Boys lacrosse: St. Charles North’s comeback win at Geneva moves North Stars into second in DuKane
St. Charles North’s boys lacrosse team clinched a share of second place in the DuKane Conference after outlasting Geneva 13-11 in a back-and forth match Friday at Burgess Field in Geneva.
The win raised the North Stars’ league record to 5-2. If Geneva can bounce back on Saturday and down Wheaton North, 4-2 in conference, St. Charles North will have sole possession of the second spot. Wheaton Warrenville South won the DuKane crown with a 7-0 mark.
“It took every single one of us. We looked at the matchups, and we went with our strongest one and we fed them the ball,” St. Charles North coach Mark Kawalek said. “We got everybody involved. It was just a team effort.”
Tied 4-4 at the start of the second half, the teams combined for seven goals in the first six minutes of the third period. Geneva’s Joe Padgett’s fourth goal of the contest ended the scoring barrage and put the Vikings up, 9-6.
St. Charles North started a comeback on an Aiden Doherty goal with 2:17 left in the frame. The senior opened the fourth quarter by scoring his third score of the contest. Aiden McClure’s breakaway strike at the 8:33 mark of the final frame tied the match at 9-all.
Back-to-back Daniel Escaro goals put the North Stars in front 11-9 with 5:19 left to play. A Doherty goal followed to extend St. Charles North’s lead to 12-9.
Geneva (9-7, 3-3) rallied with less than three minutes to play. Hunter Lindell and Padgett found the back of the net to make it a one-score game, 12-11, with 1:31 left on the clock.
Escaro closed out the scoring on a power-play goal with 28 seconds left to play.
The senior, who scored four times, agreed the win was a whole squad endeavor.
“It was a full team effort, not just me. It started with our freshman goalie (Ford Zanders) and with the clears,” Escaro said. “We had a slow start, and we knew that we had to finish as a team and that the energy just carried us through.”
Doherty also scored four times.
Geneva jumped out to an early lead in the match, scoring all the goals in the first period for a 3-0 lead. Padgett knocked in two of his five tallies in the frame.
Three straight North Star goals, two by Matthew Benton and one by RJ Henson, knotted the match at 3-3 with 6:49 left until intermission. Padgett and Doherty exchanged scores to kept the match tied.
“We're a young team and we're still learning. We didn't take care of business tonight,” said Geneva coach Drew Schout. “When we had our opportunities, we didn't execute, and they did so they took advantage of our mishaps.”
Friday’s win, St. Charles North’s regular season finale, raised its overall record to 11-6.