Girls lacrosse: New Trier stymies Naperville North; Hinsdale Central gets upset win

After a turnover in front of New Trier's net late in Friday's IHSA girls lacrosse semifinal, Naperville North attack Lauren Platou bounced the ball down and shrugged her shoulders.

Yep, it was that kind of night for the Huskies.

Naperville North gave up 7 unanswered goals to start the contest played at Hinsdale Central and never recovered, falling 14-3 to the Trevians, who got 6 goals from junior attack Lucy Murray.

But not to put too fine a point on it, the experience was perhaps more important to the recently graduated Platou than the final score.

"Obviously, it didn't result in a win for us, but I think it was a great experience for our whole team," she said. "It's a new experience. We haven't been able to go this far in the playoffs, so I think it's fun to play a good team and have the environment of the state finals."

That was echoed by her coach, Jessica Hogan.

"We try every year to get a little bit better, so this is a good experience just for the girls to be here, just to see that it is possible to get here, and then every year, we can hopefully build their confidence," she said.

But of course there was the reality of playing Friday's game, and New Trier (20-3) established itself early with 4 goals in the first nine minutes and 7 in the first 15. In fact, with 10:04 to go in the first half, the Trevians had taken 9 shots, and scored on 7 of them.

The Huskies (14-6) finally got on the board with 1:56 to go on a penalty shot goal by senior Cristin Culbertson, but 40 seconds later, that was canceled out by Murray, who came down dead center and beat junior netminder Katie Sciabica.

Platou, who was shadowed all night by New Trier senior defender Sophie McGinnis and had to survive numerous double-teams and the occasional triple-team, finally scored with 39 seconds left in the half on a drive from left to right and a shot into the top shelf.

But by then it was pretty much too late.

"I think the biggest hurdle we had was scoring that first goal," Hogan said. "And once we got that we got more momentum going. But it was a drought there for awhile."

Added Platou: "For any player, it's frustrating when you see a ball hit off a pipe or off the goalie's stick, but for us, it was trying to break the ice of just getting that first goal. Our goal was to close the gap one by one if we could."

The Huskies, outshot 22-20 by New Trier, will face Loyola in the third-place game at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Hinsdale Central 8, Loyola 5:

The Red Devils got 4 goals from sophomore attack Jessica Joy and 2 apiece from senior Lally Johnson and sophomore Jenna Collignon to prevail 8-5 in the first semifinal over Loyola, which suffered its first loss to an Illinois team in a decade.

Quite simply, "it's probably the biggest win in program history," Hinsdale Central coach Dan Hartman said. "It's huge for us. It was an amazing performance."

The keys for the Red Devils (17-5) on Friday?

"We had to stay focused with our energy," Johnson said, "limiting turnovers and being patient and winning the draw and 50-50 balls."