St. Charles North beats Geneva, runs regional streak to 13

The last time St. Charles North didn't win a girls soccer regional championship, this year's seniors were one year from entering kindergarten.

That remarkable run hit 13 straight years on Saturday when the North Stars overcame Geneva 3-1 to claim the Class 3A Geneva regional title.

"I just told them that there are great teams who are already out of this tournament and there are going to be more great teams out after every game of this tournament," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "I said that it is really, really hard to maintain this level for that many years."

In a match full of incident and opportunity and standout performances by both teams, the North Stars (18-2-2) extended their unbeaten run to 14 matches, a period in which they are 13-0-1. A mixture of young stars and experienced veterans keyed the victory.

"It's something that's empowering," St. Charles North senior Hanna Durocher said. "It's something we take to heart and we know that's expected of us. It's not pressure. It's more fun and about keeping the legacy and tradition."

By winning Saturday, the North Stars move to next week's Schaumburg sectional, where they play Wheaton North on Wednesday at 7 p.m., following the St. Charles East-Conant match.

Geneva (9-11-3) saw a string of three straight regional championships come to an end.

"We fought. We fought to the very end, and that's all I can ask," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "Everybody but the state champions, their season comes to an end at some point. I just told my girls that, when that point came, that they knew they'd fought as hard as they could and that they'd left it all on the field, and they did."

Saturday's match marked the fifth time St. Charles North played on Burgess Field's artificial turf this year, and they settled like a team that was comfortable with its surroundings. In addition to the two regional matches and the regular season match with the Vikings, St. Charles North also played Batavia and Plainfield North on Geneva's field.

The opening quarter of the match was marked by strong play by each team's keeper, especially Geneva freshman Carrie Ostergard, who saved a penalty kick and otherwise kept the North Stars from scoring. Also in the opening half-hour, Ostergard had arguably the save of the match when Lizzie Parrilli found Hanna Durocher for a curling shot that Ostergard reached at the right post.

"I thought my keeper had some tremendous saves," Owens said. "I thought we played really well. We just had some mistakes, and you have to learn from it and get ready for next year."

But North Stars keeper Shelby Stitz was strong in goal as well, though her strongest saves came later in the match, especially a save from an Emily Hauser header just before halftime.

Attacking players began to work their way into the match, however, and Madison Kaufman gave the North Stars the lead 27 minutes into the match when her speculative right wing shot found the back of the net.

"We look at it and say that wasn't our best shot, but we say that if you don't take the shot, you won't have the chance," Vostal said.

For Geneva, Morgan Rerko hit the crossbar late in the first half and Mary Landry shot narrowly wide after being sent free by Allie Mikos.

The key period of the match came 11 minutes into the second half. First, Gia Wahlberg raced up the left wing and cut the ball back to Hanna Durocher, who one-timed the ball into the goal.

From the kickoff, St. Charles North won the ball, worked upfield and scored when Wahlberg curled a shot from the top right portion of the penalty area into the goal at the left post. Wahlberg's goal came 23 seconds after Durocher's and the double-scoring punch gave the North Stars the cushion they needed.

"We talked about how our styles of play were a little different, so we wanted to settle the ball and play to feet," Vostal said. "We talked that when we moved to the goal at speed with the ball at our feet, people can move off us. So we adjusted."

In that framework, Durocher was key as a player who settled the ball before playing it to teammates.

Her sense of space allowed Wahlberg and Parrilli to work. In a team that was moving well with the ball, that trio was particularly fluid on Saturday.

"It's not something that can be done overnight, to get all those connections in the team," Wahlberg said. "It has to be done over the entire season and you have to keep working at it. On that pass to Hanna, I knew exactly where she was, because she goes to the same spot every time and I know she's able to finish it. With (Parrilli), it works nine times out of 10, the small ball or her playing me in, because we've worked from the beginning."

Geneva did not go quietly. With 6 minutes left, Mikos passed to Landry, who scored to break the shutout.

"We lost our composure for a short span but that happens," Owens said. "It happens to a lot of teams. You look at the scores from (Friday.) (Landry) is a kid who never stopped fighting for us today."

A young team this season, Geneva worked all season to find consistency, and though they won back-to-back matches only once, their improvement through the campaign's two months was apparent.

"What I'm proudest of this group is that they never gave up," Owens said. "We were very young, so we had hurdles to clear and they kept fighting, no matter what. No matter how many hits we took in the season, they showed up the next game and fought and left it all on the field. You don't always get that in sports. They didn't give up."