Girls soccer: St. Charles North bounces back to beat Geneva

Having its 58-game regular season unbeaten streak snapped during last Thursday's 2-1 loss to Batavia, St. Charles North's girls soccer team entered Monday night's match against Geneva in an unfamiliar situation.

So much for the "losing" streak.

The North Stars (15-1-1, 5-1) jumped out to a 2-0 halftime advantage and withstood some solid second-half pressure from the Vikings (9-5-1, 3-3) on the way to their 3-1 DuKane Conference victory that kicked off the annual Tri-Cities Night at St. Charles East.

"You always have to learn from it and understand the mistakes that we made," North Stars senior CeCe Wahlberg said of the team's loss to Batavia. "You see how we can adjust to make ourselves better."

The North Stars accomplished that goal, especially during the first 40 minutes, as junior Sarah Andrey dribbled through a pair of Geneva defenders before sending a low right-footed blast into the corner of the net for a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute.

A little more than 15 minutes later, Wahlberg notched what turned out to be the game-winning goal to extend the North Stars' lead to 2-0.

"I saw her (Geneva keeper Katie Montgomery) coming heavy one way so I knew if I cut back it would be a better angle for me to shoot," said Wahlberg. "Luckily, I put it away."

"I liked the way that our girls generated chances although there were a couple that we let slip away," said North Stars coach Brian Harks, whose team outshot the Vikings 11-5 in the opening half.

Midway through the second half, the Vikings sliced the deficit in half as freshman Alana Rawls patiently waited for a high pass from teammate Jenna Dominguez and redirected the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-1.

"I just wanted to get it into the back of the net," said Rawls. "It was an awesome pass."

A few minutes later, the Vikings nearly scored the equalizer as Kelly Anderson's header off a free kick from Kaitlyn Cannon sailed just over the crossbar.

"We all got our heads back in the game after our goal and played like we usually do," said Rawls. "We all kind of picked it up."

With 10:13 remaining, Andrey got tripped from behind in the box and junior teammate Sami Rydberg converted the penalty kick to provide the North Stars added insurance.

"After giving up a goal, I thought we regrouped really well and regained focus," said Harks. "I thought we put together a nice 80 minutes tonight."

Montgomery and North Stars senior keeper Sara Maleski recorded 10 and 8 saves, respectively, several of which were of the spectacular variety.

"It was a crazy game," said Wahlberg. "The keepers were probably two of the best players on the field for both teams."