With a missionary’s zeal, Evanston girls soccer coach Marx Succes–an ordained minister–has been preaching all season about just how good his team is. Going into the Class AA finals weekend at North Central College in Naperville, Succes knew the Wildkits had their doubters.
“We came in after 26 games, unbeaten, and people still thought we were the underdog,” Succes said.
Now they’re going to have to think of Evanston as state champions.
The No. 1 Wildkits beat Wheaton Warrenville South 2-0 before a state-record girls soccer crowd of more than 2,300 Saturday night for their first state title.
Rachel Wightman scored an unassisted goal only 2 minutes 23 seconds into the game and All-Stater Marisa Brown gave Evanston an insurance goal late in the second half to give the Wildkits a final record of 27-0-2–the first unbeaten season in the sport since St. Charles won the 1998 title with a 29-0-1 mark.
“I felt we were a team of destiny right from the very beginning,” said Succes, an Evanston grad.
And he has said over and over again that Evanston, in its first Elite Eight appearance, was on a mission.
“Mission accomplished,” Succes said. “And some people thought it was mission impossible.”
Evanston’s first goal may have been the strangest of the state finals. Wightman hit a half-hearted strike toward the goal and Wheaton South goalkeeper Kathleen Cahalan appeared to have an easy save. But the ball changed directions, Cahalan slipped and the Wildkits–ranked No. 3 in the nation by StudentSports.com–had a 1-0 lead.
Brown scored her 24th goal with 8:11 left and Evanston, which won its 33rd state team championship, could breathe a bit easier.
“I think some people doubted us a lot, but we kept going at it and we won,” Brown said.
And Evanston received another shutout performance by goalkeeper Louisa Bigelow, who needed to make four saves. She tied a state record with three shutouts in the state finals and has 21 this season.
Wheaton South coach Guy Callipari, whose team finished 24-2-2, was impressed with how fast Evanston’s players were.
“Speed, there is no substitute for that,” Callipari said.
“They made some mistakes, but they were fast enough to recover.”
Evanston did win a state girls soccer title in 1983. Oddly enough, current Evanston assistant Nancy Economou and Dyann Nathan, the future wife of Callipari, were teammates on that team.
But that title is considered unofficial because girls soccer was not an IHSA sport at the time.
It’s official this time.
