Palatine can't stop New Trier's momentum
State-ranked New Trier (4-0-0) continued its perfect start to the season by defeating host Palatine 3-1 Saturday afternoon in a nonconference girls soccer match.
The heavily favored Trevians made an aggressive start and the hounded the Pirates' young backline, with Amber Fry the main aggressor. The Virginia-bound all-state striker could be seen in the center of most of the trouble initiated by the visitors in the early stages.
"We're still a very young team, in some spots, and I really believe that some of our younger players may have been in awe of the New Trier name in that first half, because we just didn't do the things that we needed to," said Rachel Houp, the Pirates' leading scorer last season.
"That's kind of been our M.O. in our first three games of the season," said Palatine coach Willie Filian. "We start very slow, fall behind, then grab back the momentum after we score only to find out that many of the players still have something left in their tank. It's still a learning process thus far for us."
Palatine (0-3-0) learned quickly just how dangerous Fry could be when she pried open the Pirates defense on a pair of marvelous carries and runs up the left side, forcing keeper Ally Fernandez to kick away a sure goal off the Trevians' top player. Shortly after, though, Fry set up teammate Lauren Pope at seven minutes for the first goal of the match.
The Trevians spent most of the first half-hour in the Pirates' end, with the senior trio of Pope, Rachel Shellenback and Christy Patterson taking turns sparkling in the middle of the pitch. However, Palatine sophomore defenders Kellie Strauss, MacKenzie Widemann and Taylor Harding and junior Alexis Dejulio bent but did not break under the pressure applied by a senior-dominated New Trier club.
"We can move Amanda (Filian) into the the middle to be more of a defensive-minded disruptive midfielder because of we have a promising group of players in the back right now," said Filian of his daughter, who was an all-area sweeper last year as a sophomore.
Pope made it 2-0 just before intermission when some carelessness in the Pirates' end allowed the Trevians senior to catch Fernandez off her line.
"We needed to get our number up, in order to cause some pressure on (New Trier) in that first half, and we didn't - until midway through the second half, leading up to our goal," Houp said.
Katelyn Mayer and Julie Johlie created the Pirates' best opportunity of the match just after the hour mark as Houp tried but was unable to catch up to a long feed. Just three minutes later, though, Kaitlyn Burke pulld the hosts within a goal on a sensational strike from 30 yards which found the upper right corner.
"You could sense a little panic on the part of New Trier after we scored," said Houp.
Meghan Ellis, brought on in the second half between the sticks for teammate Fernandez, made a brilliant goal-saving stop on a runaway Fry, who'd beaten the last defender to collect a ball over the top.
But the Trevians may have caught a break when the assistant referee on the near touchline ruled that Pope had scored off a corner from Patterson, which rattled around inside the 6-yard box and appeared to be smothered by Ellis before rolling over the end line in the 78th minute.