Working outside keys SCN's attack

It's been a dozen years since Bush's "Machinehead" brought the words "breathe in, breathe out" to stadiums all over the U.S.

Without the audio track, St. Charles North brought that phrase to Wheaton North's Rexilius Field on Tuesday.

Time and again, especially in the run-up to their first goal, the North Stars worked the ball to the middle, drew Wheaton North in, then shifted the ball to the wing -- before sending the ball back across the goal, where Wheaton North efficiently dealt with the danger.

Except each time the North Stars sent their team into a breathing pattern, the Falcons got just that little bit more stretched. With 4 minutes left in the opening half, Alecia Natale got the ball on the right wing, sent it just outside the 6-yard box on the ground and Alex Messacar scored.

"We just needed that one goal to get us some momentum," Messacar said. "From that point, we were ready to go and to finish it off."

The 2-0 Wheaton North sectional championship victory moves the North Stars to within one victory of a state quarterfinal match. To get there, St. Charles North has to upend defending champion Waubonsie Valley, which is undefeated this year and stopped the North Stars 1-0 in Upstate Eight Conference play.

"The last time we had one of these was in 2004," Messacar said. "We all went and looked at the plaque before the game. It pretty much gave us incentive to want to win this game, to want to do this for each other and for our seniors."

There's no denying the quality of Natale's pass. And, as they say, the goal had been coming. The North Stars got outside Wheaton North's wide midfield players with frequency in the final 20 minutes of the first half. Whether Natale or Paige Dusek or Alyssa Peterson, the North Stars were able to "breathe" the ball outside before exhaling it back into Wheaton North's penalty area.

"We knew that their midfield was very strong," Natale said. "We discussed the need to go to the outside and to take it down the line and then to cross the ball."

Once the technique worked, the North Stars continued to work the successful pattern.

"We just kept going and reminded ourselves that it's not over until 80 minutes," Natale said. "We lost to (Wheaton North) the last three years in the playoffs. We had so much heart going into this game."

That goal breathed life into the North Stars' victory chances, something that became nearly airtight when Maggie Hamilton got on the end of a Lauren Ostarello long ball 13 minutes into the second half. Hamilton stayed onside, trapped the ball then shot to complete the match scoring.

Hamilton started onside, then took off as the ball floated over Wheaton North's defense. She received it between defenders and one-on-one with the Falcons goalie.

"I wasn't sure if the keeper was going to get it," Hamilton said. "I wanted to at least put pressure on the keeper. I saw she wasn't going to get it, so I stuck out my head to get something on it. I got something."

Hamilton played centrally behind the front runners for much of Thursday's game and acknowledged that the "breathe in, breathe out" pattern didn't just come about by chance.

"We practice getting it into the middle, getting it to the outsides and then crossing it in," Hamilton said. "We do that a lot in practice so it's just a habit for us to do it."

Some habits, like breathing, are hard to break. And this particular habit keeps the North Stars alive and kicking through Memorial Day weekend.