Girls soccer: St. Charles North bests Batavia

In a sport where scoring is always at a premium, goals always shift things in a soccer match. No matter which team has the momentum, a ball in the back of the net is truly match-altering in ways that often extend beyond the scoreboard.

St. Charles North showed how those shifts work in Tuesday's 2-0 girls soccer victory over Batavia in the Crosstown Showdown's second match at Geneva's Burgess Field.

After early domination by Batavia, St. Charles North took the lead when Jordan Karom hit a shot that was half-saved to Morgan Rerko's feet. Rerko did the rest to put the North Stars ahead 1-0.

With that lead, the North Stars immediately settled into a match they hardly looked relaxed in through those scoreless six minutes that had elapsed.

"One of the things I've been proud of this group has been their ability to adapt to a game," St. Charles North coach Brian Harks said. "I thought Batavia started off really energetic and they were creating opportunities. One goal changes the tempo and it gave our girls more confidence. We relaxed and started connecting more."

St. Charles North struck again 8 minutes before halftime when K.B. Kussworm put in a rebound from a non-cleared Hailey Rydberg corner kick.

Batavia (12-4, 3-1 UEC River) midway through the first half and began to move fluidly through the midfield, though they proved unable to score.

"I hate giving up bad goals, and the first goal was a bad goal," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "That was disappointing. And the second one, we had that corner kick play on our scouting report, and we didn't clean it up. Soccer's a cruel game. You can kind of dominate play and make connections and everything, and you don't win."

That Batavia momentum continued through the second half, especially with some Megan McEachern shots that forced some sharp saves from North Stars keeper Sami Sample. Rachel Reinecke also forced a Sample save.

"I think it took a while to get the response, but we played the whole 80 minutes - our girls never gave up," Batavia's Keegan Maris said.

St. Charles North (11-3-1, 3-0) found its own fluid passing through midfield as well. Much of the play moved through Rydberg and ultimately to Gia Wahlberg, who received the ball time and again in dangerous attacking positions.

"One of the things we struggled with early in the season was that when we're up, we don't want to let in stupid goals in the last minutes of a game. We've gotten better at that, and I think we're going to continue to get better at that," Wahlberg said.

Batavia had a three-match winning streak snapped against Collinsville on Saturday and the Bulldogs face Oswego this Saturday trying to return to winning ways.

"It's disappointing," Maris said. "We came out to win, and I think we should be really proud of how we played tonight. Everybody gave it their all. It's just hard because we didn't get the result."

Batavia has a strong finish to its regular season, hosting St. Charles East on May 10 and hosting Geneva two nights later in the final home girls soccer match before the school installs an artificial surface pitch this summer.

"I think it motivates us," Maris said. "This loss will make us play harder. We've got to play well. Our team has grown so much. We have a great team rhythm and chemistry. We're going to keep building."

St. Charles North is near the end of its regular season as well, with the completion of the April 25 match against Geneva taking place on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The teams are tied 1-1 with three-quarters of the match remaining.

After that, the North Stars have only matches with Neuqua Valley and Streamwood before the postseason.

"We're never where we want to be," Harks said. "We always want to feel a little bit dissatisfied, because we always want a little more for ourselves. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward."

Though the tournament is coming close, the North Stars have spent their entire regular season preparing for the postseason.

"We try to play every match like it's a championship," Wahlberg said. "It doesn't matter if it's a conference game or not. I'm not getting nervous about it yet, and I know we want to play the next game as hard as the last game."