Kits Kick LFA 4-0 In Tournament Opener

Why did the opening round of the Evanston Invitational soccer tournament Tuesday night feel like a blowout?

Because it’s been over a year since the host Wildkits scored as many as four goals in a game.

Following a forgettable 2025 campaign in which they finished 4-12-3 --- and only scored as many as three goals once in a 3-0 win over Homestead of Wisconsin --- Evanston opened tourney play by blanking Lake Forest Academy 4-0 behind goals from four different players.

Coach Franz Calixte’s squad improved to 2-1 on the season after splitting a pair of 2-1 outcomes leading up to the tournament, bowing to Rolling Meadows 2-1 and beating Waukegan by the same score.

The Kits almost didn’t get a chance to play Tuesday night. Excessive heat forced postponement of the first scheduled tournament game featuring Mather against Payton Prep and pushed it back to Friday. Evanston will host Mather at 7 p.m. on Thursday, and the round-robin tourney will conclude on Saturday afternoon.

For the first time, Evanston isn’t the defending tourney champion. The Wildkits staggered to a pair of losses and a tie in an injury-riddled start to the season and they never fully recovering, leading to one of the worst seasons in Calixte’s long tenure.

Now they’ve turned the page with a half dozen starters returning from that team. Including senior twin brothers Tommy and Matt Gilroy, senior goalie Ben Matsa, senior midfielder Noah Thomas and senior defender Aiden Wang.

“Not to make excuses, but last year for this game we had four starters out,” Calixte pointed out. “And as the season went on we couldn’t establish any identity as a team. We had no continuity out there. It seemed like we played a different lineup every game.

“We did have some guys get a lot of varsity experience last year and they’re coming into this season with a chip on their shoulders. Last year was a fluke --- we were just a shell of ourselves --- and they want to make the best of it this year.

“I think this is one of the deepest teams I’ve had in quite awhile. We played everyone in the first half and this was a big step forward for us as a team, because we controlled the tempo and didn’t just go, go, go. They took their time and looked for things (openings in the defense).”

Against a Caxys team that didn’t play low pressure on defense --- make that NO pressure on defense --- Evanston’s Prince Maningri scored on a header, diving into a pass from Thomas in the 20^th minute.

Four minutes later, sophomore Nick Bressand netted his first varsity goal off a feed from Caleb Nicholson.

Second half tallies by Josh Geevarghese and Wang gave the hosts a taste of just what a blowout could look like.