St. Charles N. blanks Streamwood

It took every ounce of effort from Streamwood to ward off St. Charles North's near-constant attacks through the first half on Wednesday's Class 3A regional semifinal and to keep the match on the North Stars field scoreless.

But from the moment Danielle Noverini scored in the sixth minute of the second half, the Sabres were in an uphill battle. When Alyssa Brandt scored 12 minutes later, the hill became a mountain - and further North Stars goals by Kelly Manski and Carleigh Dusek completed a 4-0 St. Charles North victory.

The win moves the North Stars into a 4:30 p.m. match on Saturday against crosstown rival St. Charles East for the regional title.

"I told them at halftime, we said 'that's over, done with and we have 40 minutes'" St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "I feel great because I know we can score goals. When we play at our best, we can do great things offensively. Defensively, we have always been solid."

But that 40-minute effort by underdog Streamwood (9-13-1) stood out. St. Charles North (14-5-2) attacked constantly and had the ball in the Sabres' defensive end most of the half, but the visitors somehow held out.

"I can't say enough about the girls," Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. "To hold a team like North 0-0 at halftime. Sure they might have had the ball in our half for most of the half. But we kept fighting and fought the entire time. It shows how the team has progressed since the beginning of the season."

Streamwood had few efforts on goal itself, the closest coming early in the second half following a corner kick.

After halftime, the North Stars began to make their possession count in terms of dangerous shots on goal. In the opening 40 minutes, many shots were tame.

"We knew with a deep sweeper, that the through ball that we kept sending was just getting cleaned up," Vostal said. "We were sending our forwards without a lot of support. We wanted to get four, five, six people going offensively."

Those shots that got through were saved by Streamwood keeper Nathalie Guindon.

"A freshman goalie with no varsity experience who I had to bring up to varsity in the middle of the season - I thought she played a tremendous game tonight," Polovin said.

Noverini's shot came from just inside the penalty area on the right wing. Brandt's shot came from a similar distance on the left wing while Manski shot from long range in the right midfield area.

"I think a lot of it too is that when there are a lot of bodies in one place, it gets congested," Vostal said. "We talked about shooting from the outside instead of dribbling."

The match finally began to have some of the intensity associated with postseason soccer as Streamwood fought to get into the match and the North Stars worked to hold onto and increase their lead.

"At the end of the first half, it was getting a little jittery," Brandt said. "But we ended up picking it up, so I guess that's good."

Dusek's goal came from a pass Darcy Stoecklin as Streamwood tired defensively.

"My girls gave everything they had against a team of great players," Polovin said.