The New Trier boys won the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association championship against Lyons Township 11-4, but the real story is about the growth of Illinois lacrosse. The rise of Lyons, a new program with only 5-6 years of experience, to the Championship game is itself symbolic of this growth. The title game is normally played at one of the North schools, but this year, it was played in the western suburbs in partial deference to the many players in the new Illinois high school programs in the west and south of Chicago. This year it was held on Friday, June 5. That same Friday, the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial on the increasing popularity of lacrosse in the Chicago area and ended with a note encouraging its readers to attend the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association championship game that night. Many readers heeded the words and drove to the western suburbs for the title game, to the point where the parking lots at Wheaton Warrenville South High School were completely filled.
It was battle of North versus South. The New Trier Trevians, an established program from the northern suburbs, had been to the finals many times before, but were usually skunked by Loyola Academy. New Trier had placed second in Illinois 6 times in the last 16 years, and had won the title in 1995 and 1998. Their opponents this year, the Lyons Township Lions, had a fast-rising program that made it to the finals in only 5-6 years of play. Lyons had squeaked by Lake Forest HS 8-7 in the quarterfinals and then pummeled Barrington 11-4 in the semifinals to get to Friday's game.
THE GAME
Both teams featured excellent goaltenders, strong and physical defenders, and fast players on the attack. New Trier exhibited its maturity as an established program with a patient offense running mostly out of 2-3-1 and looking for the right match-ups too late for any useful slides by Lyons. Lyons had the edge in the cage with All-American Brent Nolan, a senior, who is not shy about clearing the ball well past the midfield by himself, when necessary. Despite 12 saves, Nolan was not himself tonight as he made four uncharacteristic turnovers. New Trier had their own All-American, Matt Kelly, a senior defender, who will play at Virginia next year for Dom Starsia. Kelly and his close defense teammates Bobby Higgins, Phil Dodson and Mike Geocaris prevented Lyons from coming close for most of the night. This forced Lyons to stay outside and then rely upon a single player, senior attackman Eddie Barrett, who had all of Lyons four goals. Junior feeder Jake Padilla, did not play, having undergone an appendectomy two days before. His presence might have made a difference.
Both teams traded possession for most of the first quarter until 3:52, when New Trier's Andy Jaffe, a senior attackman, put in the first of his three goals. Jaffe scored again on a transition turnover at 2:13 to put the Trevians up 2-0. Lyons, who had played patiently in the first quarter, began forcing shots and plays and uncharacteristically turned the ball over 9 times in the first half exceeding their shots on goal. New Trier led at the quarter 2-0. They also controlled the ball in the second quarter and at 10:58, junior middie Mike Crown crossed from right to left about 8 yards out and as he came in line with the left pipe, turned and fired back over Nolan's right shoulder to make it 3-0. Junior attacker David Atkins took the ball frm 20 yards out and drove the left side at 7:06 and beat Nolan with a strong overhand shot, 4-0. Middie Chris Chandler brought the ball behind the cage at 4:14 and worked a right side curl, coming toward the right pipe, popping back out, curling again and out and in juking two Lions defenders until he had the drop on Nolan, firing back to the right corner. 5-0.
To their credit, Lyons would not go quietly. Senior attacker Eddie Barrett scored twice at the 325 and 3:08 marks, first finding Trevian freshman goalie Chris Williamson out of the crease after a midfield steal using a laser shot into the net, and secondly coming from up top right, catching the inside of the left pipe to make it 5-2 at halftime. New Trier pounced on Nolan again in alregly defensive third quarter. Max Polan scored the only two goals of the quarter at 9:15 and 5:13 to put the Trevians up 7-2 at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Polan had intercepted a pass at the end of the quarter, plunked it in the net, but two officials who were on top the goal line indicated the ball crossed the plane after time had expired, giving Lyons a break.
The fourth quarter scoring was started by Jaffe, getting his third of the game at 9:43 with a neat curl around the right pipe and catching the right lower corner on Nolan's strong side. 8-2. At 8:37 Jaffe dished off to Chandler who netted his second goal. Chandler was trailing Jaffe on the right side. Jaffe stopped and faked a shot, while Chandler ran to the top center. Jaffe hit him in stride and Chandler used a right overhand to beat Nolan.. 9-2. Two minutes later, Jaffe again fed, this time it was to sophomore Cory Norris. 10-2. New Trier's last goal was rung up by junior attackman Ellis LeMay, who moved to the right from top center and used a laser to sneak the ball between Nolan and the pipe. Barrett for Lyons was fed by Bobby Ridlen at 0:52 and then again by Tom Mulhern with just 0:04 to play. Both teams were heavily laden with seniors, Lyons having 13 and New Trier having 16 so next year will be a challenge to both their coaches to return to the title game.
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