Many New Trier girls soccer players wrote 6.3.17 on their wrists during playoff games this spring.
It was the date of the Class 3A state championship game, and was designed to serve as a reminder for where the three-time defending champions wanted to finish their season.
While New Trier played in the state championship game on June 3, their title streak came to an end. The Trevians fell to Barrington in a penalty shootout at North Central College in Naperville.
Officially, the result went down as a 1-0 defeat for New Trier, which lost the shootout 3-0 after the teams played 100 minutes of scoreless soccer during regulation and overtime.
“Before a game we all write on our wrists 6.3.17 and that’s the date of state,” junior forward Nicole Kaspi said on May 26. “A sectional final, which we just won, wasn’t our main goal. Our goal is to go beyond that, it’s to go past the supersectional, past the semi, to get to the final. If you’re running and you see those numbers on your wrist, it’s a reminder to work harder, that you have more in you.”
The penalty spot proved to be the Trevians’ undoing. New Trier took four penalties, one late in the overtime and three in the shootout, missing the goal on three of them, and another one was saved by Barrington junior goalkeeper Samantha Schmitz.
“Obviously it’s difficult,” said New Trier senior fullback Megan Murdoch, who lives in Winnetka. “We are as close to Barrington competitively as we could be. Coming down to PKs is really hard. We played our hearts out, played so well. But to come down to a couple of shots, I think makes it heartbreaking.”
New Trier seemed to be in line for a dramatic victory when senior forward Hannah Arment was felled in the box with 1:40 left in overtime, and Barrington was whistled for a penalty.
But New Trier junior defender Sydney Parker’s subsequent PK hit the post, and Trevians sophomore midfielder Lily Conley steered the rebound just wide.
In the shootout, New Trier senior midfielder Avery Schuldt and senior defender Sam Urban put their shots over the goal. In between those two kicks, freshman forward Emma Weaver had her penalty saved.
Burnside said his team had practiced penalty kicks extensively, and that he had entered the game with a list of designated penalty takers and a set shooting order in case a shootout was required to settle the result.
“If (we) bury them all, then you say, ‘Oh wow, we were great,'” said Burnside, who was coaching in his eighth state title game and 11th state tournament overall.
He added: “One thing I’ve said every time I’ve been (to state): ‘You have to get a little lucky.’ It just didn’t bounce our way tonight. (Barrington) made their luck and they played great. They are well-coached, athletic, a really good team. In the end, it was a battle.”
Burnside repeatedly praised his 2017 team for its grit, and he said the championship game was another example of the Trevians “grinding it out.”
“I know every graduate of New Trier is going to be proud of what happened (in the championship game). The class that our girls played with, the passion they played with. They did the program proud,” Burnside said.
New Trier will lose six senior starters: Urban, Schuldt, Murdoch, goalkeeper Katy Symanietz, midfielder Hope Baisley and Arment. But Parker, Kaspi, Weaver, Conley, junior defender Caroline Iserloth and junior forward Whitney Hoban are scheduled to come back.
Iserloth said the disappointment of 6.3.17 almost certainly will push New Trier’s returning players to work hard in the offseason in order to help get the Trevians back to the top of Illinois high school soccer.
“I think (the loss) is a good motivator and a wake-up call because not everything comes easy,” Iserloth said. “For everybody on this team, if this is their first year, it made them realize that it’s much harder (to win) than everybody says. I think they realize how hard this run was.”
More Top Picks Agility Ladder
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press