Balanced St. Charles North tops Conant
The St. Charles North girls soccer team used a balanced scoring attack to win its second match of the season Thursday night.
Four North players found the back of the net as the host North Stars downed Conant, 5-1 in a nonconference clash.
North used its speed to move the ball down the pitch and initially could not successfully finish the attacks. Either the Cougars' strong back line broke up the drive or Taylor Cyr, Conant's goalkeeper, kept the ball from crossing the goal line. The senior stopped 13 shots.
"First and foremost you need to tip your cap to Conant keeper. I thought she made a lot of really nice saves," said North coach Brian Harks. "And their entire back line I thought did a really nice job. They held their shape really well and they limited our opportunities."
The North Stars finally solved Conant's defense in the 17th minute to take a 1-0 lead. After a cross from Giorgia Wahlberg, Claudia Najera headed the ball into the net.
Stephanie Mazurek got past an extended North Star defense to score a goal with 13:52 left in the half to tie the match 1-1.
North retook the lead in the 35th minute on a header in front of the net by freshman Chloe Netzel.
The North Stars broke the game open by scoring 2 goals within 20 seconds at the end of the first half. Hailey Rydberg's shot from 20 yards out got past Cyr with 3:29 left before the break. Najera followed with her second strike of the night to give North (2-0) a 4-1 lead at intermission.
Wahlberg, who got two assists in the first half, scored the only goal of the final 40 minutes. The senior forward buried the ball in the back of the net after a cross from Grace Barresi in the 64th minute.
"This the first time that this team has really formed with these players," Harks said. "It's just a matter of getting comfortable with each other and I'm happy with the steps we took to do that tonight by finding the back of the net like we did."
Harks credited North's midfielders for keeping Conant (0-1) mostly on the North Stars' side of the pitch.
"I thought our center mids did a really nice job," said Harks. "They did a really nice job of putting high pressure on their marks and creating a lot of turnovers for us."