Merriam Nets Two Goals In Farewell Appearance

Alexandra Merriam’s season is over just as the playoff run is beginning for the Evanston girls soccer team.

But the sophomore midfielder gave her high school teammates a going-away gift Monday afternoon in the semifinals of the Class 3A Whitney Young Regional tournament.

Merriam scored two goals, part of a six-goals-in-nine-minutes explosion for the Wildkits as they buried Chicago Von Steuben 9-0 at Rockne Stadium. All of the scoring took place in the first half and there was no need to play the second half due to the Illinois High School Association slaughter rule.

Von Steuben only had 10 players show up for the game and didn’t put up much of a fight against the Wildkits, who are seeded No. 2 overall in the New Trier Sectional. Evanston, now 11-4-4, advances to Saturday’s 11 a.m. regional championship matchup against Whitney Young, a 1-0 winner over Niles West in Monday’s other semifinal.

ETHS will be there --- but Merriam won’t. She’ll be on a plane headed for Honduras, where she’ll be training with other National team hopefuls --- including her older sister Adriana --- for a week before playing a couple of games against a “major” team from the Dominican Republic.

Merriam missed time with her high school team last month while also competing in a series of age-group (Under 20, Under 17) matches for Honduras and hopes the experience she gains will put her on the fast track to land a permanent spot with that country’s elite team.

The international flavor of the Evanston soccer program, both boys and girls, often means that top players are sometimes pulled toward competing for spots on national or professional teams linked to their heritage and aren’t available for an entire high school season.

This spring, Merriam would have been able to play if the regional title game was scheduled for Friday instead of Saturday. But once host Whitney Young chose Saturday for the date of the game, the sophomore standout had to make a choice.

“It would be nice to have Alex with us, but we knew before the season this might happen,” said Evanston head coach Stacy Salgado. “But at that point it wasn’t necessarily confirmed (that Merriam would earn an invitation from Honduran officials) and we thought we’d have her at least for the full regional, if not the sectional.

“It’s a great opportunity for her and I wouldn’t tell her NOT to go.”

“My parents were both born in Honduras and they’ve always looked for opportunities for my sister (now playing at Baylor University) and me to play there,” Merriam said. “That’s how the process started. Back in October I played in an ID camp and then the coaches liked what they saw and invited me to the team camp.

“I played about 20 games there with a bunch of different teams last month. After that, both my sister and I were called up to the first (or major) team and that’s an even bigger deal. I’m so excited about going. I love being able to travel there and the opportunity is great. The training is definitely intense, and even if I don’t get to play too much, it’s a great opportunity just to be there.

“I think our (ETHS) coaches understand it’s a big opportunity for me, and they’re all in for me to go. And they’re always happy when I come back. Obviously, I want to be here and help our (high school) team, but it’s such a big opportunity that really, it was an easy choice.”

Merriam has made a big impact in a short amount of time with the Wildkits this season. On Monday, both she and Bridget Durkin scored a pair of goals to maintain their 1-2 status on the squad’s scoring list. Durkin increased her goal total to a team-high 17, to 15 for Merriam.

Also joining in on the scoring fun in the rout of Von Steuben were Maddy Varela, Olivia Jean-Pierre, Lily Hammock, Shaili Peters and Sophia Hunwick. The winners put 20 shots on goal compared to zero for the Panthers.

Von Steuben, which finished 10-10-2, had kept its season alive in the regional opener with a 5-0 blanking of a Maine East squad they lost to during the regular season. But several players were no-shows Monday and that didn’t make it easy for the Wildkits to maintain their focus even with a pre-game reminder to “lock in” from Salgado and the other coaches.

“It’s hard to keep your focus and play in a game like this,” Salgado noted. “But it’s the regional, it’s the beginning of our playoff run and we put ourselves in position to have a game like this (with a high seed earned during the regular season). It was nice that everyone was involved and that everyone contributed.”

Salgado cleared the bench after Merriam’s second goal (in the 8th minute) boosted the advantage to 5-0.

Von Steuben then helped the winners’ with an own goal --- Jean-Pierre got credit for the tally on the stat sheet as the last Evanston player to touch the ball --- and freshman Lyla Katz and sophomores Sophia Schriner and Tessa Harvey all made their varsity debuts in the lopsided win.