St. Charles North, Larkin fit to be tied

The way St. Charles North boys soccer coach Erik Wilson described Tuesday’s match against Larkin was “Upstate Eight craziness.”

Neither coach was pleased with how their team played, but each team was able to find the back of the net multiple times. Each team led, but failed to hold that lead very long.

Phillip Legare completed the scoring and the final comeback with a left-footed blast just under the crossbar and just inside the post with 7:09 remaining as the North Stars tied Larkin, 3-3, at Memorial Field.

“We’ve had some pretty interesting battles with Larkin,” Wilson said. “What’s great about this conference is you start to build a nice little rivalry. While that wasn’t the best of soccer, it was certainly fun to watch them battle out there.”

STC North (1-4-1, 0-0-1) started the scoring with 18:12 remaining in the first half. Matt Picinich fought off a defender on the right side and from a tough angle put a shot over Royals goalkeeper Leo Perez and into the far side netting.

Gonzalo Garcia tied the game for the Royals (4-0-1, 1-0-1) less than a minute later when he converted a penalty kick.

Kevin Alas gave Larkin a 2-1 lead with 4:35 left in the first half, running onto a long ball from Freddy Alvarez and slipping a shot past North Stars goalkeeper Billy Larsen. Legare tied the game with 1:40 to go before halftime, tapping in a cross from Chris Watson.

“We had leads and just couldn’t hold them,” Larkin coach Ken Hall said. “We made some very poor decisions on the field today.”

Larkin took the lead with 19:19 when Garcia saw Larsen way off his line. Garcia hit a shot from 45 yards out that went over Larsen and into the net for a 3-2 lead.

Legare’s shot was a “perfect goal,” Hall said. Perez had little chance to make the save.

“I saw a little window and just thought I would take a shot,” said Legare, who also had to give Garcia “props” for his goal. “It ended up there.”