Girls soccer: St. Charles North blanks Glenbard West

When it comes to the St. Charles North girls soccer team, pick your poison.

Offensively, the North Stars are quick, handle the ball like a sports car and can seemingly score at will. Defensively, their back line is stingier than Ebenezer Scrooge.

Glenbard West found that out Friday in the Class 3A Conant regional championship, where the North Stars cruised to a 3-0 victory by outshooting the Hilltoppers 20-3. It was the 14th straight regional title for the North Stars, who will play Bartlett in the sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Streamwood.

"We knew we were going to be in for a tough game, and any time you play a team of St. Charles' caliber, they won't make it easy," said Hilltoppers coach Maciej Kusmierz.

And how. You want offense? West dropped back 8 players in the opening stages to try to stem North's offensive pressure, but that didn't matter. Lauren Neslund scored on a header on a corner kick from Hailey Rydberg in the 10th minute.

Following a 31st minute penalty kick from Lauren Muzzalupo, Rydberg herself struck 4 minutes later, racing down the left side, cutting back inside and then depositing a laser beam into the right corner of the net.

But if it's defense you want, consider: The back line of Neslund, Lauren Willis, Claire Barressi and Alison Wessel held the Hilltoppers to just 1 shot on goal. That also meant a relatively boring evening for goalkeeper Sami Sample.

"I thought our defense really started from the forwards, and that was really good today because we put a lot of pressure up top," Sample said. "Everyone held their own within the whole field."

Brian Harks is in his first year as head coach of the North Stars, taking over for longtime coach Ruth Vostal, and has his team on a serious roll so far in the playoffs, outscoring their opponents 11-0 in both regional games.

"The back line through mids, all the way up to the forwards, are all doing a good job finding the back of the net," said Harks, whose team improved to 18-3-1. "Actually, two of our goals have come from our backs so far in the tournament, so that's nice."

North could have had more in the second half. In the 55th minute, Rydberg took a pass down the middle and fired a shot that bounced off the right crossbar and was corralled by West keeper Bailey Wallace. Two minutes later, she fired a shot that bounced loudly off the football crossbar.

"Our goal is always to come out strong, play 80 minutes together," Rydberg said, "and I mean, it's the playoffs, so you can never be too comfortable, so yeah, our goal is to score as many as we can."

Kusmierz saw his squad end its season 10-9-1, but got 8 saves from Wallace and another 4 from Lauren Glavin.