Nemesis New Trier ends St. Charles' season

The St. Charles East boys lacrosse team fell 11-6 to New Trier in the semifinals of the A-class state tournament on Thursday, sending the five-time defending champion Trevians to the title game for the sixth straight season.

After Chad Ellis' goal gave the Saints an early 1-0 lead, St. Charles (18-3) was forced to play catch-up after New Trier (16-3) answered with 3 consecutive goals.

Billy Rawson netted the second Saints' goal to cut the New Trier lead to 1, but the Trevians again answered with three straight goals to take a 6-2 lead and eventually pull away for the victory.

"It was nice to be able to do that," New Trier coach Tom Herrala said. "They would get a goal and we'd get one, it seemed like, right back in the next minute."

New Trier will advance to play Loyola, a team it beat 9-8 earlier this season, for the state championship on Saturday at 4 p.m.

St. Charles continued to fight, cutting the lead to 3 in a 7-4 contest with two goals from Brian Sullivan in the third quarter.

"Basically I was just trying to stay moving off the ball," Sullivan said. "I'm not necessarily the biggest dodger but I was just trying to keep moving off balls to find that passing lane."

New Trier finished the third quarter strong, scoring a pair of goals to take a 9-4 lead before the buzzer.

St. Charles scored two of the next three goals in the fourth quarter before the Trevians' Mick Parks knocked one in on empty net with 3.5 second remaining to give the New Trier an 11-5 lead.

The Trevians have been a thorn in the side of St. Charles lately, as the Trevians eliminated the Saints from the postseason last year, and beat St. Charles 11-4 earlier this season.

St. Charles coach Andy Thompson said Thursday's game was the toughest he has seen his team play New Trier.

"Obviously they're a great team," he said. "We gave them a great game. They had to work all game no doubt about it."

While the final result wasn't what St. Charles was looking for, Sullivan said it was great to be part of such a memorable season.

"I wouldn't change it for anything," he said. "I would have loved to have beaten them for once, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way."