Kits Kick Niles North, Rule Regional

Soccer coaches hate it when their players get caught up “ball watching” instead of finishing plays or runs.

No one could accuse Johnny O’Carroll of that flaw when Evanston needed him most on Saturday.

O’Carroll’s goal and assist sparked the Wildkits to the Class 3A Regional tournament championship with a 4-0 blanking of Niles North Saturday at Lazier Field. Joseph Sargent, Orlando Tobin and Johnny Hunwick also netted goals as the top-seeded Kits advanced to the New Trier Sectional semifinals.

Evanston will take a 17-1-3 record into the semifinal showdown with Lane Tech at 4:30 p.m. at New Trier on Tuesday. Lane Tech (13-2-4) advanced with a 2-0 win over Oak Park-River Forest, and the other semifinal will match Leyden and Maine South.

The semifinal survivors will collide in the sectional title game November 1st at 5 p.m.

Playing on a team with so many teammates who are skilled at passing and blocking shots, players can get caught up just watching others do their stuff. O’Carroll didn’t play the role of spectator and because he didn’t, he scored the critical first goal against the Vikings in the 8th minute.

The two teams had met just a week ago in a Central Suburban League crossover matchup that ended in a 0-0 tie. O’Carroll’s goal put the Vikings (13-3-6) back on their heels and they never really recovered from the tally.

The scoring play began when Finn Lennon launched a shot that soared higher than the football goal posts from about the 40-yard line. Niles North goalie Giovanni Zavala had to leap to knock it away, but O’Carroll --- pardon the cliché --- was Johnny on the spot to knock the ball in.

“I saw the kick go in a high arc to the goalie and I think he might have lost it in the sun,” said O’Carroll, noting the rare 5 p.m. start for the title game. “He just mis-caught it and I was really surprised that I got a foot on it and hit it in. It was really a shock.

“It’s easy to get caught up sometimes in what some of the others are doing. I just made the run I was supposed to make. It really feels great to win a regional. It means all of our hard work over the course of the season comes to a championship.

“The last time we played them we had a couple of guys out (with injuries). Being at home really helped today. We really wanted this and we were really focused. Our passing was better, we moved better off the ball and our finish was better, too.”

O’Carroll, a senior, also played a key role in Evanston’s second goal. In the 35th minute, he and teammate Kervenson Alfred sandwiched a Niles North defender, pried the ball away from him around the 40-yard line and seconds later O’Carroll fed Sargent with a perfect pass to provide a 2-0 advantage.

In the second half, Tobin rocketed a shot into the net in the 51st minute --- after Lukas Fox hit the left post --- and Hunwick converted a pass from Lennon for the final goal in the 60th minute.

“Sometimes ball watching is a good problem to have, because it means you have so much talent that the kids are looking at their teammates and saying wow, that’s good stuff,” said ETHS head coach Franz Calixte. “But it doesn’t happen too often for us and we don’t usually have to say anything to them about it, because they all hold each other accountable.

“We talk more about finishing runs and calling out where you are on the field. When you do that then you’re accountable for finishing that run. I don’t know if Johnny called out or not, but he finished that run and he was rewarded for it. That was a huge goal for us.

“I thought this was one of the better games we’ve played this year from beginning to end. I was a little surprised that Niles North played us straight up at the start (instead of slipping into a defensive shell for most of the game like in the first matchup between the two teams), but it’s OK with me if you want to play that way.

“We were able to attack with width --- our guys were relentless – and we were very dangerous today.”