St. Charles North, Barrington halted by weather

There were two decidedly different sets of fireworks at Barrington on Tuesday night.

In a Class 3A girls soccer supersectional, St. Charles North had the lead for all of eight seconds when Sophia Pohl knocked home a low runner from roughly 20 yards away.

But the defending state runner-up North Stars could not celebrate their score for long.

Barrington forged the equalizer moments later as Jenna Szcszesny, some 40 yards from the St. Charles North goal, fired a perfect shot.

The North Stars’ keeper had come out to cut down the angle on the improbably long shot.

But it was to no avail as Barrington tied the game at 1-1 with 22 minutes and 19 seconds remaining in the opening half.

Less than two minutes later, however, Barrington High School, which has a state-of-the-art weather warning system, detected lightening in the area.

The initial delay appeared to be short-lived as the all-clear signal was given.

It proved to be a false alarm as the weather bells sounded once again as the patrons returned the stadium.

Officials waited some 50 minutes before postponing the state quarterfinal match.

It will resume at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Barrington with the teams deadlocked at 1-1. There are still 60-plus minutes of regulation to be conducted.

“It kind of happened really fast,” Pohl said of her drive that found the extreme corner of the Fillies’ right-hand net. “I wasn’t expecting it (to go in). I had two girls on me.”

But Barrington took less than 10 seconds to tie the match once again as Szcszesny made the Fillies’ first shot of the contest find its desired location.

“We weren’t focused right away,” Pohl said of the North Stars’ defensive lapse. “I’m totally confident we’ll get another (goal when the match is continued).”

St. Charles North had the first 4 shots of the match.

Kelly Manski fired a blast from 25 yards out for St. Charles North 12-plus minutes into the match, only to have the Barrington keeper make a sparkling punch save.