Surging Stars to battle Boylan

Growing up in Rockford and playing at Rockford East, St. Charles North coach Eric Willson got to see plenty of Rockford Boylan celebrations.

"Those guys took it to us every year," Willson said.

Willson sees Boylan again on Tuesday night, this time from the sidelines. His North Stars team (14-8-2), one of the revelations of this year's Class 3A boys soccer tournament, faces the Titans (24-3-1) for a spot in the state semifinals.

"Once we bought into our blue collar attitude, we started getting the payoff of working so hard," Willson said. "We pass the ball better now. We are connecting better. We're glad we figured it out in time. It took awhile, but even if it takes the whole season, it does."

The winner of tonight's game, which is a quarterfinal even though the IHSA still calls it a supersectional, is assured of a state trophy. The victor tonight faces either Andrew or Edwardsville in a 5 p.m. semifinal on Friday at North Central College's Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.

It's been two years since St. Charles North advanced this far in the postseason. In 2006, the North Stars were quarterfinalists and lost 1-0 to Maine South. The finals from the quarterfinal stage then took place at North Central. Now there is an extra class in IHSA boys soccer, and only semifinals and finals take place at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium.

That North Stars team in 2006 was built around a rock-solid defense and ground out win after heart-stopping win in the playoffs. That team also had some big-name players - including all-state defender Alex Russell and a trio of all-sectional players, including goalkeeper Steve Purdy, who came up increasingly large as the games got more important.

This year's team lacked the star appeal at the start of the season, a campaign that opened with a 4-0 thumping by Geneva. But those days are long gone, and the North Stars exacted some measure of revenge on Saturday when they defeated the Vikings 3-1 in the Wheaton North Sectional title game.

"I think it's a combination of things," Willson said. "You've got to be healthy and at the beginning of the season, we weren't. We've got some freshmen and sophomores who have taken time to catch up with the speed of the game now that they are playing with guys who are 16-, 17- or 18-years old."

While North Stars fans have known their team all along, fans of other teams may be getting used to this new group. Senior Luis Ramirez is the only player who was on the roster two seasons ago, and he barely played then. So even for senior starters such as Bob Lundeen, Dan Stanek and Alex Bergmann or senior captains Steve Speaker and Brandon Bautista, this is new territory.

"There's a lot of camaraderie on this team," Willson said. "We don't have an all-state player right now. We don't have a handful of all-conference players. We had nobody make the all-sectional team. It's just a bunch of guys who want to go out and play the game and right now, we're kind of letting everyone else know who we are."

But the North Stars are battle-tested. They have played in Barrington already this year and the school's tough invitational. They also competed in the Pepsi Showdown, arguably the most difficult of the in-season tournaments for its duration and quality of competition.

"We have been playing some really tough teams," Willson said. "And this year, the Upstate Eight has been really tough. They are all really tough this year. When you show to play in any of our conference games, you know you're getting challenged there too."

The North Stars have shown they can play good soccer and score goals as well. They scored twice to defeat top-seed Larkin then hammered home 6 goals in the sectional.

"We're connecting a lot better than we have before," Willson said. "We feel our best defense is a good offense - keeping it from the other team."

In its Saturday victory over Jacobs, Boylan moved the ball quickly from defense to offense with a minimum of passes. But where Jacobs was unable to take possession and maintain it, St. Charles North has already shown in the tournament that they can handle such tactics.

"We feel it'd be a bad strategy to give us the ball a number of times," Willson said.

In the second half of its regional title game with Larkin, the Royals lengthened their passes on the North Stars mushy field. St. Charles North had a wide margin possession time in the second half, though the real key was turning that possession into scoring chances, which the North Stars did frequently in the final stages of the match.

The same was true in Saturday's win against Geneva, although the Vikings certainly passed the ball well at times. Especially on their first goal of the match, the North Stars showed they can knock the ball around on the ground as well as any team.

Boylan's tactics can be effective and they can also turn well-laid St. Charles North plans to dust with one well-taken free kick, one long flip throw-in by Rocco Taglia or one moment of Victor Zamora brilliance. Zamora is a freshman but has 18 goals and 10 assists this year. He scored the opener against in a 2-0 win over Jacobs on Saturday and had the through ball from which James Howe scored the second.

"I think we're going to be facing a tough team," Willson said. "They're pretty organized at the back. (Taglia) is tough and with those long throw-ins of his, those are like a corner kick. And Zamora may be a freshman, but he didn't play like it (Saturday.)"

One potential advantage could be the field conditions, which will be perfect. After a week playing on the artificial turf at Wheaton North, the North Stars compete at artificially-turfed Barrington Community Stadium.

"I remember from the beginning of the season, when we went to Barrington and drew with Lake Zurich," Willson said. "I think this team can play pretty well with it. We have played a number of games on Turf and we're starting to feel at home on it."

That would be a good thing. The winner of tonight's game heads to the Class 3A semifinals at North Central's Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. The surface there is artificial.