By Steve Reaven, Special to the Tribune

Charlie Tilson’s athletic future may eventually lie on the baseball diamond, but his presence as a big-play wide receiver already paid dividends for the New Trier football team this fall.
 
Friday night’s 10-7 road upset of over then-No. 14 Warren didn’t feature much in the vertical passing department, but the senior still came up big in the clutch of the Trevians’ Friday night’s 10-7 road upset of then-No. 14 Warren.
 
Tilson’s final of his eight receptions on the night got the Trevians down to the Blue Devils’ 1-yard line, paving the way for Jack Nykaza’s game-winning touchdown plunge two plays later with 21.7 seconds remaining.
 
“That was a huge win for our program, and it’s a confidence builder,” said Tilson, a center fielder who has committed to play baseball at Illinois. “We showed a lot of heart winning in the last seconds like that.”
 
Despite being one of the area’s top baseball prospects, Tilson has been in the New Trier football program since he was a freshman. He can already sense a different chemistry on this season’s squad, something he credits new head coach Dan Starkey for helping to instill.
 
“I think we’re a little more mentally tough this year,” Tilson said. “That was a game we maybe would have lost in the past.”
 
As one of the team’s senior leaders, Tilson is now charged with helping to turn the Trevians’ attention to Friday night’s home opener against vs. St. Patrick. A win in that contest would give New Trier its first 2-0 start to a season since 1996.
 
“Before the Warren game, I told our team that they deserved to win,” Starkey said. “We worked as hard as anyone during the summer. The challenge for us now is to answer the bell with that type of intensity every week.”