Wheaton N. nearly upsets St. Charles N.
At least St. Charles North doesn't have to face Wheaton North again this postseason.
The second-seeded North Stars came from behind Wednesday night to salvage a 3-2 overtime victory against No. 18 Wheaton North in the Class 3A St. Charles North regional semifinals.
The North Stars will meet Bartlett on Saturday night in the regional final; the Hawks defeated Addison Trail 5-1 in the second semifinal.
It was the third straight postseason the Falcons (6-13-2) and North Stars (16-5-4) have met, with the Falcons upsetting the North Stars in last year's sectional semifinal. The Falcons nearly repeated that feat.
“We certainly knew a first-round matchup against Wheaton North was not going to be easy,” North Stars coach Eric Willson said. “...This was maybe a little bit of redemption for us. We've started to form a nice little rivalry between the two teams, that's for sure, in the postseason.”
North Stars senior Noah Anthony scored the game-winning goal just 1:25 into the first overtime. He also assisted on a first-half goal by Brian Casey that gave the North Stars a 1-0 halftime lead, as well as the 74th minute goal by Zack Matuszak that tied the game at 2, forcing overtime.
“I was really frustrated that we went down 2-1,” Anthony said. “I was really proud of the guys that we came back and fought hard well.”
“I'm proud of the guys for the way they played,” Falcons coach Bryce Cann said. “Being down 1-nil at half, I think we played well enough to keep ourselves in the game the first half. St. Charles North's got a talented team. They did everything they could to put us on our heels the first 15-20 minutes of the game.
“But we did a nice job of responding to it and making sure that we kept ourselves in the game. And then right away in the second half I thought we came out with a real nice spark to our play, that we connected well into the front third and we at least gave ourselves a few opportunities to stick one in the back of the net.”
Wheaton North tied the game at 1 in the 49th minute when senior Jordan Richert nailed a one-time side volley off a Jacques Ntahoturi cross. The Falcons took the lead in the 68th minute, stunning the North Stars with Henok Russell's goal following a Zac Gudanik free kick into the penalty area.
“We just were a little bit lazy at times,” Anthony said. “It kind of cost us when we turned the ball over too much and that allowed them to get back in the game. But they played hard. They played real well.”