls on a lot of those throw-ins,” Calixte praised. “It was a great team win.

“I’m just so excited, so thrilled. Just like they say, it’s a great day to be a Wildkit!”