St. Charles North blanks Batavia

St. Charles North is clicking.

The North Stars haven't wrapped up an Upstate Eight Conference River title yet but they appear well on their way after taking care of Batavia, 2-0, on Tuesday night.

A strong defensive effort certainly shut down the Bulldogs.

"I think the first thing we try to emphasize is our defense and it comes with our defensive pressure up top," North Stars coach Eric Willson said. "Our back line is playing in unison right now and we hope our offense can transfer from there."

St. Charles North (12-3-2, 4-0-0) took a 1-0 lead, which would prove to be all the scoring it would need, with 6:47 left in the opening half.

Jonathan Acevedo took advantage of a great pass from standout Alex Amro.

"Amro played a great ball there and I just happened to be there and slotted it in," Aceevedo said. "Alex has been great. He's had a lot of assists and really helped set us up."

It was also Amro that gave the North Stars some breathing room with 30:06 left in the game as his goal made it 2-0.

The Bulldogs fought hard to rebound but never truly threatened the rest of the way.

"Obviously, they are having a good season and finished their chances," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "We had some young guys in there and they connected some passes but it wasn't enough."

"That was nice," Acevedo said. "We had been working so hard to get our chances."

The North Stars may have been short of recent success in the annual Tri-Cities matches, but so far they are having a lot of fun with only Geneva remaining on this year's schedule.

"Our history definitely has not been great," Willson said. "This year had a lot to do with our execution and the guys we have. We have a special group of players playing together right now who have trained first and that's been a big key."