St. Charles North builds big lead, hangs on

St. Charles North appeared to be in command for the first three quarters of its boys water pole match with cross-town rival St. Charles East Thursday afternoon.

The spread could have been well out of hand if it were not for Saints' goalkeeper Alex Hovious, who stopped 14 North Stars' salvos, virtually all from point-blank range, during the same span.

The Saints had the makings of an extraordinary comeback when they scored 3 consecutive goals in a 55-second span. But Justin Jacobson had a final answer for host St. Charles North; the junior scored his fifth goal with 59 seconds remaining to secure the North Stars' 15-12 victory over the Saints in St. Charles.

"We've been practicing on passing, making sure we got the ball to everyone," Jacobson said.

St. Charles North (6-3), which also received 3-goal efforts from junior Kyle Passini and sophomore Joey Chokran, scored the final 3 goals of the first period after St. Charles East co-captain John Alaniz opened the scoring two minutes into the contest.

Seven players in all wound up tallying for St. Charles North, which extended its 3-1 first-period lead to 5-2 when Josh Kerr and Chokran had back-to-back scores to negate the Saints' second-period opening score from Sean Seuschek. The Saints' striker tied Jacobson for scoring honors with 5 goals.

But it was Hovious' play between the pipes that was the central storyline for much of the game. In a rivalry match in which his opposite number - senior Peter Berardi - was only required to stop 2 shots, Hovious had quintupled that figure by the intermission.

"The key for me was watching the ball," Hovious said. "They're a fast team, but our defense was awesome. Whenever they set up they hardly ever scored. Almost all of their goals were on breakaways."

Hovious attracted a fair amount of attention from his foes.

"(Hovious) was impressive," said St. Charles North coach Chris Cloy. "He played a really good game."

"He is really big," added Jacobson. "Shooting on him was really tough."

Holding a 6-3 halftime lead, St. Charles North duplicated its two-quarter plurality in the third period alone. Passini had two of his scores during the quarter against the Saints (5-7); Michael Nield and Alex Waskelo added their lone scores during the run. Many of the scores were the result of solid defensive play at the other end.

"I think our team defense was very good," said Cloy. "We didn't have to rely on our keeper making a lot of saves. I wish we would have played a better fourth quarter."

The Saints stormed back by matching their entire output over the final seven minutes. Seuschek began and ended the scoring for St. Charles East, with Mike Schmitt scoring twice in 25 seconds to narrow the gap further.

But Jacobson gave the squad breathing room when he made it 15-11 with 59 seconds to play.

"I give credit to (St. Charles East)," Cloy said.