Boys soccer: St. Charles North breaks away from Kaneland
Like a tailor handling proper suit fitting, St. Charles North's soccer team was in need of a few alterations after playing Kaneland to a 1-1 halftime deadlock Saturday morning.
"They're a hard-working team out there and I don't want to take anything away from them (the Knights) but I don't think we played our best in the first half," said North Stars coach Eric Willson. "I thought it was too much 50-50 and us dumping it in during the first half."
Senior Matt Beaulieu sparked a second-half resurgence with a pair of goals, and Gabriel D'Amico and Adam Bear also found the range during the North Stars' 5-1 nonconference victory in Maple Park.
"We made some adjustments for the second half," said Willson. "I thought we did a much better job of trying to find feet and working combinations. When we can combine like that, we get better scoring opportunities."
It also helps when you have a powerful striker on your side like Beaulieu.
His first goal, which gave the North Stars (2-0) the lead for good, came on a 30-yard free kick in the 47th minute.
Eight minutes later, Beaulieu rifled a left-footed blast over the Knights' keeper for a 3-1 North Stars' lead.
"The main thing I said to my teammates at halftime was, 'find my feet, find my feet,'" said Beaulieu. "Their center backs were dropping off and giving me lots of space so I knew I could take advantage of that."
Willson is happy to have a veteran like Beaulieu back from a team that placed fourth in the Class 3A state tournament a year ago.
"That kid is not too bad with that left foot," said Willson. "When you can return some key pieces from a successful year last year, I think that's a good starting point for helping the newer guys along."
Beaulieu has admittedly taken on more of a leadership role this season.
"I've kind of tried to take charge of this team," said Beaulieu. "Last year, I was more of a role player on and off the field. This year, I've moved into one of the impact players and trying to gain the respect of my teammates."
Junior Faizan Mohiuddin began the scoring for the North Stars when he converted on a cross from D'Amico midway through the opening half.
Eight minutes later, the Knights (0-2) notched the equalizer as freshman Cade Ory slid to convert a rebound after North Stars keeper Bobby Curran thwarted Alex Bass' 20-yard free kick.
"We've been telling them, 'crash, crash, crash,' and he crashed," Knights coach Scott Parillo said of Ory.
Parillo was pleased with his team's overall effectiveness during the first 40-plus minutes.
"If we could've stopped at 48 (minutes), we could've walked out of here happy campers," said the coach. "Unfortunately, the game is 80 minutes long. This seems to happen every year against them - the game is tied at 1-1 at halftime and somehow the wheels fall off or their depth takes over.
"We always front-load the schedule. It forces us to raise our level of play. I'd put our schedule up against anybody, especially for a 2A school. It paid off last year and we're hoping it pays off again this year."