After Cristiano Hamer scored a goal to put Evanston up 1-0 in the first three minutes of Saturday’s regional finals against Maine South, the Kits never looked back.
In a late morning game in Park Ridge, Evanston (16-2-3) received contributions from five different goal scorers en route to a 5-3 win over the Redhawks (12-8-3). Goals by Hamer, juniors Joseph Sargent, Johnny Hunwick and seniors Pascal Calonges and Ben Roman provided a steady source of offense for an Evanston team that only managed to put up two goals in Tuesday night’s 2-0 regional semifinal win over Maine East.
“We played with a lot more energy this time around. And having five different goal scorers is great,” Evanston head coach Franz Calixte said. “To anyone scouting us, what do you tell your team? We have to stop this guy? How about this guy? No. It’s great, because we have multiple scorers and guys that are playing well for each other.”
Evanston started fast as Hamer found the back of the net off of a cross from senior Joseph Sargent just three minutes into the game.
“That first goal got rid of a lot of butterflies,” said Calixte. “When you’re in the playoffs, and the score is tied, it gets more stressful and tougher and tougher. So that [first] goal was important.”
The Kits continued to dominate the time of possession but failed to convert on multiple chances. Maine South helped the ‘Kits out as Calonges and a Redhawk defender simultaneously struck the ball, which found the back of the net, putting Evanston up 2-0 with 23 minutes left in the half. Maine South began to possess the ball more and more as the first half winded down, but the Redhawks didn’t convert on any chances, leaving the Kits up by two at the break.
“We just came out with energy and locked in. The more chances we got, the more goals we scored. It just fed into our energy,” said Sargent.
After Maine South’s Will Smucker scored off a redirect from the crossbar to put the Hawks on the board, Evanston’s offensive explosion began.
Seven minutes into the second half, Roman blasted a 20-yard free kick into the upper left corner of the net, to extend the Kits’ lead to 3-1.
Six minutes later, Sargent blasted a shot at the keeper on a breakaway and followed up the deflection with a perfectly placed header to give the Kits a comfortable 4-1 lead. He promptly ran over to the Redhawk student section and put his hand up to his ear, antagonizing the Maine South student section.
“They were chirping us … We shut them up and got to celebrate for it,” said Sargent, laughing.
Hunwick finished off the Evanston scoring with a penalty kick that was drilled into the bottom left corner of the goal. The Redhawks ended up scoring two more goals, including one with nine seconds remaining, but the Kits secured the 5-3 win without too much stress.
With the victory, the Kits advanced to the sectional semifinals against New Trier at Lazier Field on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m.. In their only meeting this season, the Trevians knocked off Evanston 3-2 on Sept. 21 in front of a raucous crowd.
Calixte is ready for the rematch.
“When we watched the tape over from the [New Trier] game, we gave away a couple of opportunities. They scored in a span of thirty seconds but after that, we had more possession and opportunities than they did,” Calixte stated. “We had a lot of things in our favor.
“We have to eliminate those soft goals, and I think the result will be in our favor.”
