Own Goal Helps Trevs Keep Upper Hand In Rivalry

New Trier’s soccer team hasn’t needed much help lately regaining the upper hand in the rivalry series with Evanston.

But the Trevians were glad to accept an “own goal” in their favor Thursday night in Northfield, accounting for half of the scoring in a 2-0 New Trier triumph over ETHS in Central Suburban League South division play.

It marked the fifth time in the past six meetings that the Trevians have prevailed in the head-to-head showdown between the two programs. The rematch between the rivals saw New Trier improve their all-time lead in the series with 47 wins to Evanston’s 45 in one of the longest running rivalries in the state of Illinois. The two programs have tied 22 times.

Own goals are always discouraging whenever they happen. But for a Wildkit team that is struggling to score for the second straight year, the fact that the game’s first score came with 7 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first half shoved them in a 1-0 hole that also left the hosts with a psychological edge.

New Trier (4-1-1 overall) scored again in the 56th minute, on a shot by Tim Vaughan, then stood firm against a strong Wildkit rally in the final 15 minutes.

New Trier goalie Will Richardson rejected strong scoring chances by Josh Geevarghese and Noah Thomas with leaping knockaways to keep the Kits scoreless.

“You can’t win if you can’t score,” said ETHS head coach Franz Calixte. “We did have some chances tonight. But New Trier is New Trier and they scored both of those goals on set pieces. That’s what they do.

“We gave up that own goal (on a corner kick where Evanston’s outstanding defender, Gable Holstine, got caught with his back to the play and the ball struck him and caromed into the net) and we knew the trouble we’ve been having scoring. That really hurt. We need to find a way to find the back of the net ourselves. We just don’t have that go-to goal scorer this year.”

Evanston dipped to 5-3 on the year following a flat first half performance where both teams seemed more content to win the time of possession battle without attempting to score much.

The Trevians relied on several restarts and long, accurate throw-ins from senior defender Petros Varvitsiotis to keep the upper hand in the field position struggle and most of the winners’ dangerous plays began with throw-ins from the sidelines.

“When Hersey won State a couple of years ago, they had a great goalie and a guy who was dangerous with throws like that,” Calixte pointed out. “When you’ve got both of those things in high school soccer, then you’ve really got something.

“Their goalie had a couple of top shelf saves there in the second half.”

New Trier retained possession of the fire hydrant trophy for the second year in a row. Evanston has now totaled just four goals in the last six encounters with the Trevians, including a two overtime loss to New Trier in the sectional tournament semifinals back in 2023.

“I really thought we’d get that trophy back this year. I even had a dolly with me in my car to bring the hydrant back home,” Calixte added.