Girls soccer: St. Charles North tops Saints again

A tweak to Leah Bellock's left hip won't stop her from playing a physical brand of soccer.

"Honestly, I'm still going. I don't like sitting out. I just like to keep going," Bellock said following St. Charles North's 2-0 win over St. Charles East on Tuesday at the Tri-City Soccer Night. "I don't know if you can tell, but I'm limping a little bit. Honestly, I couldn't miss a game like this."

Bellock, a St. Charles North senior, capitalized on a three-way collision by two St. Charles East defenders and goalie Sidney Lazenby with 19:37 left in the first half off an initial cross by Sophia Hein to give the North Stars (11-2, 3-0) the insurance goal they needed to secure their second regular season win over the Saints (13-3, 3-1).

Bellock nicked her hip approximately a week and a half ago, but has pushed through it with adrenaline to give the North Stars a consistent boost.

"Leah is such a sparkplug for us," North Stars coach Brian Harks said. "She's a player that I think creates a lot of energy, whether that's getting stuck in on tackles, getting end line when we ask her to or finding the back of the net when the situation calls it. She really stepped up today."

"A lot of the girls played really well," Harks continued. "I thought our back line and really our defensive pressure across all 11 positions was quality today. I think the girls stepped up to the challenge. St. Charles East is really good offensively and so it was nice to keep a shutout."

Julianna Park scored the North Stars' first goal through traffic, while the defensive prowess by the North Stars shined through throughout both halves.

"[Senior defender] Sidney Timms, honestly, she's just an amazing player," Bellock said. "And a good teammate as a whole. She holds that back line really well on her side. Balls do not go by her."

Lazenby and Sofia Iori split goalkeeping duties for the Saints in the first and second half, respectively. Lazenby had two saves while Iori had one.

"We're still working our way back from where we want to be," St. Charles East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. "In the first half, [the North Stars] were simply better than us in just about every aspect of the game. They looked like they wanted it a little bit more, and that showed in the score line.

"Some uncharacteristic mistakes playing out of the back there, a dangerous ball across. Credit to them because good teams find a way to win and they found a way to win. Neither one of their goals, in my opinion, were phenomenal goals but good teams find a way to get a result and they did."