By placing a couple of teams in the final four at the Class 3A Illinois High School Association state finals last year – champion New Trier and fourth place finisher Glenbrook North – the Central Suburban League proved beyond a doubt that the best soccer in the state is played on the North Shore.
This year? It might even be better.
That’s the daunting challenge that lies ahead for another powerhouse Evanston team, which delivered a statement victory Tuesday night in the Central Suburban League South division opener with a 4-0 blanking of Maine South at Lazier Field.
The Wildkits put up another clean sheet and scored their eighth win in a row, moving to 8-0-1 on the season overall. Senior Joseph Sargent banged in a pair of goals, and Cristiano Hamer and Johnny O’Carroll added one apiece as the Kits upped their level of play and scored their sixth straight shutout.
Whoever wins the CSL South in 2024 will really have to survive a gauntlet of tough competition. The website chicagolandsoccer.org has five teams from the CSL South – just that division, not even the entire conference – ranked in the top 15 in the Chicago area in this week’s poll, and that’s not likely to change even if the division’s schools take turns beating up on each other for the rest of the regular season.
Deerfield, which hosts the Wildkits on Thursday night at 7 p.m., is the only CSL South team not mentioned in that poll.
“I’ve seen the improvement of all the different teams, and if we get too comfortable, we’ll slip on our backs,” said Sargent, who scored in the 10th and 49th minutes Tuesday night. “It’ll be tough to win the conference. We have to dig deep and just keep going in every game we play.
“This was definitely our toughest game so far. All the games will be hard in the conference. It will get tougher and tougher down the line.”
“It’s an immense challenge for us. It’s extremely important to me to win the conference because this is my last year,” said Hamer, a senior. “I’m really proud to play for ETHS and it would really be a blessing to win it. We know we’re the best team.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-18 12:05:00
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