Good start for St. Charles North at Conant in Harks' debut
Gia Wahlberg was on the mark early on, and the sophomore striker from St. Charles North gave her club the only goal it needed to help defeat host Conant 1-0 in girls soccer Thursday night in Hoffman Estates at Charles Feutz Field.
The North Stars' season-opening victory avenged a 2-1 sectional final loss to the Cougars last May which not only ended the 2015 campaign but also the career of long-time coach Ruth Vostal. She stepped down following the school year after 15 terrific seasons, turning things over to long-time assistant Brian Harks, who enjoyed success in his first match in charge.
"After training against each other for a couple of weeks, it felt good to finally get out there and compete against someone other than ourselves - and to get a win on our first time out feels very good as well," said Harks.
The visitors started crisply and when Hailey Rydberg put Wahlberg through in the early going, the sophomore wasted little time finding the back of the net for the lone goal of the night.
"Hailey gave me a great ball, and sometime that's all it takes," said Wahlberg, who along with Morgan Rerko and Rydberg posed problems for the Cougars (1-1-0).
"Nos. 2 (Rydberg) and 15 (Wahlberg) were a load up top for us in that first 30 minutes or so," said Conant coach Jason Franco, "and I don't think we were quite ready for their pace, speed and aggressive play - which led to a start we obviously didn't want to have."
"St. Charles is a very good team, and the way we started tonight wasn't very good," said Conant's Emily Mazurek, who scored 17 goals as a sophomore last season. "But we've got a lot of new and inexperienced players on our roster after losing so many great players who helped us get to the supersectionals last year, so it's going to take us a little time to figure things out."
Mazurek and her teammates were unable to get in on Stars keeper Sami Sample for most of the first period, thanks to North's ability to control the midfield and find the aforementioned attacking trio.
"We finally began to play with about 10 minutes to go before the half, and I thought in the second half we had the better of it so much more than we did in the first 40 minutes," said Franco.
After Jessica Smeltzer and Stephanie Mazurek linked up to find Kaylin Feeley, the sophomore turned and rattled the bar from 22 yards in the 39th minute for the best chance of the half for Conant.
Play opened up after the intermission, leading to a couple of half chances from both sides before the hour mark.
Emily Mazurek forced Sample to save an attempt at 44 minutes, and later Rydberg went over the bar after an enterprising 35-yard run gave the sophomore enough time and space to have a go.
A diagonal ball set Emily Mazurek free on the right side, but her low drive went just wide of the back post in the 73rd minute.
The North Stars' back line, led by seniors Lauren Neslund and Lauren Willis, tightened things up in the final few minutes. But St. Charles North still had to hold its break when Elizabeth Dolce drove her free kick from 20 yards up and over just one minute from time.
"There were a lot of things I liked from our team tonight," said Wahlberg. "We played hard, tough soccer for 80 minutes, and that will be the difference between winning and losing this season."
"This was a very good test for us right from the start, and it won't get any easier when we travel to Loyola this Saturday against another high-quality opponent," Harks said.
"I hope we get the chance to play (St. Charles North) again later in the season, when both of us are better, and probably playing for something very important, just as we did last year in that sectional final," said Emily Mazurek.