Girls soccer: St. Charles North blitzes Batavia, wins River outright
Playing its final game as an Upstate Eight Conference River Division member, St. Charles North's girls soccer team made it a memorable one Tuesday night.
The North Stars (17-0-1, 6-0) secured the Fox trophy as well an outright conference title with a convincing 5-2 victory over Batavia (13-3-2, 4-1-1) on Tri-Cities Night in St. Charles.
"It was a nice night all around," said North Stars coach Brian Harks. "I think the girls got motivated by the last home game (regular season) and the last Upstate Eight game - and any time you're playing a quality team like Batavia for a conference championship.
"They executed our game plan nicely."
St. Charles North grabbed a 1-0 lead 10 minutes into the contest on a picture-perfect cross from CeCe Wahlberg to Claudia Najera, who displayed impeccable timing on a header.
"I heard her (Najera) screaming so I'm like, 'I've got to get it to her, I've got to get it to her,'" said Wahlberg. "I got it where I wanted."
"It was a perfect ball and Claudia did a nice job staying composed," said Harks. "She played it simple and tucked it around (the keeper)."
The early goal was the perfect tonic for the North Stars.
"Any time you get that first one, you relax a little bit and setting into the game plan," said Harks.
The "Bergs" - seniors Hailey Rydberg and Gia Wahlberg - combined for the North Stars' second goal, as Rydberg put a quick 1-touch pass on the left foot of Wahlberg, who turned and delivered a low shot into the corner of the net for a 2-0 lead midway through the first half.
The North Stars put the game out of reach early in the second half as Hailey Rydberg converted on a pair of penalty kicks within a 2-minute span for a 4-0 advantage.
"Hailey and Gia did a real nice job but I was real impressed with the supporting players," said Harks. "You had Chloe Netzel earning a PK. I thought our mids worked hard to win the 50-50 game and our center backs did a nice job of containing their powerful strikers up top."
Sami Rydberg's 30-yard blast extended the lead to 5-0 before Batavia answered with a pair of late goals from CeCe Hamann and Grace Salyers.
"That was definitely a character builder for us today," said Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco. "We haven't had one of those all year but I thought we responded pulling those two goals later on."
Earlier in the night, Geneva (10-6-1, 2-1-3) and St. Charles East (10-5-6, 3-2-1) played to a scoreless deadlock.
It marked the second tie in as many meetings between the teams this season, as they played to a 1-1 draw at last month's St. Charles East Invite.
There were a few close calls Tuesday night.
"I think they hit the post on a deflection and we hit the post on a free kick just outside the area," said Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo. "It was nice to keep them off the score sheet and know that we're capable of doing that."
Keepers Katie Montgomery of Geneva and St. Charles East's Grace Griffin shared the shutout for their respective teams.