Digging deeper into N. Stars' final setback

When the basketball finals used to take place at Huff Gym in Urbana, there used to be a large board on the wall, and each finalist was represented by a light bulb. When you lost, they turned out your light.

The St. Charles North boys soccer team's light went out Tuesday night and under some controversial circumstances. There was more than a slight hint of a Boylan foul in the run-up to the final goal.

Certainly when a game ends like that, there is devastation. There is no chance to recover. You can't adjust tactics and try to get an equalizing goal. All you're left with is the hollowness of knowing the clock is frozen at the point the ball went into the back of the net - and everything has ended. They don't call it "sudden death" for nothing.

Having seen Boylan twice in a week, I'm hardly an expert in the way they play. But the manner in which they approached the match shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. In a list of teams which utilize a direct approach, the Titans are probably the most successful in that tactic.

Every free kick was potentially headed into St. Charles North's penalty area. Throw-ins from halfway into the attacking zone were taken long - and Boylan has players who can get the ball into the penalty area from that distance.

The thing is that St. Charles North dealt with those threats almost without fail.

But what happened after the North Stars snuffed out a Boylan attack was the first of a series of circumstances that helped conspire to their ultimate defeat. You see, Oscar Zamora's overtime winner was the punctuation for the victory, but it did not stand along in a body of evidence to explain why the Titans and not the North Stars are still playing and will take a trophy of some size home from the Class 3A state tournament tonight.

In its sectional championship win against Geneva, St. Charles North piled up some possession time when the Vikings gave away the ball. Against Boylan, possession time was nearly even. And when Boylan has possession, they are always looking to push it quickly upfield.

That left St. Charles North as the chasing team and forced the pace of the match to an unbelievable level. When I caught up with Kyle Joss after the match, he mentioned that he was completely tired.

That pace, combined with the size of the field, conspired against St. Charles North. Barrington Community Stadium features one of the largest high school fields in Illinois - 75 yards by 120 yards. That's as large as most European fields and considerably larger than many high school fields.

In our area, the thinnest is at Batavia, which is just larger than the 53 yards of width you get on a football field. Barrington's field is over 20 yards wider and that's a lot of extra acreage to cover.

So failure to do more with its possession cost St. Charles North in more ways than one. Not only did they not get to play their preferred passing game, but they had to chase Boylan as it played its direct game.

Throughout the tournament, St. Charles North found a way to get the ball wide and then to put it back into the middle. On Tuesday, the North Stars struggled with that. As a result, goal scoring chances were hard to find. Luis Ramirez had a great scoring chance that just missed in the first half and then Ramirez scored in the second half.

But on balance, Boylan threatened more - even though the North Stars hit the post just seconds before Zamora scored. If there was some controversy over the game-winning goal, no one complained on the foul that resulted in Boylan's penalty kick, from which Rocco Taglia scored.

That goal came 3 minutes after St. Charles North scored and marked the second match in succession in which one of those great soccer clichés came true: you're always most vulnerable of giving up a goal when you just scored.

"It's two games in a row where we score, and we're the Cinderella and no one expects us to do it, and then we go and give the goal right back," Joss said.

It is a natural reaction. Soccer goals don't come around with great frequency. So when one occurs, there is a natural elation. Returning focus can sometimes be difficult. Boylan's attacker was pushed over from behind as St. Charles North scrambled to get back on defense. That momentary lapse of organization cost the team a goal.

It wasn't one player's fault. It was a collective situation - and possibly not even the defense's complete fault. Should the midfield have cut off a pass or marked back or even taken a tactical foul in midfield to slow Boylan's progress? We'll never know, because none of those things happened.

St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said his team didn't play its best. That happens sometimes. Certainly over 100-plus minutes, the North Stars were competitive in the match and no one would have begrudged them a victory.

But although the two word answer as to why the team lost is "Boylan scored" - the longer answer is always more complex.

• Just a quick comment about something that happened at Waubonsie Valley last Saturday at one of the swimming pools at which I get to enjoy spending time through the fall or winter months.

St. Charles North's girls won the conference tournament for the first time in school history, and won by a very narrow margin over Neuqua Valley. The outcome was in doubt through the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.

After the teams had their post-meet cool-down swims and coaches had talked with their teams, Neuqua left the pool deck.

In unison, the Wildcats shouted "Nice job North Stars."

After locking horns for 3 hours, such a show of class and sportsmanship from Jennifer Heyer-Olsen's team was terrific - and Rob Rooney's North Stars responded warmly.

There is always a running commentary in high school sports about the quality of person athletics produces - and sometimes that statement is greeted with head-shaking as to the negative sort of people who play sports, or do anything else in life.

In this case, however, the quality was there for everyone to see.

Nice job Wildcats and nice job as well to the North Stars who took the gesture in the spirit of sportsmanship in which it was given.