Girls soccer: St. Charles North, Wheaton North come up even

Jane Rogers and Laney Stark share occupations.

The Wheaton North sophomore and St. Charles North senior make their living these days on the high school pitch, frustrating opponents with their ability to score.

Each victimized the other’s respective team with a goal during Thursday night’s DuKane Conference girls soccer opener. No one scored after that and the team's tied 1-1.

“I think that was an example of taking advantage of what we could,” Rogers said. “Obviously, St. Charles North is a really good team, so we knew that we weren’t always going to be able to control the ball, but when we had an opportunity to take control of the game, we did. I think counterattacks and winning the ball and attacking quickly was one of the ways we did that.”

St. Charles North (4-0-3, 0-0-1) was applying pressure throughout the first half but had nothing to show for it other than near misses.

While the North Stars kept pushing, the Falcons held their ground before Rogers showcased some of her talents with 25:35 left in the first half for a 1-0 lead.

Winning possession, Rogers was then able to beat North Stars sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Korioth for the early lead at Rexilius Field.

“One of the things about all of our forwards is they do a really good job of pressuring the other team’s backs,” Falcons coach Tim McEvilly said. “And Jane does it as well as anybody has ever done it that I’ve seen in 30 years. And what she does on top of that, she has the composure and poise to control herself and find the back of the net.”

Wheaton North (4-1-1, 0-0-1) denied the North Stars behind a strong effort from their back line and all-state goalkeeper Zoey Bohmer.

Bohmer and Stark had squared off twice during the basketball season. Stark had bragging rights after a couple victories on the hardwood.

“I feel like playing each other more than just once or twice (a year), and in different sports, brings out the competitiveness,” Stark said. “It’s so much fun. It’s awesome.”

Totally awesome for the North Stars was when Stark got fouled with 18:51 remaining and her team trailing 1-0. She buried the ensuing PK, blasting a bounding shot to her left and out of the reach of Bohmer.

“Sometimes it’s me creating chances,” Stark said. “But (it’s) also creating chances for other people on our team like Ryan (Spaulding) and all of us.”

The North Stars manufactured some solid tries, but their conversion rate wasn’t where they’re shooting for it to be this season.

“It’s one of those feelings where we know it’s coming, but after a while some players have a tendency to get maybe a little bit frustrated or a little bit down on ourselves,” North Stars coach Brian Harks said. “I thought that our girls’ communication with each other stayed really positive and that led to a continuation of qualify chances and eventually we had a positive result.”

Korioth denied a shot from Kaempf with a little over three minutes left to keep the game even.

“We highlighted that at the end of the game,” Harks said. “Sometimes when you’re a goalie and you spend the majority of 80 minutes not seeing any action, those games are really difficult, but Lauren did a fantastic job.”