Girls soccer: New Trier hands Geneva its 1st loss
New Trier dealt the Geneva girls soccer team its first loss of the season, winning 1-0 Thursday night at Geneva in the quarterfinals of the Naperville Invitational.
Whitney Hoban scored the only goal, taking a cross from Sydney Parker and knocking a shot past Emma Harkleroad with 14 minutes left in the first half. Hoban got a great look from dead center in front of the net.
"We've been practicing that a lot," Hoban said. "I had to delay my run. Sydney made a great run all the way from center-back and she took it all the way to the end line. I timed my run so that I knew the goalie would cheat toward the near post."
Harkleroad kept Geneva (13-1) close, making 8 saves. Those stops started in the first two minutes as New Trier (15-1) put pressure on the Vikings early.
Harkleroad saved Emma Weaver's header late in the first half to keep Geneva within 1-0 at halftime. The Vikings, playing with two of their starters banged up, had virtually no scoring chances in the first half before playing a better second half.
"A little bit of youth in the first half, I think we were intimidated," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "We were a little on our heels in the first half but I think in the second half we kind of took it to them. It was a great battle. Very proud of how we played."
Geneva freshman Alicia White forced New Trier keeper Katy Symanietz to make a save at the 58-minute mark. With 17 minutes remaining Geneva's Lauren Albrecht fired a free kick from the 15-yard line that sailed wide.
Geneva entered the game having outscored its opponents 57-3, and the Vikings made an impression on the three-time defending state champion Trevians.
"They didn't let up at all," Hoban said. "They were fighting to the end. We had to play our hardest the entire game.
"They were coming at us quick so I knew we had to move the ball and get it on and off our foot. We tried to play quick."
Harkleroad made one last diving save at 66 minutes. Over the final 10 minutes of the game the Vikings kept working but did not get any solid scoring chances.
Owens credited senior captain Leah Groven with organizing the back four and helping the Vikings stay close.
"She did a great job of that tonight," Owens said. "This group has been a nice surprise. I knew we would be good, I didn't know we'd be undefeated at this point of the season. The point is we are improving and getting better. I think we proved a lot tonight. We proved we can hang with one of the top teams in the state, 1-0, and we were fighting hard to equalize in the second half."
Harkleroad said the Vikings can use the loss as a positive.
"It's definitely a great game to learn from," Harkleroad said. "We need to work on receiving the ball out of the air and playing the ball on the ground. Even though we lost we learned some things that we can apply."