Two rivals headed in opposite directions in the current high school football season met in a rare afternoon matchup Saturday at Lazier Field.
And one reason they’re headed in opposite directions? Playoff hopeful New Trier was able to finish what they started on offense.
The Trevians put together scoring drives of 80, 75, 38, 31 and 44 yards and outscored Evanston 35-6 in the renewal of one of the state’s oldest rivalries. New Trier (4-3), which had dropped three of the past four head-to-head matchups with ETHS, regained bragging rights and now only trails 57-54 in the all-time series win column. The two schools have tied six times.
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The host Wildkits? They settled for two field goals from Jasper Barney and fell to 1-6 on the season. Evanston’s hopes to flee the Central Suburban League South division basement will be decided in the final regular season games next week at Deerfield and in Week 9 versus Glenbrook North.
Evanston surrendered 274 yards through the air as New Trier junior quarterback John Ryder completed 12-of-19 passing attempts for three touchdowns. He also ran for a score.
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Still lacking the confidence to finish off drives --- or maybe still satisfied when they can just string together a couple of first downs --- the Kits mustered 154 yards on the ground and only 27 through the air on their way to their sixth straight defeat. Junior Sean Hopson accounted for 128 of those yards rushing on 24 attempts.
ETHS first-year head coach Miles Osei is still searching for answers and couldn’t find any in front of a disappointed Homecoming crowd.
“I don’t think we’ve been playing to our capabilities,” Osei said. “For the most part, our defense has been good. But my job is to get the most out of this group --- and I have not. When we have the ball, our mentality needs to be ‘we ARE going to score’ instead of wondering what will go wrong.
“That’s why I went for that field goal (on fourth and 5 and already trailing 21-0) in the first half. I wanted out kids to see some points on the board, knowing we’d get the ball again to start the second half. I have to do a better job of instilling confidence for them.”
With top cornerback Justin Johnson still sidelined by a sprained ankle, the Wildkit secondary didn’t exactly rise to the occasion Saturday. After capping the first New Trier drive with a 2-yard scoring run, Ryder burned the hosts with TD passes to Keefer Baxter (47 and 19 yards ) and Ben Sullivan (52 yards). His 42-yard bomb to tight end Luke Mastros set up a short scoring run by Declan O’Meara (18 carries for 30 yards) in the second quarter.
New Trier’s ability to switch to an empty backfield and employ the maximum number of potential receivers right before the center snap left the pass defense in disarray most of the time.
“They did a good job whenever they went from trips to empty,” Osei acknowledged. “They really capitalized on that a lot. And field position really made a difference in the first half, because it seemed like they were on our side of the field the whole way.”
Barney’s 22-yard field goal with 14 seconds left on the first half clock came after New Trier’s defense stiffened in the red zone, limiting Hopson and Tyree Innis to five yards on three tries inside the 10.
He added a 27-yarder on the first possession of the second half. And the hosts were on the march again, down 21-6, when back-to-back mistakes cost them a chance to come from behind.
On first down at the Trevian 28, quarterback Jake Everds and running back Mike Pryor combined for a fumbled handoff exchange that Pryor finally fell on for a 10-yard loss. On the next play, Everds was intercepted by New Trier’s Aaron Pressman.
