St. Charles East gets respect, regional championship

Entering Saturday's Class 3A regional soccer championship clash, St. Charles East felt a bit disrespected by some observers.

For starters, the Saints came in as the fifth seed against fourth-seeded St. Charles North - a team that St. Charles East had beaten, 5-3, a month ago.

"Going into this game, we knew that we were underdogs basically and that people didn't respect us," said Saints senior midfielder Truitt Battin.

Respected or not, the Saints (13-7) captured their second regional title in 3 years with a 2-0 victory over the North Stars (12-6-1) in blustery conditions at Norris Stadium.

Battin played an important role, scoring the game's first goal in the 12th minute off a scramble in front of the North Stars' net.

Senior teammate Luke Schnitker sent a cross from just inside the corner toward the goal, and after a player fanned on a shot, Battin deposited his point-blank attempt.

"As soon as we got the ball wide on the give and go, I just had to follow it up and boom - I got a goal," said Battin.

"Our goal was to get the first goal and get some momentum going."

Both goalkeepers - St. Charles East's Jack Settle (7 saves) and St. Charles North's Bobby Curran (10 saves) - came up with diving stops during a first half filled with solid scoring opportunities.

"For us in this spot, we needed to get something early," said North Stars coach Eric Willson. "I thought we came out with a really good game plan and I felt we had the run of play at the start of the game.

"We had them on their heels but we didn't execute in the final third when we had some good scoring opportunities. When you don't do that, it can come back to bite you. It came back to bite us today."

Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo also felt his team left some potential goals on the field in the first 40 minutes.

"I liked the way we executed in the beginning but I thought we struggled to find the net and wasted a couple critical chances that we can't afford to do going forward," said DiNuzzo.

With 11:31 remaining in the second half, the Saints added some breathing room when Battin found Schnitker to extend the lead to 2-0.

"We knew we needed to get another one," said Battin. "It all worked out well."

Seniors Adam Bear, Matt Beaulieu, Michael Cooke, Vito Lagioia, Logan Michels, Nico Ragano, and Joey Sommer closed out their high school careers for the North Stars, who placed fourth in the state last season.

"Any time you don't win that last game of the season, it's a little bit too early," said Willson. "Our seniors are a great group of kids."

Meanwhile, the Saints advance to Tuesday's 4:30 p.m. Addison Trail sectional semifinals against Lake Park.

"We came out strong," said Battin. "That was our motivation - just winning and proving everyone wrong."

"I told them we've got to win when it counts and we did today," added DiNuzzo.