Girls soccer: St. Charles North denies rival for sectional title
One game doesn't define a season.
But beating a team three times in the past seven weeks, including in a sectional championship game, does make quite the lasting impression.
St. Charles North continued its dominance against crosstown rival St. Charles East during Saturday afternoon's Class 3A Schaumburg sectional final, beating the Saints 3-1.
The North Stars, who have lost just once to the Saints in 15 years, advance to Tuesday's Barrington supersectional against the two-time defending state champion host Fillies, the same team that handed the North Stars their only loss a season ago.
"I think it's a completely different game this year," North Stars junior Sami Rydberg said. "We have two completely different teams. We're strong and we don't look at last year and think anything of it. It's just the next game that we've got to win."
The North Stars (19-1-1) struck first with 31:53 remaining in the game as Sarah Andrey dribbled to maneuver past a defender and then beat Saints keeper Grace Griffin with a left-footed shot from 18 yards away.
"I just want it so bad and as a team we all want it," Andrey said. "This is our year. I just want to help my team anyway I can. It just happens people are giving me balls and I've got to finish my opportunities."
That elated feeling of a lead didn't last very long for the North Stars, who actually trailed 1-0 in their two come-from-behind victories over the Saints during the regular season, as they surrendered the equalizer less than two minutes later.
The Saints' all-everything junior, Alondra Carranza, pried the ball away from North Stars keeper Sara Maleski and deposited it into the back of the net to pull the teams even at 1-1.
Some teams might fall apart after having the positive energy vacuumed out of them, but the North Stars just proceed to the next play. Perhaps they can thank Batavia for that.
"We knew with being down at Batavia (2-1 loss on May 2) that we could not stop fighting," North Stars senior Claudia Najera said. "Having that experience of losing really helped us learn to go onto the next play. Today we had 30 more minutes, so there was plenty of time to keep fighting."
Ultimately it paid off when Rydberg kept her poise and scored off a corner kick from Cece Wahlberg with 21:25 remaining.
"You know when you lose the lead or if you're down, you almost use it to motivate you," Rydberg said. "That just made us want to get another (goal) and we just came back stronger."
Andrey's goal off a free kick from Grace Barresi with just under eight minutes remaining gave the North Stars some added insurance, all but ending the Saints' fantastic season at 22-6.
"It was a nice season for us overall, but the expectations has to be getting past this point because (the North Stars) aren't going away," Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. "We have to get over that hurdle and a lot of it is mental with us, but we made too many mistakes in back to win the game."
It's often said that it's difficult beating a team three times, but the North Stars did it.
"We knew they were out to get us and it was going to be one of our toughest games all season," Najera said. "They were just the next team we had to go through. We had a common goal of moving on to the supersectional, we achieved that and I'm really proud of our team."