Timing everything for St. Charles North
Nick Karayannis was the man of the moment Wednesday night for St. Charles North.
The senior struck the game-winner with 13 seconds left to help the North Stars stun host Leyden 2-1 in the nonconference boys soccer regular-season finale for both sides in Northlake.
The victory sends the North Stars (11-4-3) into the regionals on a high note, as the club now begins preparation for its first-round opponent Tuesday against Willowbrook or Elk Grove.
“A win like this sends us into the postseason with some good momentum, and with nearly a week off until our first match, we’ll now have plenty of time to get healthy, train, and prepare for what we hope will be a long run in the tournament,” said Stars head coach Eric Willson, just moments after Karayannis’ header in the 80th minute ended an entertaining, well-played match by both clubs.
“A (1-1) draw would have been a fair result to be sure, but to come away with a victory, against a very good opponent makes things even better.”
Willson thought Leyden came out as the stronger side of the two and it nearly found the back of the net in the third minute. A superb crossfield ball from Oscar Chavarria fell onto the right foot of Juan Recendez — and just in front of keeper Garrett Creasor.
The senior made a sensational point-blank reaction save — then another seconds later on Krystian Drozdz off the rebound to keep the Eagles (14-4-3) off the scoreboard until the hour mark.
“We weathered the storm in the early going, but settled down and got back to playing some very good soccer, but we also needed some help from Justin Sanchez, who did a terrific job against (Drozdz), who’s the real deal for them up top, as well as (Garrett) when we needed him the most,” offered Willson.
Alex Behm and Mike Winnhofer both filled the role as creative geniuses in the Stars attack. They also did their best to stall an Eagles’ attack which has struck gold this season after coach Mark Valintis pushed Recendez up top to join leading scorer Drozdz (17 goals).
“We did a lot of good things tonight, and really had a couple of chances to go ahead before (they) scored,” Valintis said, “but you’re never happy when you lose, and particularly when we didn’t mark as well as we could on both of their goals, which were very good goals.”
Valintis didn’t like what he saw on the first Karayannis goal of the night when he redirected his header of a well-paced freekick from Behm past a diving Marco Granda in the 43rd minute.
“We haven’t played our best soccer of late, but tonight, against a quality opponent, we knocked the ball around, possessed, and played our game the way we are capable of,” said Behm.
The Stars’ would then tighten things up along the back, knowing the Eagles’ would look to rev up their attack in hopes of getting even.
Recendez would have a go in the 53rd minute on frame to get things started. After Creasor came off his line to punch out a dangerous ball in the box in which Fernando Camacho, Recendez and Juan Salgado would all help keep alive, Drozdz would somehow send his shot just past the outstretched gloves of the 6-foot-4 Creasor at the back post.
The Eagles allowed Karayannis to run freely to the back post to easily head his shot into an open net with just 13 seconds remaining.
“I am not sure how we allowed their (guy) to be all alone, especially in the final moments of regulation, but we somehow did while also not doing a very good job of managing the clock, and just clearing the area in those final moments,” said a disappointed Valintis.