Boys soccer: St. Charles North blanks Rolling Meadows

After a scoreless first half, most soccer teams look to their offense for help.

St. Charles North took the opposite approach during Tuesday afternoon's Class 3A Bartlett regional semifinal clash with Rolling Meadows in Streamwood.

The result was a 4-goal second half as the third-seeded North Stars (14-4-3) pulled away for a 4-0 victory over the 14th-seeded Mustangs (7-11-1) at Millennium Field.

"The talk at halftime was everything we do stems from our defensive pressure and our energy," said North Stars coach Eric Willson. "I think there was a better commitment from top to bottom in the way that we defended and the way that we pressed them.

"Because of that, we were able to get more opportunities in front of the goal."

One of those opportunities came in the opening minutes of the second half as senior midfielder Alex Amro converted off a scramble in front of the net with a blistering shot that found the low left side of the net.

"We've practiced so many shooting drills," said Amro. "All of us were ready to put that ball in the back of the net."

The game's first goal seemed to serve as a tension reliever for the North Stars.

"It really picked up our energy level," said Amro.

Seven minutes later, the North Stars extended their lead to 2-0 when junior forward Dylan Mientus took a feed from Luke Denson and sent a 1-touch shot that caromed off the left post and into the net.

Junior forward Johnny Acevedo scored on a header off a beautiful cross from Blake Tierney to make it 3-0 before junior midfielder Ryan Olson capped the scoring 6 minutes later with a back-foot tap past Mustangs keeper Pan Zervas (14 saves).

"That has been the story of our season," Willson said of receiving goals from 4 different players. "We don't have one particular guy scoring the majority of our goals. I think that makes us pretty dangerous. We can beat you in a number of ways."

Rolling Meadows, outshot 20-4 in the second half, had a couple decent first-half scoring opportunities.

North Stars keeper Zack Norton made a save on a low shot by Jacob Koutas midway through the half while Edgar Avolos sent a left-footed blast just wide with 6:50 left before halftime.

"We were trying to get the ball wide and that's how we got both of those (scoring chances)," said Mustangs coach Peter Mikulak. "Getting out on the front foot is often times important. I think that would have given us a lot of momentum."

Mikulak admitted his team was outplayed the rest of the way.

"I think they came out and played a little bit tougher than we did in the second half," said the coach. "They were winning the majority of head balls and scooping up the majority of second balls. We were making things difficult on ourselves there."

Norton notched 5 saves as the North Stars earned their sixth shutout in 7 games.

"We played good team soccer tonight," said Willson.

St. Charles North will face sixth-seeded Bartlett (13-7-2) in Saturday's regional title game.

"We're going to be in for a dogfight," said Willson.