Boys soccer: St. Charles North hangs on, beats St. Charles East for regional title
Saturday's Class 3A boys soccer regional championship match between cross-town rivals St. Charles East and St. Charles North turned into an endurance test by game's end.
Forced to play a man down for the final 13 minutes, 36 seconds after a second yellow card was issued (resulting in an ejection), the top-seeded North Stars (13-2-4) survived a furious late comeback bid from the Saints during their 3-2 victory at St. Charles North.
"At the end of the day, you want the result, you want to move on and you want to have practice on Monday, and that's what we have so we're pretty happy," said North Stars coach Eric Willson, whose team will face 12th-seeded Wheaton North in Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. Conant sectional semifinal.
St. Charles East (9-8-4), which trailed 3-0 early in the second half, began its rally when senior Colin Coine's shot trickled across the goal line to make it 3-1 with 25:28 remaining.
Owning the man advantage, the Saints trimmed the deficit to 3-2 on Coine's penalty kick with 7:50 left.
A minute later, keeper Piercarlo Ricossa arguably made the biggest of his 7 saves - a diving stop of Saints forward George Maridis' 24-yard free kick - and the North Stars relied on some recent history to preserve and capture their second consecutive regional title.
"I certainly didn't agree with the second yellow (card)," said Willson. "When you go down a man, it changes the complexion of the game and it changes what we need to do.
"Fortunately for us, that happened to us against Geneva (1-1 tie). We played 22 minutes down a man so we were familiar with what we wanted to do."
Senior defender Peter Willis credited his team's midfielders for their communication and determination during the hectic final minutes.
"It was really scary," said Willis. "The midfielders worked very hard this game. Joey Sommer stepped up and Parker Kolb demanded a lot out of his midfield. Everyone had to step up."
Playing against a stiff south wind, Willis gave the North Stars a 1-0 lead as he raced in for a header off Matt Beaulieu's corner kick a little less than 2 minutes into the contest.
"I told the team multiple times leading up to this game that whoever scores the first goal is going to have a huge advantage," said Willis.
"You can't ask for any better start," said Willson.
It was equally deflating for the Saints, who had handed the North Stars 1 of their 2 losses last month (3-0 on Sept. 26).
"We knew what they were going to do on set pieces," said Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo. "We talked about it all week so for us to give up that first one is frustrating. We didn't defend it well enough and they made us pay."
Josh Amaro and Jake Persenico added goals for the North Stars.
"I thought we prepared for this game a lot differently than we did the first," said Willson. "We recommitted to how we defend as a team and I think that showed."
Returning from a leg injury that sidelined him most of the season, Coine provided an offensive spark for the Saints.
"He created a lot of opportunities," said DiNuzzo. "I don't think we've really had him 100 percent other than the first game of the season.
"I thought we had a number of opportunities to score three goals ourselves."