Stars avenge loss, win sectional title

Unable to find the combination to unlock Geneva's defense, St. Charles North added a few numbers - and found that sometimes the shortest distance between two points isn't the most effective.

With half an hour left in a scoreless Class 3A sectional championship at Wheaton North, the North Stars embarked on a multi-person passing move - their most intricate move of the match.

The ball eventually was sent up the right wing to Bob Lundeen, who crossed back in front of the goal. Angelo Catalano met that ball and headed into the net for a 1-0 North Stars lead.

"The flow of the game was pretty choppy," Catalano said. "We were just trying to stick with it, be persistent and believe in ourselves. The ball came across, I got my head on it and I got it over the keeper's arms and under the bar."

That lead didn't hold up, but the North Stars continued to stretch Geneva past the breaking point the rest of the match and finished with a 3-1 victory.

"I think the most important thing was that, when they scored that equalizer, that we didn't panic," St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said. "We had to still feel like we could attack and score a goal."

The win moves St. Charles North into Tuesday's Barrington supersectional. The North Stars face Rockford Boylan at 7 p.m. for a spot in the Class 3A semifinals.

The ironic thing about Catalano's opening goal was that it resolved nothing. Geneva (20-3-1) took just over 2 minutes to equalize and used a multi-player passing move to carve their goal.

Kendal Spurgin sent the ball out of midfield to onrushing Shawn Sloan. Sloan passed along the ground to Ben Orr in space on the left wing, and all Orr had to do was redirect the ball into the St. Charles North goal.

"Unfortunately, I think our guys thought we were playing on aggregate today, that we were going in with a four-goal lead," Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. "It showed with the energy and emotion that we stated this game with."

But even at 1-1, Geneva struggled to make inroads and push to take the lead against a team it defeated 4-0 in the opening match of the season.

"It was a strange feeling out here today," Estabrook said. "I just don't feel like we had a whole lot of energy. We started the game very poorly. Maybe we weren't a morning team this year. But I felt North was ready to play and we weren't."

St. Charles North, however, showed how much it has progressed over the past two months and got the winning and match-killing goals in a 4-minute spell late in the half.

"The more that we play together, the better we're getting," Willson said. "We really felt like getting the ball wide is where we'd get a goal. That's where we've been successful most of the year. It was important to establish that outside. You do that and it opens the middle a little bit."

Alex Bergmann got the first goal with just over 14 minutes to play when he headed in a Luis Ramirez free kick.

Then Catalano sealed the match when he took a Brandon Bautista pass and scored with 10 minutes to play.

"It came over and bounced in the box," Catalano said. "I was wide open in the middle of the box, so I hit it upper 90 and sealed the game."

Catalano then celebrated his goal in a manner that was deemed tainting by the officials. Catalano was red-carded from the game and will miss Tuesday's match.