St. Charles North goes down with quite a fight

When St. Charles North girls soccer players talk about their team’s characteristics, the words that arrive very quickly are “fight” and “heart.”

And there’s no way to belittle or discount those traits, both of which were in evidence through the team’s postseason run, and especially as they played favored Naperville North on even terms for most of 119 minutes on Saturday in the Class 3A title game.

Then the Huskies’ Christa Szalach scored the game-winner 42 seconds from the end of the fourth overtime and the North Stars finished second.

The question, then, was posed to North Stars junior Alex Gage how she will look back on this match when she is old and reminiscing on her high school days.

“I can’t say I won’t be disappointed, because it wasn’t what we wanted,” Gage said. “But we tried so hard. We were supposed to go out earlier, but we proved everyone wrong. I’m just going to look back and think about how much heart we had and how much this team cared for each other. That’s what really matters. I love this team and it was awesome to see.”

It seems a long time ago, but the North Stars stumbled a bit toward the end of the regular season and suffered back-to-back defeats to York and Waubonsie Valley.

The postseason run was a completely different experience, however. Before Saturday night, St. Charles North won six straight and allowed only one goal. The team finished 19-6-2, tied for the third-most wins in school history and claimed the third state trophy for the program. The North Stars finished third in 2010 and were second in 2004.

“Everybody works for each other and fights for each other and that’s why we got so far,” Gage said. “We’re not somebody to play for ourselves individually. We play for each other and we play for the people who come out to see us and we play for our community — things that are so much bigger than ourselves.”

That tournament path included a number of obstacles. St. Charles East tied the North Stars in the regular season. So had Geneva, but St. Charles North won those playoff matches. Schaumburg and Barrington, the next opponents, were beaten on their home fields. In the semifinal, St. Charles North fell behind to Downers Grove South before rallying for a 2-1 victory.

“Everyone was always saying we were the underdogs and no one ever thought we were going to win anything,” St. Charles North sophomore Jenny Barr said. “The fact that we got all the way here is amazing. I am just so proud of everyone.”

No task on the North Stars’ team was larger than the one given to Jenny Barr, who was asked to man-mark Naperville North’s 25-goalscorer Zoie Swift. Through the match, Swift had a few touches and did get free — but those moments were limited as Barr accomplished her task to perfection.

“We knew she was fast and had really good foot skills,” Barr said. “It wasn’t the best forward I’ve ever had to man-mark. But I knew I had to stay on her and just act like it’s another competition that was standing in front of my desire to get first place.”

Swift was injured late in the match and was on the sidelines getting treatment when Szalach took Hunter Drendel’s right ring pass and scored.

“A couple of times (Swift) beat me and a couple of times I won — it was a good fight,” Barr said.

The North Stars had three seniors on the field in Saturday’s match: Carly Dietrich, Lauren Koehl and Carleigh Dusek. Lisa Manski suffered a back injury late in the season and was unable to play in the tournament.

“Each of them has brought something different to the program,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “They are all great leaders. I could talk a ton about all of them. But I think as a group, they have led this team where they wanted it to go this year.”