Stevenson ties up New Trier in opener

The Stevenson girls soccer team opened the season with its annual matchup against highly regarded New Trier on Wednesday.

In recent years, it seemed New Trier made a habit of earning a narrow victory.

This time, for the first time in three seasons, Stevenson avoided a loss. The Patriots battled to a scoreless tie against the Trevians in Lincolnshire.

It figures to be a building year for Stevenson, which graduated a big batch of talented players and is missing five more key players.

The Patriots are a young group, with 12 players that are either freshmen or sophomores.

“It was great stuff,” said Stevenson coach Mark Schartner of what his youngster produced against New Trier. “This may be our youngest team.

“We just played good team defense, focused on double-teaming when a player needs help and going back for the ball. I didn’t expect much offensively and we had a number of scoring opportunities.”

Patriots keeper Lizzy Sanscrainte made 4 outstanding stops to earn the shutout. She credited the defenders in front of her — including Morgan Meyer, Micaela Miller, Molly Brandt and Anne Geocaris — with the good showing.

“They just played fantastic,” said Sanscrainte, who was an all-area goalkeeper last year. “Defense took away a lot of their through balls. They were either too short or too far for their forwards to get. Our defense was right on with the pressure.

“It made things a lot easier for me,”

Stevenson had some pretty good opportunities of their own in the first half. Olivia Whalen had two chances stopped by New Trier keeper Meredith Stock (4 saves), one on a curling shot and the other on a breakaway. Katie Krejsa and Jenna Weiner also had potential scoring opportunities.

“Stevenson was good, and athletic,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “(Stevenson) pressures you and makes you capitalize on any opportunity you can get.

“(Stevenson) was not going to give one away. (Sanscrainte) played great and made some great saves.”