Quick start boosts St. Charles N.
Like actors sure of their lines as they went onstage, St. Charles North's girls soccer team opened Saturday's contest with Bartlett in very confident fashion.
The visiting Hawks, however, got their entrance slightly wrong and didn't get flowing until the Second Act.
By the time the curtain fell, St. Charles North earned a mostly solid review in a 3-1 Upstate Eight Conference victory. But Bartlett did more than its share to earn some plaudits.
Right from the start, the North Stars (4-0-2) ripped into Bartlett and scored in just over 1 minute. Leah DeMoss sent a ball over the top of the Hawks defense and Paige Dusek raced onto that pass and converted a 1-on-1 situation with Bartlett goalie Erin Zaideman.
As the clock ticked under 5 minutes played, the North Stars scored again. From a corner kick, Alyssa Peterson shot, received the ball back again and shot once more - this time doubling her team's lead.
"The past couple of games, we've come out and had chances early and didn't finish them," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "It was nice to be able to come out today and be able to finish them."
That start certainly calmed any nerves for St. Charles North, which began settled easily into the pace of the match.
"(Dusek) got that goal for us, and then 5 minutes later, (Peterson) had a shot in and that really set the momentum of the game for us," DeMoss said. "We wanted more goals, but we had 3 and that was good."
Bartlett needed close to 20 minutes of the first half to get its first attempt at goal, but slowly began to find its feet in the contest.
"We talked all week in practice that we had to come out hard," Bartlett coach Heather Thomas said. "That's a problem that we've had all season long, coming out in the first 5 or 10 minutes and having us set the tone instead of sitting back on our heels and letting them set the tone. We said all week that St. Charles North would come out strong, and we had to initiate the physical contact and initiate the possession. In the first half - that's what happens when you let them dictate the play."
And when a handball was called in the penalty area against St. Charles North, Fran Abate stepped up to reduce the deficit to 2-1. But Thomas still had sharp words for her team at halftime.
"It just takes us too long to recover after we get scored on," Thomas said. "We shut down a little bit instead of coming out and going harder and stronger. We sit back and don't come out ready to attack. So no, I wasn't a happy camper."
The second half followed a repetitive pattern. Bartlett tried to push toward attack and push its defense forward to keep the North Stars forwards as far from goal as possible. Those forwards responded by sitting on their defenders' shoulders and trying to beat the offside trap. Bartlett got some chances and St. Charles North was called offside with some frequency - but the North Stars also worked beyond the defense a number of times as well.
With 25 minutes left, Zaideman made the best save by either goalkeeper when she dove to her left and clawed away a DeMoss effort that was headed for the far post.
The North Stars' sustained pressure eventually resulted in a third goal. With just under 17 minutes to play, DeMoss sent a low ball through the penalty area that Zaideman was unable to hold. The ball popped to Alecia Natale, who tapped in from inside the 6-yard box.