With Loyola Academy being around the bend from New Trier’s Northfield campus and instances where students from the same family attend either school, it wasn’t a surprise that the PepsiCo Showdown title game on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology was an emotional one.

The Trevians walked away with a 1-0 win over the Ramblers on Sunday, April 24, thanks to a Sydney Parker goal with 11 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the match and consequently won their third consecutive PepsiCo Showdown title. The team defeated Plainfield North last year and Buffalo Grove the year before. Loyola has also won the title of this tournament three times, the last in 2012.

“There’s nothing better than scoring a game-winning goal,” Parker said.

New Trier (12-1-1) came into Sunday’s game having already played three games this week, including Saturday’s 3-0 win over St. Viator in a pool play game of the Naperville Invitational.

“Mentally these kids are really tough and they go out and battle and play,” New Trier coach James Burnside said. “They all prepare for [a grueling schedule]. Seventeen of them have already been through this, and they came into the season in peak condition, and now they’re trying to battle through and maintain.”

The two teams showed why they are two of the top teams in the state with each team’s defense thwarting away chances its opponent would create and goalies Dani Kaufman of New Trier and Maggie Avery of Loyola keeping their opponent off the scoreboard.

New Trier had control for a good portion of the first half of the first 40 minutes, putting three shots on Avery and not allowing a Loyola shot until the 24th minute of the match. Avery had four of her seven saves in the first half.

Once Loyola (13-2-2) got into its rhythm, it was able to put more pressure on Kaufman, including a corner kick in the closing minutes of the first half that the Bucknell-bound goalie punched away before a Rambler could muster it towards the goal.

New Trier played another game without senior Kelly Maday, who has been out with an ankle injury since the squad’s game against Evanston on April 14. Burnside hopes to have Maday back in a week or so.

“You’re losing a great player and that makes it tough,’’ Burnside said. “But at the same time, it ends up being a situation where other people step up, Flower up top, Natalie, Avery. Everybody comes together and rallies.”

Every time New Trier made a run towards the goal to attempt to score, Loyola would counter with a run of its own. That is until about 12 minutes remaining in the match.

Despite not converting on two consecutive corner kicks with around 12 minutes to go, the Trevians broke the tie on Parker’s goal off of an assist from Avery Schuldt.

“The last three times we’ve played them, the winning goal has always been off a set piece,” Loyola coach Craig Snower said. “We need to know ourselves and know the situation better because we lost our defensive discipline, which led to us being out of position, which led to the goal.”

“Parker’s a dangerous person and they make you pay,” Snower added. “They ran us off the field for the most of the second half.”

“The corner didn’t work and the ball came out. I knew I wanted to put a head on it and it was a perfect pass,” Parker said. “Set pieces, especially close to the goal, you want to put it in. I knew when I had it, I had to put it in. That was my first instinct.”

With time winding down within 10 seconds, Loyola had one last effort to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Kaufman made a diving save and was able to get rid of the ball without allowing the chance for a rebound.

“Our defense is getting there,” Burnside said. “They’re really starting to jell and know what each other’s doing and that’s a key. It gives your offense a lot of confidence.”

The two teams are also in the Naperville Invitational, a tournament that also features some of the top teams in the state. New Trier won its pool and will start its trek towards the title in the championship bracket, while Loyola was upset by St. Charles East and faces Benet in its first match of the consolation bracket.

While the teams won’t play in that tournament, the two have faced off for the sectional crown in the IHSA playoffs every year since the 2008-09 school year and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see them do it again in five weeks.

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