St. Charles N. blanks Bartlett
Contending with a strong wind, a bumpy uneven field and a determined opponent — St. Charles North’s girls soccer team worked to overcome a variety of things through 40 minutes of Tuesday’s Upstate Eight Conference crossover match with Bartlett.
The host North Stars may have dominated possession, but Hawks goalie Natalia Grodzki was superb, stopping a series of point-blank shots and the half ended scoreless.
“We talked about at halftime that we can’t control the wind,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “We can’t control the field. It’s hard as a rock and it’s narrow. But it’s what we’re going to be playing on, so we’ve got to get used to it.”
Everything changed in the opening 2 minutes of the second half when St. Charles North re-established its dominance in possession, once again saw Grodzki make a stunning save — but then put the ball in the back of the net.
Lauren Koehl got the goal, moving just inside the penalty area before ripping a 15-yard goal-scoring right-to-left shot.
“It gets to the point where someone has to take control and someone has to step up,” Koehl said. “It came over and I had to get it in. It started from there.”
That goal set St. Charles North on its way to a 4-0 victory. Koehl scored again while Lisa Manski and Ashlyn Walter also netted for the North Stars. The win moves the North Stars to 1-1 for the still-young season.
“It’s our first home game and we’re trying to set the tone for the season,” Manski said. “Especially for us seniors, it’s our last first home game. We wanted to focus on that.”
Bartlett (2-2) struggled against the North Stars onslaught, which hit its peak during the first 20 minutes of the second half.
“We knew going in the first half, going with the wind, that we needed to put some away early,” Bartlett coach Heather Thomas said. “It was going to be a challenge in the second half if we didn’t get them in. We just couldn’t get it going.”
After Koehl’s opener, it took the North Stars 4 minutes to score the crucial second goal. Kenzie Rose took a free kick from 30 yards and hit the ball on the ground. Manski turned and hit a first-time shot into the net.
“I saw (Rose) and she was trying to loft it, but it came on the ground, so I ran back and flicked it,” Manski said.
Walter’s goal came from a scramble in the penalty area 8 minutes into the half. The ball came out of the center to the right, where it went off Kelly Manski and back into the middle, where Walter shot and scored.
The move that ended in the fourth North Stars goal began at the midpoint of the half and involved Alyssa Brandt feeding Koehl, who brought down the ball and then scored with her next flicked touch.
“She had some fantastic saves,” Thomas said. “She played an absolutely fantastic game. There’s nothing more you can ask of a keeper.”
St. Charles North goalie Carly Dietrich recorded the shutout. The toughest save came early in the first half when a ball was flicked out of midfield, got caught in the wind and took a pace-accelerating bounce in the penalty area. Dietrich tipped the 14th-minute danger over the crossbar.