Girls Soccer: Offensive-minded New Trier topples Glenbrook North

Updated: April 7, 2012 7:16PM

A year ago New Trier was a defensively gifted team that needed everything to go just right to score.

What a difference a year makes. Demonstrating its diversified and lethal scoring attack, the No. 5 Trevians scored twice in the opening 11 minutes and maintained its defensive prowess in knocking out Glenbrook North 4-0 Saturday in Northfield.

“Soccer is so much more fun when you’re scoring goals,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “I’d have to go back and look, but I think we’ve created more scoring opportunities in our first seven games than we did all last year.”

The catalyst is junior forward Jess Weaver, a transfer from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Weaver split two defenders and smashed a ball against the grain for the Trevians’ second goal at the 11-minute mark.

“We talk about it every game, the five-goal, getting a goal in the first five or ten minutes of the game and really taking control,” Weaver said.

Glenbrook North coach Craig Loch said Weaver’s presence has broadened the Trevians’ attack. “They feature her and run a lot through her, and she has the quickness and the skills to be that holding player,” he said. “They have the player that can really finish in the final third of the field.”

Burnside said his team’s offensive improvement is a collective achievement. “The addition of Weaver has been great, but we didn’t [graduate] any scoring last year. It’s the same group, it’s just that they’re older and better. Jessie Berman is the most improved player on the team.”

A junior forward, Berman scored a goal and recorded two assists. She orchestrated two goals on corner kicks and got New Trier’s offense going in the first two minutes of the game, lofting a perfect corner that sophomore midfielder Emily Miller smashed in for a score.

The Trevians (7-0) had seven corner kicks, and Berman has become a master.

“I spent a lot of time over the summer working on that,” Berman said. “I just have a lot of confidence in my teammates that if I get the ball up there, one of them is going to be able to head it or control it offensively.’’

Up 2-0 at the break, New Trier turned the game into a rout twice in the second half. Berman’s second corner assist set up sophomore defender Tricia Lybrook’s score. Berman punctuated the impressive effort by scoring in the 35th minute of the second half.

The Spartans played without three starters. The most pressing absence was star junior forward Montana Paley, who was out with an undisclosed injury. Loch said her return to the team was imminent. Sophomore Courtney Duncan had the team’s best scoring opportunity, but her shot hit off the near post in the opening half.

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