St. Charles North cruises in posteason opener

Whether it's your first or fourth time through the girls soccer playoffs, there is always an opening round match to navigate, and no matter how good you've been in the regular season, there are still some butterflies.

St. Charles North needed 8 minutes to take the lead in Tuesday's Class 3A Geneva regional semifinal with Rolling Meadows, and eventually claimed a 7-0 victory. Along the way, the North Stars got comfortable with the idea of playing postseason soccer.

"It's always good to get the first one," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "You always have those nerves. Now, we're good. We extended our season for a few more days and we focus on the next one."

The win moves the North Stars (17-2-2) into Saturday's noon championship match against the winner of Wednesday's Geneva-Lake Park semifinal.

"It's not as different as I thought it would be with the pressure," St. Charles North freshman Gia Wahlberg said. "You've just got to play it like every other game. It's a playoff game and you want to keep going as far as we can and there's always a little butterflies in any game, really."

Despite the wide score line, the North Stars maintained their game plan of playing team soccer for most of both halves.

"I felt when we stretched them, passed well and kept the ball moving, I was really happy with our transitions and our off the ball movement," Vostal said. "I think we had it figured out who was going to go where so it looked seamless. I think that was great. And we created a lot of different scoring opportunities."

And the goals came from a number of players and from a variety of offensive moves, starting with Hanna Durocher's opening goal that came after Lizzie Parrilli's shot was half-saved. While the North Stars had numerous chances, the lead wasn't doubled until 18 minutes remained before halftime. Durocher scored from close range in a scramble following a corner kick. St. Charles North's third goal came 7 minutes later when Taylor Sypien rode a tackle in the penalty area and fed Madison Kaufmann for a one-time shot.

"With games like these, where we're getting a lot of shots and chances, we have to keep trying to keep working to get as many of those shots and chances so we can keep scoring," Wahlberg said.

Wahlberg struck twice early in the second half to increase the lead to 4-0, then fed Morgan Rerko for the North Stars' fifth goal. Kaufmann fed Raine Roberts for the team's sixth goal and Roberts scored her second goal from a Sypien pass with 4 minutes to play to complete the scoring.

"We've been working a lot on offense to get people to have that fire in the box and to take people on one-on-one," Vostal said. "I was pleased with us being able to beat our first defender, which created other opportunities."

With a comfortable lead in the second half, Vostal played her entire roster and rested her starters for long stretches of the match.

"We have a lot of girls who haven't had that playoff experience before, so to allow everyone to get in was good. And everyone who got in played with great fire and intensity," Vostal said.

Rolling Meadows (4-12-2) had some close defeats this year to strong opposition, including a 2-1 loss to Buffalo Grove and a 2-0 loss to Hersey. But the youthful Mustangs struggled through the match against the North Stars.

"They're a better team, but I thought our girls played hard," Rolling Meadows coach Mikc Drenth said. "Coming in, I knew they were a tough team, but I thought we did a nice job. A couple of the goals were from our girls being a little soft, and that happened through the year. The second half, they got that one that broke our back, but our girls never quit."

With only two seniors on the roster, Rolling Meadows has significant potential for the future.

"You want them to have some success but you also have to get used to the pace of play," Drenth said. "Out of the 18 kids I have on the roster, I have 13 underclassmen. The future looks OK for us. They work hard. It's just getting to that next level of being able to compete with teams like this."