Girls soccer: New Trier denies Naperville Central 1st state title, undefeated season

Fighting for its dream season’s life with time running out in the Class 3A girls soccer state championship game, Naperville Central saw its push finally pay off when Emerson Burke found Malia Shen for the game-tying goal with 11:51 left to play.

But just a little more than two minutes later, Brooke Zabel scored to give the lead right back to New Trier.

The Trevians (27-1-1) would hold on and deny a flurry of shots in the final minutes and win their eighth state title while ending Naperville Central’s bid for their first.

Naperville Central finishes 22-1-1.

“Soccer like many sports is a game of bounces and you know there were a couple of times where we just missed,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “We hit the post in the first half and had a couple of shots that sailed just wide, but at the end of the day the girls played as hard as they could and they played together as a team.

“You could see the joy or the sadness they had because they care about each other. They care about the team. I told them at the end I’m sad we don’t get to go back together as a team. That’s the part that’s depressing. Second place is obviously not what we wanted, but at the end of the day it was all those days we were together practicing and playing that made the journey worth it. I’ve coached a lot of teams, this one was a special group of kids.”

The Redhawks, who were making their fourth state appearance this weekend but first since 1995, have added another second-place trophy to accompany the two they won under coach Ed Watson in 1994 and 1995.

But this one stings. Being so close with such a special group.

“I think it goes back to a lot of them having played together for a long time and having shared experiences,” Adams said. “But I think even just this year the way that they included each other, because we’ve got freshmen to seniors, and kids that didn’t know each other at the start have become great friends. And at the end, and that’s really what you want to see, and to be better soccer players. You want to create lifelong memories, and I think this group definitely has done that.”

Seeing a scramble in the crease, Zabel said she was just trying to make something happen after the Redhawks had momentarily seized momentum with the equalizer.

“I just tried to get a body on it,” she said. “We practice that so much, pretty much every practice we work on it, so it was good to work on it in real life. I think it just shows how much grit our team has, how much we love each other and how nothing can really set us back.”