New Trier freshman Annie Fowler is not like most goalkeepers.
Take penalty-kick shootouts, for example. They are the bane of many goalies.
“Personally, I love PKs,” Fowler said. “I really love them.”
She’s also really good at them, as she demonstrated Saturday during the Class 3A state championship game at North Central College in Naperville.
After making 11 saves during 100 minutes of regulation and two overtimes, Fowler stopped two of the last three PK shooters to help the Trevians edge St. Charles North 4-3.
It was New Trier’s seventh state championship under coach Jim Burnside, who broke the state record for career wins in a 1-0 supersectional victory over Lyons and has a 611-93-51 record.
Burnside has never had a freshman goalkeeper like Fowler.
“She has the poise,” Burnside said. “She has the attitude. She’s special that way.”
The Trevians (25-2-4) won the shootout 5-4 in six rounds. The first three shooters for each team made their kicks, with Sybil Evans, Charlotte Dellin and Josie Noble connecting for New Trier, while St. Charles North (18-3-5) got tallies from Laney Stark, Kyra Treanor and Juliana Park.
New Trier’s Addy Randall, who scored twice in regulation, then sent her shot off the crossbar. But Fowler responded by stopping Kayla Floyd without even leaving her feet. After New Trier’s Honor Dold and St. Charles North’s Kaitlin Glenn converted in the fifth round, the shootout was tied at 4-4, necessitating sudden death.
Eleni Kanellos made her kick to give the Trevians a 5-4 lead. Fowler then dove to her left to stop Chloe Kirsten to clinch the title, although Fowler didn’t realize it until all of her teammates started sprinting toward her.
“I didn’t know it was one (round),” Fowler said. “I thought we had to go through all five again, so I was a little caught off guard. I was like, ‘Whoa,’ and the adrenaline started pumping and we got the result we wanted.”
Fowler’s performance came as little surprise to her teammates, who have seen it time and again, just not in front of so many spectators.
“We call her our little monkey,” New Trier’s Clara Deliduka said. “She’s just constantly insane just from her energy. When we’re practicing PKs, she’s saving all of them. You get up there and you’re like, ‘I don’t want Annie to practice against me because I know she’s going to save it.’”
How does Fowler do it?
“She just loves predicting, and I think (a shootout) is a great 1v1 situation for her,” Deliduka said. “She’s awesome with the 1v1s.”
That’s not the only thing that makes Fowler stand out. She’s poised beyond her years, as she showed near the end of regulation after a controversial call went against her. The Trevians were clinging to a 2-1 lead when Fowler was called for carrying the ball.
The North Stars were awarded a rare indirect free kick in the penalty area just 10 yards in front of New Trier’s net. With all 11 New Trier players lined up on the goal line, Floyd tapped the ball to Stark, who ripped a shot under the crossbar for her second goal of the game with 1:06 remaining.
The call mystified many in attendance.
“I had never seen it either,” Fowler said. “They allowed it the last game. It was crazy. It was surprising, and it maybe brought down my spirits a little bit, but I have the best teammates in the world.
“They brought me up, and though maybe it wasn’t the call we were looking for, my team was just excited we got to spend 20 more minutes with each other. That’s how we kind of thought about it.”
Burnside declined to comment about the call but did praise Fowler’s maturity.
“She is a person who puts the last play behind her, and that is the greatest strength for a goalkeeper,” Burnside said. “That’s what she does.”
Fowler did so even after Glenn scored a great goal to give the North Stars a 3-2 lead with 7:14 left in the first 10-minute overtime period. The Fairfield-bound Dellin tied it at the 2:56 mark when she headed home a corner kick from Annie Paden.
Park could have won the game for St. Charles North at the end of the second OT, but Fowler made a tremendous leaping save to tip a 22-yard rocket over the crossbar at the buzzer.
“Being a freshman, I didn’t want to let my seniors down,” Fowler said. “I kind of owed it to my team, and having such great defenders and forwards, they were able to carry me through that overtime.”
Fowler saw the shootout as a chance for redemption and wasn’t worried even after Randall’s missed shot.
“My team had been playing for 100 minutes,” Fowler said. “I made a huge mistake. That happens. I was not going down without a fight.
“I knew after that miss happened, it was just like, ‘If you have my back, I have yours.’”
That has endeared Fowler to her teammates, and not only the defenders like Deliduka, Dold, Basie Shannon and Kennedy Colegrove, who helped New Trier record 26 shutouts and allow just eight goals this season.
“She’s the best goalie I know,” Randall said. “She’s tough as nails, and she goes for every ball. She has an insane amount of composure and discipline, and she works so hard. Everything she’s got, she’s deserved.”
Fowler’s coolness in the heat of the championship match will only raise the level of esteem she receives.
“We recognize that underclassmen, we definitely have more nerves because we don’t have experience, but with Annie Fowler, it’s really the complete opposite,” Randall said. “She’s really composed and mature about stuff like that.”
The Trevians stay composed throughout a season that ended with a 19-game unbeaten streak, including wins in their final 10 matches. As good as players like Fowler were individually, no one took all of the credit for that success.
“I’ve played with a lot of great people, especially this group,” Fowler said. “These defenders, I would trust them with my life. I think I owe (stats) more to them than me. I rarely got any action this season because they are a brick wall.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
