St. Charles North too much for St. Charles East
Claire Bultema has no wishes whatsoever for a repeat of last season.
The St. Charles North junior scored 3 of her match-high 5 goals in the opening period as the North Stars’ girls water polo team hit St. Charles East with 5 unanswered goals to begin the match.
Rachel DeVries ended the first half with a score and opened the third period with another winner as St. Charles North extended the Saints’ season-opening losing streak to seven matches with its 12-5 victory at home on Thursday afternoon.
St. Charles North (3-6) won only once all of last year.
“We have a great group of young girls,” said Bultema, who had a career-best 7 goals over the weekend at the North Stars’ tournament. “It’s my role to be a leader.”
The North Stars’ suffocating defense was the architect to victory.
Hannah Cox, filling in for injured keeper Savanna Lada, stopped 11 St. Charles East shots; the Saints were shut out in the first period and did not score until a Kaitlin McEghan to Katelyn Beck collaboration with 3:38 to play in the second period.
“The only way to be successful in polo is through defense,” St. Charles North coach Nick Engel said.
The North Stars built their 5-0 cushion when Bultema opened the match with a first-period hat trick, which Mallory Hecht nearly duplicated with her back-to-back goals in the second period.
DeVries’ consecutive scores to close out the first half and usher in the third period extended the North Stars’ lead to 7-1.
The sophomore had several other quality chances fail to hit the mark.
“We’ve been working really hard this year on our defense,” DeVries said. “It’s definitely been paying off.”
Engel noted that his players’ resolve had been freshened by a vigorous off-season regimen of club play as well as a commitment during the regular season.
“The only way to get better at polo is to play more,” Engel said. “That’s been the big difference (from last season).”
Aimee Eisenstein rebounded her own miss to highlight the Saints’ second score early in the third period, but Hecht and Ariel Turjanski had responses for the North Stars.
Hecht scored her third goal to make it 9-2 in favor of North, and Turjanski had the individual goal of the match.
The junior intercepted a pass in her zone, swam 30 meters and beat the Saints’ keeper to give North double figures.
McEghan, Rachel Solveson and Angelica Smith had late goals for East.
“They’re progressively getting better as the game goes on,” said East coach Annie Greenhill. “As soon as we can start a game like that, we’ll be set.”