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Boys soccer: St. Charles North tunes up for PepsiCo final with shutout of Burlington C.

St. Charles North's boys soccer team did some multi-tasking Saturday afternoon.

Tuning up for Sunday's PepsiCo Showdown championship clash with the state's top-ranked team - Morton (11-0-1) - the North Stars (9-1-3) celebrated Senior Day with a 4-0 nonconference triumph over Burlington Central (4-4-5) in St. Charles.

Seniors David Gorniak and Dylan Mientus scored first-half goals for the North Stars, who displayed their versatility while peppering the Rockets with 16 shots over the first 40 minutes.

"We had a very balanced attack today," said North Stars coach Eric Willson. "We got different guys not only opportunities but they took full advantage of those opportunities."

A little more than 10 minutes into the match, Gorniak recorded his seventh goal of the season off a picture-perfect feed across the goalmouth from 4-year varsity midfielder Ryan Olson to give the North Stars a 1-0 lead.

"It was right to my feet," Gorniak said of the pass. "The best part of the day was getting the first goal for our team, celebrating and seeing the smile on everyone's faces."

Mientus extended the North Stars' cushion to 2-0 with a 35-yard blast that caromed off the inside of the right post and trickled across the goal line in the 35th minute.

Junior Bernard Elegbede capped a superb week, scoring the North Stars' third goal just 4 minutes into the second half before sophomore Mitchell Bricker capped the offensive with his goal in the game's final minute.

"We showed a lot of depth today," said Willson, whose senior group includes Jonathan Acevedo, Luke Denson, Adam Fries, Sean O'Leary, and Matt McCullough. "It was important to recognize those kids (seniors) and fun to watch them play well."

Freshman keeper Bobby Curran made a pair of saves while recording the shutout in his first varsity start.

"I think he played well for the opportunities he had around the ball," said Willson, whose squad aims for its first PepsiCo Showdown title at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Illinois Tech in Chicago.

"I don't think we anticipated having a game on Sunday," said the coach. "We always hope we are going to be in that final so it was important that we got a lot of guys the rest that they need to play (Sunday). We're going to play an extremely difficult team and hope that we can give them a game."

Junior keeper Ryan Parsons recorded 14 saves for the Rockets, who enjoyed the challenge of facing a talented St. Charles North team.

"I'm very happy with the way we competed," said Rockets coach Mick Galeski. "This is one of the best teams in the state. There were a lot of mistakes but a lot of opportunities to learn from them. These teams expose you. We'll take a lot out of this game.

"We don't see teams like this every week so it's important for us to get the most out of it."

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