Hosler, Stars save their best for last
St. Charles North secured its place on the championship trophy at the 2007 Barrington Classic Tournament in penalty kicks against the host Broncos Saturday night.
It was an exhilarating night on the north end of the park for the North Stars faithful as keeper Zach Hosler became the player of what was a scoreless match through regulation and 2 overtimes.
He stopped 3 straight spot-kicks by the Broncos (3-1-0) to clinch the title after teammate Alex Bergmann converted his attempt to push the North Stars' advantage to 3-1.
"I just looked into (the) eyes of the shooters before making my decision as to which way I was going (to) go," said Hosler, who guessed correctly against Ryan Nolan, Ata Osbay and Jack Valentine to stop each Broncos' player stone cold.
Mike Picinich and Jake Hosler struck their penalty kick attempts easily.
"It was a tale of two halves out there tonight," said North Stars coach Eric Wilson. "(Barrington) really had the better run of things in that first half.
"But I thought that we came back and stepped-up our play to do some very good work on the creative side of things, and also along the back as well.
"It turned out to be a fantastic game for both sides."
The Broncos should have taken the lead on several occasions in the first half, most notably in a short sequence which lasted just a few seconds.
But it must have felt like an eternity for the North Stars (4-0-1) when Ryan Mangone and Derek Shelton each rattled the woodwork from in close after a long throw by Matt Beightol at 24 minutes.
Early on, Mangone was sent through by the Broncos' leading scorer, Francesco Furio, on the right side, but the junior struck his shot wide right.
"You know, we really did a lot of terrific things in our attack during that first half," said Barrington coach Scott Steib. "I am really encouraged by what I saw, and despite the fact that we fell off a little after the break, it was a very good effort from both sides of the ball for us."
It was the North Stars' turn to dominate, and that they did right from the beginning of the second half as Vladamir Schlageter and Luis Ramirez became dangerous up top. Much of that was from the inspired play from the midfield trio of Dominic Catalano, Picinich and Bergmann.
Just after intermission, Broncos keeper Jack Deroche made his best stop of the match when he used full extension to pull an Austin Andrekus blast out of the air.
Following regulation, both sides did their best to muster up enough energy to play through a pair of 10-minute extra periods. But it was apparent from early on this match was headed to a shoot-out.
"You could see that both teams were really tired, and it was midway through that second (OT) period when I realized we were going to go to PKs," said Hosler, whose save on Valentine sparked a wild scene by his teammates to celebrate.
"It was a great week of soccer for us, and, right now, I'd say things are looking up for us after coming into (this) first week not knowing what we really had this season," said Steib.