St. Charles North meets goals, blanks South Elgin
St. Charles North girls soccer coach Ruth Vostal wanted her team to work on a few things Tuesday in the North Stars' second game of the season.
While one of those wasn't finding the back of the net more, North did plenty of that in a 5-0 defeat of South Elgin at Millennium Field.
Vostal wanted the North Stars to defend better outside and pass the more to teammates rather than open space. They did that as well.
"Our goals coming in that we saw in the first game were we wanted tighter marks on the outside, be a little more disciplined, and finding feet," Vostal said. "We looked at them at halftime and I thought we did them 10 times better than against Lockport."
North (2-0, 1-0 Upstate Eight) took the lead against the Storm less than 2 minutes in. Leah DeMoss beat Storm goalkeeper Emily Young to a ball near the endline and sent the ball across the goal mouth. Alecia Natale found the empty net for a 1-0 lead.
DeMoss gave the North Stars a 2-0 advantage in the 12th minute off an assist from Paige Dusek. The pair again combined for a 3-0 lead in the 20th minute, this time with DeMoss finding Dusek for a goal. Alyssa Peterson's left-footed shot from 25 yards out went over Young's head and into the top of the goal in the 28th minute for a 4-0 lead.
"We really connected," Dusek said. "Everyone connected, from the inside mids to the outside mids and our forwards. That's what makes it works in the end."
Dusek connected on a penalty kick in the 54th minute to complete the scoring.
The Storm (6-5, 0-2) had only 2 shots on North goalkeeper Kristen Manski. South Elgin's best chance came off a free kick from just outside the penalty area in the final minute of the first half, but Manski was able to save Jill Ellison's shot.
Young made 8 saves, including a couple key stops in the first half to keep the game from getting out of control.
"I'm happy my girls were able to play an opponent like this so they can realize what tough competition is," Storm coach Tiffany Disher said. "They were able to hold their own (in the second half) and string passes together."