St. Charles North rolls past Crystal Lake Central in invitational championship match
The championship match of the St. Charles Invitational looked to be a highly competitive match between two teams that made deep runs in last season’s playoffs. And for the first 20 minutes, it was.
The other 60 minutes? Not so much.
St. Charles North had five goal scorers over that span and took home the invitational title with a 6-0 win over Crystal Lake Central on Saturday at St. Charles East.
After recording a 1-1 tie against Tigers to open the season back on March 12, North Stars coach Brian Harks said that he was pleased after getting a big win against the team that placed third in the Class 2A tournament last season and hopes that it generates momentum heading into DuKane Conference play.
“They were able to generate quality scoring opportunities in a variety of ways,” he said. “I think their creativity and their relentless play was exactly what we were looking for today.”
The North Stars kicked off the scoring in the 19th minute from the foot of senior Juliana Park. After a cross from sophomore Kaitlyn Nudera fell at her feet in the box, Park sent the ball to the left side of the net and, despite Tigers goalkeeper Addison Cleary getting a hand on the ball the shot, still found the back of the net.
Park scored her second goal of the game in the 58th minute. After clearing the Crystal Lake Central defenders on the left side of the field, she drove the ball to the box and sent the ball across her body, hitting the right post before bouncing in for the score.
“It feels really good to win with the team,” Park said. “It felt like a really strong game where we dominated overall.”
The scoring bug Park caught after her first goal spread through the North Stars’ lineup, with senior Kyra Tremor (22nd minute), senior Laney Stark (30th minute) and junior Maura Sikorski (39th minute) each adding a goal of their own in the half to enter halftime up 4-0. Nudera became the fifth goal scorer for St. Charles North after scoring in the 55th minute.
“I’ve been really impressed with our ability to attack in a variety of ways,” Harks said. “Goals have been coming from a variety of players and that’s been really pleasant to see.
“I wouldn’t say that we have one singular player that stands out at this moment. It’s been a true team effort and that’s been really great to see so far.”
On the other side of the ball, Crystal Lake Central had a rough showing in the championship. The Tigers, who had five players out due to injury, only put up one shot on goal in the 74th minute.
Crystal Lake Central coach Sarah Fack said that the team just didn’t have the same intensity that they had in their season opener against the North Stars.
“We thought we played extremely well in the first three games of the tournament, especially considering that we’ve had to have a number of players playing at different spots,” Fack said “But this game, it wasn’t quite our day. We’re just going to have to learn and figure out how we’re going to play together and get that same level of intensity when we have different people on the field.”
St. Charles North will look to keep its momentum going when it starts conference play at 4:30 p.m. April 4 at Wheaton North. Crystal Lake Central hopes to get back in the win column when it faces Belvidere North at 4:30 p.m. April 2 at home.