North Stars win 7th straight regional

Seven may be a lucky number in some circles but it is more of an expected one these days for St. Charles North's girls soccer program.

Alecia Natale's header off a corner kick from Alyssa Peterson helped give St. Charles North a 1-0 halftime lead before junior Leah DeMoss ignited a second-half ground assault with a pair of goals during the North Stars' 4-0 victory over visiting Lake Park (13-8-2) in Saturday's Class 3A regional finals.

It marked the seventh consecutive regional championship for the North Stars (14-1-3), who now advance to Tuesday's Bartlett sectional semifinals at 4:30 p.m. against Geneva at Millennium Field in Streamwood.

"When we started this program in 2000, it was about trying to set some tradition," said North Stars coach Ruth Vostal. "I think now we have the tradition and the girls know they have to live up to that.

"We know it's (the regional) always going to be two hard games but it's (regional title) something that is expected now."

Offensive opportunities were few and far between during the opening half, which remained scoreless for the first 26-plus minutes before Natale found the net off the North Stars' first corner kick of the contest.

"You hate to see a goal given up on a restart," said Lancers coach John Gouriotis, whose team had dropped a 5-1 decision to St. Charles North 11 days earlier. "There's no reason why it couldn't have been 0-0 at half.

"Just making a play on the ball changes everything. We got caught standing around watching."

Moving another offensive player forward, the North Stars controlled play in the second half, peppering Lancers goalkeeper Carolyn Herber with an array of shots.

Three of those shots found the range, beginning with DeMoss' first of the game - a sliding shot that trickled past Herber with 18:23 remaining.

"Ashley (Capone) played a great ball to me," said DeMoss, who struck again 6 minutes later with a right-footed blast on a breakaway to make it 3-0.

"At halftime, we said that we needed to get the ball on the ground more because that's where we play the strongest," added DeMoss. "Once we started to do that, we got some goals."

Vostal was most pleased with DeMoss' decisiveness.

"Both of her goals were ones where she released the ball quickly rather than making lots of moves and trying to be creative," said Vostal. "It was more 'get something on frame and look for a rebound.'"

Playing on her home field for the final time, senior Alex Messacar netted the North Stars' fourth goal with 35 seconds remaining.

"We were in a good position at halftime but without us being able to continue to pressure, support or make passes, it makes it tough," said Gouriotis. "They rose to the occasion (in the second half) and we kind of got stuck on the defensive end the entire time.

"You can only ask so much of your goalkeeper and defenders. You can't defend for 80 minutes."