North Shore Country Day’s record-breaking season ends in disappointment

RIVER GROVE — The North Shore Country Day boys soccer team’s season reached a bitter end against Northridge as the Knights celebrated their 4-3 victory in a penalty shootout in the Class 1A Guerin Regional title game.

The final moments in a record-breaking season were a significant letdown for the Raiders, but there were plenty of silver linings — both against Northridge and during the season.

“It’s a disappointing loss,” North Shore sophomore midfielder Andrew Conlon said. “I’m sure everyone on the team is disappointed. Quite frankly, I’m a little pissed myself. But we had a great season — the first-ever conference champs for the school. You’ve got to keep that in perspective.”

In addition to winning the Independent School League for the first time in program history, the Raiders also won 13 games, which is a program record, according to North Shore coach Kyle Jones.

Against Northridge on Oct. 17, North Shore (13-4-3) fought through adversity and nearly overcame it. The Knights tied the game 1-1 with 26:37 left in the second half, and then North Shore junior Maurits Hondmann was given a red card for dissent a little less than three minutes later.

It was a decision Hondmann and Jones disagreed with. Afterward, Jones said Hondmann looked him in the eye and told him he didn’t swear at the referee. The referee had his back turned to Hondmann at the time as North Shore’s fans were screaming in protest of a call. North Shore played shorthanded for the rest of the match. The Knights had all of the momentum immediately after that.

The Raiders kept fighting, however. They didn’t tire, even though Jones didn’t use any subs against the Knights, and North Shore created scoring opportunities that could have won the match.

They didn’t convert those chances, though, and the regional final went to a penalty shootout. North Shore gathered around Jones at the end of the second 10-minute overtime period.

“Going into the penalties, I said, ‘No matter what happens from here on out, I couldn’t be prouder of you,’ ” Jones said. “To go down to 10 men for [44] minutes against a good side and, for me, to create the better chances and have the better of the game, that’s no easy thing to do.”

The loss to Northridge was the final game in the high school careers of senior goalkeeper Alex Karmin, senior center back Cameron Macpherson and senior forward Gordie Rohrbach.

North Shore will have to replace those three players, but with nine of 11 players that started against Northridge slated to return — including the talented offensive duo of freshman forward Braden Adamson-Tate and junior attacking midfielder Ben Potter — Conlon and Jones hope the loss to Northridge helps the Raiders develop into a stronger team next season.

“Hopefully this will be fuel for the fire for the boys who are returning to just go a little further,” Jones said.