Evanston sent a message to its competition Tuesday that it will be tough to beat, thoroughly dominating Niles North with a 7-0 victory in the regional final of the New Trier sectional.
From the opening kick, the Wildkits (18-3-3) controlled the match by forcing virtually all the play in the Viking field. Just 1 minute 22 seconds into the game, sophomore Annette Kent knocked in a rebound that Niles North goalie Natasha Osler could not secure on a shot from Wildkit junior Laura Brown. A little more than four minutes later, junior Julie Ward shot a direct free kick into the net to put Evanston up 2-0. The Wildkit victory was almost certain at that point.
“We’ve been working on crashing the goal non-stop,” said Kent, describing the initial tally, “We’ve been missing a lot of those in past games. I just tried to get something on it and put it in the back of the net.”
Sophomore Erica Myers, who was one of Evanston’s first substitutes, scored goals three and four, and Junior Jenny Omundson knocked home a shot giving Evanston a 5-0 lead at halftime.
Viking goalie Osler was not playing at full strength as she had an injured left thumb, which was aggravated in practice before the game.
Niles North coach Scott Dahlberg said, “That injury hurt us. We’d have been in it better mentally if she could have a couple of saves on some of those early shots.”
Substituting for Osler deep into the first half was Rosie Vosmak, who despite the score, played hard in goal and made some deft saves to keep the rout somewhat in hand. Niles North ends its year at 10-8-1.
In the second half, the Wildkits added two scores, one on a breakaway by Kent and the other by junior Naomi Goldberg.
Next up for Evanston will be second-seeded Maine South Thursday at the New Trier sectional. The battle between two of the top teams in state was not lost on Wildkit coach Marx Success Tuesday.
“We certainly tried to send a message. We wanted to defend our title, we didn’t want to lose our final home game and we wanted to send a message that we are not ready to end our season,” Success said. “We didn’t look past this game at all, but at the same time, we knew what we had to do and who is coming up Thursday.”
