Girls soccer: St. Charles North overcomes adversity to win sectional title

St. Charles North had a simple message for anyone doubting the North Stars because scoring machine Gia Wahlberg was watching Saturday's Class 3A Geneva girls sectional championship from the sideline while wearing a walking boot.

The message? Don't cry for us IHSA foes.

Standout Hailey Rydberg drilled a shot just 11 seconds after the opening whistle and St. Charles North added two more prior to the midpoint of the first half en route to a 4-1 triumph over Conant.

The North Stars remained unbeaten (21-0-1), captured their eighth sectional plaque, and eagerly advanced to Tuesday's 6 p.m. Barrington supersectional to face the defending 3A state champ and host Fillies. Barrington (18-3-2) advanced via a 3-1 shootout advantage for a 3-2 triumph over Cary-Grove in Friday's Rockford Guilford sectional.

"I was most impressed with our team's ability to react to a little adversity," North coach Brian Harks said. "This was the first time in Gia's career she was off the field and our team rallied, stayed positive, said 'we've got it covered.' And to do that against a Conant team that is well-coached with a very good defense, says a lot."

Immediately after the opening whistle, Rydberg's rocket enabled her to match Wahlberg for the team lead in goals at 22. While Michigan State-bound Wahlberg could be back by Tuesday, Iowa-signee Rydberg knew what was needed on Saturday.

"We wanted to come out strong and that's about the best way to start," Rydberg said with a smile. "We knew their keeper (senior Taylor Cyr) is really good with high balls, so I just wanted to drive it low and hard."

North kept the pressure on and scored again at 13:03. Chloe Netzel had enough oomph behind her shot that Cyr could only block it and the resulting loose ball became a perfect setup for Kellie Callaghan to head home her fifth goal of the year.

"Gia's my role model and I wanted to emulate her hustle, so I looked for the rebound in order to follow our philosophy to score and then score again," Callaghan said. "Knowing we beat them before (5-1 in Conant's home and season opener), we just wanted to do it again, and 4-1 also works."

And so did the North Star offense just over five minutes later when Claudia Najera's fifth assist led to Netzel's 13th goal, a 16-yard strike from the left side.

"Giving up that early goal was a killer but we also knew they'd jump on us in the first 15 minutes," Conant coach Jason Franco noted. "Our hope was to weather the storm, but that first-half blitz made the idea of a comeback against a team as good as North too much.

"I still believe the second half was more indicative of our abilities," Franco said. "We wanted to make them uncomfortable and did. If it's 3-1 and you get a bounce your way, great. But a good team answers and they did. Credit to them for the energy they brought into the match, especially in this heat."

There was 16:09 remaining in regulation when Conant's Neda Ocampo's 19-yard cannon shot from the right wing brought the Cougars to life. Only problem was it took 56 seconds for a response. Junior defender Cece Wahlberg made certain the Wahlberg name remained prominent in North box scores with a 17-yard blast to negate Conant's rally. The Cougars came into the match with only one loss (9-1-2) in their previous 12 matches.