Girls soccer: St. Charles North knocks off Naperville Central in Naperville invite quarters
St. Charles North senior Bella Najera expects to be tightly marked every game.
The Michigan State recruit rightly draws a lot of attention from opponents.
That was the case again in the opening minute of Thursday's Naperville Invitational quarterfinal against Naperville Central.
Najera was bringing the ball up on a counterattack and was quickly swarmed. That left junior Juliana Park wide open in the middle of the field, which was a good thing for the North Stars.
"I was trying to dribble and I saw a bunch of defenders around me," Najera said. "I saw 'Parky' wide open on top of the box and I know she has that great shot, so I just passed it to her.
"I trusted her and she made a great shot."
Indeed, Park ripped a 30-yard shot into the upper right corner of the Naperville Central net just 55 seconds into the match. It was the opening salvo of an entertaining 3-1 victory for St. Charles North at Memorial Stadium.
"They didn't step to me, so I just saw the goal open," Park said. "I was like, 'I'll just shoot it.'"
St. Charles North coach Brian Harks was glad Park opened fire. It was Park's fourth goal of the season.
"She's definitely capable of pulling the trigger from the outside," Harks said. "Bella made a nice pass.
"Park had a little bit of space and she put a great hit on frame and the ball knuckled quite a bit and seemed to have the keeper confused. It was a great start and a fantastic way to start the game."
It was just the beginning of another great game for Najera, who finished with a goal and two assists to lead the North Stars (10-2-1), who will face crosstown rival St. Charles East (16-0) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at Memorial Stadium. Barrington (11-0-2) will play Naperville North (9-3-1) in the other semifinal at 5 p.m.
"It was super exciting," Najera said. "We obviously played them before and we tied 0-0 (on April 8), so we really wanted to come out and prove ourselves.
"We came out with a lot of momentum. 'Parky' scored right away, which is awesome and we just tried to dominate the game, keep possession, win the air balls, which I think we did good at."
Najera made it 2-0 when she bounced a 29-yard free kick past Naperville Central goalkeeper Emma Dray at the 3:23 mark of the first half. She then assisted on Laney Stark's goal which extended the lead to 3-0 with 31:50 remaining in the second half.
Northwestern-bound star Megan Norkett scored the only goal for the host Redhawks (6-2-1) on a great individual effort with 15:58 left. But St. Charles North goalkeeper Kara Claussner, who finished with eight saves, stopped Norkett twice with difficult saves, and Naperville Central also had shots hit the crossbar and post.
"We did not execute in the final third, which is a huge thing, and there were some sequences where I'm like, 'How did we not score?'" Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. "We hit a post, we hit a crossbar, (Claussner) made an unbelievable save on Megan."