Girls soccer: St. Charles North avenges loss to Batavia

St. Charles North junior forward Anna Weyman talked about how important it was to get the first goal at Tuesday's Class 3A Schaumburg girls soccer sectional semifinal.

"It was so sweet," said Weyman. "I was so fortunate. We were playing hard and hustling, so it was nice to see it hit the back of the net."

Weyman scored in the ninth minute for the top-seeded Stars against Batavia; 2 more goals midway through the first half staked North to a 3-0 lead. The North Stars held off the Bulldogs the rest of the way to score a 3-1 win.

CeCe Wahlberg and Sami Rydberg tallied the other scores for St. Charles North, while CeCe Hamann scored the Bulldogs goal.

Alyssa Kraft received the Stars "shield" after the game (a wooden crest) from her teammates for outstanding play.

"It's an award the girls themselves pass from player to player," said North Stars coach Brian Harks, "something they do to award excellence not only in games but also in practice. She stepped up tonight and did well in pressure situations, and did a great job containing."

"It's an honor," said Kraft, "but everyone who was on the field for us tonight deserved it."

"It was a relief for us to get up by three goals tonight," added the junior. "We lost to them (Batavia) last time, so to get that jump on them gave us some extra confidence."

Wahlberg scored with 22:12 remaining in the opening half, then Rydberg followed up with another goal less than a minute later.

A penalty kick from Hamann moments after cut the lead to 3-1, then it was defense time in the second half for the North Stars.

"It's a pretty big win," said sophomore defenseman Makenna Collins. "We knew we had to get this one, since we lost to them the first time we faced them."

"At halftime we talked about settling in. The last 20 minutes of this game was all about keeping the lead and keeping the ball."

St. Charles North had chances to extend the lead in the final 40 minutes but a couple of well thought-out corner kicks just failed to convert.

The North Stars' back line was able to hold off the Bulldogs' attack late.

"This is awesome," said North sophomore Grace Barresi. "Batavia is a very skilled team up top and everywhere around."

"Even though we were up by three goals," added Barresi, "we still had to be strong."