Soccer: St. Charles North, Geneva earn wins at annual Tri-Cities Night

Honoring the courage, perseverance and strength of Batavia student Sydney Mowen, four of the area's top soccer programs battled on Tuesday during the annual Tri-Cities Night at Batavia.

After St. Charles North beat St. Charles East 4-1 in the opener, Geneva blanked Batavia 4-0 in the nightcap.

The games were played for more than the DuKane Conference standings. They were played for Mowen, who was born with a congenital heart defect.

The North Stars (12-3-1) jumped ahead 3-0 at the half behind a pair of Bella Najera goals and another from Juliana Park.

They had just beaten the Saints 2-1 just five days ago in the Naperville Invite.

"Players can go one of two ways," North Stars coach Brian Harks said. "You're either overconfident and don't play up to your performance, or you're like these girls. They stepped up to the challenge and refocused and maintained a lot of momentum."

Rian Spaulding, who assisted on the first two goals, joined in the fun, making it 4-0 in the 52nd minute.

St. Charles East (16-2) broke the shutout thanks to a PK from Mackenzie Loomis.

Audrey Stredde wasted little time making an impact in her first Tri-Cities Night game for Geneva.

The Vikings freshman scored barely 10 minutes into the game against Batavia. Then, with just 1:28 left before halftime, she blasted in another insurance goal to extend the lead to 3-0.

"This was my first time experiencing (Tri-Cities Night) so I didn't know what to expect," Stredde said. "Big crowd with everyone excited to be playing. I thought we played really well."

Evyn Schokora, whose beautiful cross lead to Stredde's first goal, scored midway through the opening half.

"Rilee (Hasegawa) is really good with the ball, and she was at the top of the 18 and I knew she would lay it off to me," Schokora said. "I made a run and she found me. That was a great pass from Rilee."

Morgan Rudowicz finished the scoring with 6:49 remaining.

"It was amazing how well we played today," she said. "It was especially crazy with the wind. I thought we did really well."