St. Charles North dominates DeKalb
Forty-one seconds were all St. Charles North needed to begin its quest for another trip to the Class 3A girls soccer Final Four.
Wednesday afternoon in DeKalb, Kelly Manski cleverly tight-roped the end line after intercepting the past.
Manski fired a flawless feed to senior Kelly Gage, who hammered home the one-timer from point-blank range as the DeKalb keeper had no chance.
The North Stars, the No. 1 seed in the sectional complex, had five different players score in their complete domination of the No. 13 Barbs.
St. Charles North (16-3-1) had 30 shot attempts to the Barbs’ two in easily advancing to the regional championship with the 5-1 victory. The North Stars will play West Chicago, a 3-2 winner Wednesday over Schaumburg, at 11 a.m. Saturday.
DeKalb had its best season in program history close out at 14-2-2.
“Kelly kept running through everyone,” Gage said of the Manski push in the opening half-minute of the match. “She fed me the perfect ball. You couldn’t ask for anything better.”
St. Charles North played virtually the entire half in DeKalb territory, thoroughly controlling play with a host of quality chances, many of which whizzed past the net or DeKalb keeper Maddie Frye gamely defended.
The Barbs’ senior keeper forestalled a potential slaughter-rule match, ultimately stopping half of the North Stars’ 30 shots.
But her commendable efforts went for naught when Alyssa Brandt and Ashlyn Walter collaborated on a picture-perfect give and go 22-plus minutes into the first half.
Brandt fed a streaking Walter from the right side, whose blast Frye partially deflected.
But the ball had enough muster on it to ease into the net, doubling the North Stars’ advantage.
St. Charles North would take a 3-nil lead into halftime when Frye had her only misplay of the match, enabling Rachel Michieli to clean up on a Jorie Clawson shot from 24 yards out.
St. Charles North junior Jenny Barr was a facilitator for the North Stars’ offense, and her companions in the back row — Kenzie Rose, Megan O’Leary and Lawson — were rarely tested by DeKalb.
“It’s fun to have the pressure off of you,” said Barr. “We’re not going into the game thinking that we’re going to win because we were second in state last year.”
The second half approximated the first as the North Stars continued their onslaught.
Brandt rocketed home a free kick for the North Stars’ fourth goal, and Melissa Bonke scored from a near-prone position with slightly less than 14 minutes remaining to conclude the scoring for St. Charles North.
“We have some offensive playmakers who did some nice things today,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said.
DeKalb did not have a shot on goal for almost 70 minutes; Kayla Perkins’ rebound off her own miss with 10:02 to play were the Barbs’ only shots for the match.
“We panicked a little bit getting the ball out of the back,” DeKalb coach Phil Rouse said. “We faced a real strong St. Charles North team. We met a better team.”