No championship plaque was awarded again this year.
There wasn’t even time for a team selfie celebrating Evanston’s dominance of the girls soccer competition in the Central Suburban League for the third year in a row.
Players and coaches exited quickly and the game between the Wildkits and Niles North was halted with 20 minutes left on the clock after lightning was seen in the distance in Skokie. That anti-climactic and abrupt ending to a 4-0 Evanston triumph wasn’t as fulfilling as it might have been Tuesday night.
The crossover “championship” meeting between the first place teams in the CSL North and South divisions has never been recognized as an official championship by officials at the competing schools and no trophy is awarded under that setup in girls soccer, boys soccer, girls basketball or boys basketball, even though crossover games at the end of those seasons are mandatory.
Urged by head coach Stacy Salgado to not miss any opportunity to play for any kind of championship, the Wildkits won the season-ending CSL game for the third year in a row. They defeated Deerfield in both 2023 (5-0) and 2022 (3-1) and dominated Niles North Tuesday behind a pair of goals from senior Jocelyn Leigh and freshman Alexandra Merriam.
Finale on Friday
Now 16-2-1 on the season, the Wildkits bounced back from last Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Stevenson. They’ll play their regular season finale at Nequa Valley on Friday.
Niles North, the North division champ, only put a single shot on goal and slipped to 11-8-3 on the year.
Asked to compare winning the South division – recognized as one of the strongest girls soccer leagues in Illinois every year – and winning the crossover matchup at the end, Salgado wasn’t about to create a controversy on her own.
“Maybe some day that’s something I’d want to challenge, that there would at least be a trophy for the winner,” said the ETHS coach. “But it is what It is. It’s always fun to see teams from the other side, and we haven’t seen Niles North in a while.
“It’s nice to have little victories throughout the season like we’ve had this year,” she said, referring championships of the Malnati’s Deep Dish Classic and two wins at a tournament in Iowa. “It’s always great to win our side [South division] and winning this game is great, too. They’re both important – for different reasons. It’s a pride thing when you’re matched up, the best against the best, and it’s fun for everyone. We take a lot of pride in winning our division for the third year in a row, because it’s not easy to do.”
Evanston earned the top spot in the CSL South despite losing to New Trier in that head-to-head meeting. But based on the soccer point system, the Kits came out on top because New Trier had fewer wins and three ties.
Evanston’s new starting goalie, sophomore Kanako Wagner, made only one mistake Tuesday against the Vikings – and it led, ironically, to the first goal of the game for the Wildkits.
The score was tied at 0-0 when Wagner went out to make a play on a ball in a scenario where no one from North was within 10 yards of her. But the sophomore who is still in her first week as a starter, replacing the injured Shea Lucas, impulsively picked up the ball outside of the box, which is an infraction that results in a free kick.
North’s Leah Jackson lined a shot at Wagner on the subsequent free kick. But Wagner stopped the shot, and before you could blink your eyes, Leigh raced to the other end on a counter-attack and scored in the 20th minute.
Three minutes later, Merriam drilled a left-footed shot past Vikings goalie Ashley Mancera to make it 2-0.
Evanston tacked on another goal early in the second half when midfielder Maddy Varela delivered a perfect lead pass down the left sideline to Leigh. She finished off the play with another goal after a 30-yard scoring run to boost the margin to 3-0.
Merriam’s second goal came on a free kick in the 50th minute for the champs.
“It took us a while to get one in the back of the net,” Salgado acknowledged. “Once we found it, that’s when the floodgates opened. It was nice to see us finish our shots tonight, because we didn’t do that against Stevenson.”
Editor’s note: This story has updated to correct the name of the player who stopped a free kick.