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Sports

New Trier Boys Lacrosse: Big Fourth Quarter Lifts Trevians Into Semifinals

After trailing at halftime, New Trier used its depth to control the second half.

With a 1-0 halftime lead, Lake Forest had New Trier – the six-time defending state champions – on the ropes. The Scouts’ defense shutout New Trier’s high-octane attack and the Trevians had uncharacteristically made a number of unforced turnovers.

But New Trier’s depth and ball control eventually proved to be the difference in the second half as the Trevians maintained possession in the offensive end and wore down Lake Forest’s defense on their way to a 6-2 victory in the IHSLA quarterfinals.

“We came out flat, it was hot and it took a half to get used to,” New Trier midfielder Patrick Callahan said. “But we practice hard all year so once we came out in the second half, kind of talked as a team, kind of recouped and just worked as hard as we could.”

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It was a defensive battle for both teams early on as they adjusted to playing in the hot, muggy weather.

New Trier struggled offensively as the Scouts’ aggressive defense denied a lot of the easy opportunities that New Trier is accustomed to getting. So the Trevians started to be patient, keeping the ball for long possessions.

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But the stellar play of Lake Forest goalie Ethan Ulmer kept New Trier scoreless. At the end of a Trevian possession that lasted for more than two minutes midway through the second quarter, the junior goalie made a great save on New Trier’s Chris Laackman.

With two minutes to go, Ulmer came up big again, stopping Trevian attacker Chad Sawyer on an open opportunity in close.

“They played great defense, their goalie made some saves,” New Trier coach Tom Herrala said. “You could see right there at the end of the first half, we were starting to get some open shots, we wearing them down.”

After a Lake Forest timeout with two minutes remaining in the half, Lake Forest’s Sean Kelleher opened the scoring. The senior attacker took a couple steps to his right, before quickly cutting back left and firing a left-handed shot past New Trier’s Jack Connelly to give Lake Forest a 1-0 advantage.

But New Trier responded quickly coming out of halftime. Mick Parks found Charlie Carothers with a nice pass from behind the net and Carothers beat Ulmer upstairs to tie the game with 10:30 to go in the third quarter. Less than two minutes later it was Carothers again, this time with a lefty bounce shot from the perimeter.

“Some of that comes back from our depth,” New Trier coach Tom Herrala said. “We started to open it up at the end of the second quarter and as the third quarter wore on we started getting some shots and putting them in the back of the cage.”

Lake Forest tied the game at 2-2 with a man-advantage later that period, but New Trier was too much for Lake Forest in the fourth quarter. The Trevians scored three goals in the first five minutes to put the game away. Callahan gave New Trier the lead for good when he beat his defender to the left and placed a lefty shot into the lower-right corner of the cage.

“We really held them to only five goals during the game and again New Trier is going to score goals,” Lake Forest coach Dan Maigler said. “Holding them to six goals is an excellent defensive performance.”

New Trier controlled a vast majority of groundballs in the second half. The Trevians also won seven of eight draws in the second half, not allowing Lake Forest to get into their offense.

Carothers led New Trier with two goals while Parks, Callahan, Jack O’Malley and Rory McGinnis also scored in the second half.

The Trevians move on to play Lyons Township at home on Thursday in the semifinals.

“We’ve had a couple games like this and it’s definitely a different kind of pace,” Callahan said. “We’re more of a high-scoring team, but playing in these slow games our offense still works well because we’re good at possessing. It’s nice to know that we can do that.”

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