Casey scores twice to help North Stars get draw with Warriors

By Eddie Burns

Jared Casey bailed out his St. Charles North teammates on Thursday night.

Casey scored a pair of second-half goals to help the host North Stars rally for a 2-2 draw against Waubonsie Valley in an Upstate Eight Conference crossover match.

He scored the tying goal with 53.9 seconds remaining to stun the Warriors.

The goal was set up by an accurate throw in from teammate Zack Matuszak, who found Casey and his 6-foot-2 frame near the top of the 6-yard box and Casey flicked it past Waubonsie goalie Sean Elvert.

"I was just trying to finish strong," said Casey, who also scored earlier in the second half.

"There wasn't much time left. I was just trying to get a header on goal. Zack made a great throw and it worked out for us."

Elvert didn't have a realistic chance to make a save on Casey's goal.

"I had no chance to react," Elvert said. "(Casey) was at the top of the 6-yard box. It was a great throw and we weren't able to check their runners. Casey had a great game."

St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said the plan was to utilize Matuszak's accurate throws.

"We got a kid in Zack who can really fire the ball in there and we saw that Jared was having a lot of success winning balls in the middle and winning balls in the air," Willson said.

"So we knew there toward the end of the game if we got a chance down that far sideline that we had to calm down and let Zack go out there and throw it and see if we can't get the ball on one of our big guys' heads and he executed the play."

The North Stars (2-0-1) danced around and celebrated like they had won, but they didn't. Now, had they played the first half like they did the final 40 minutes, they might have pulled out a victory.

However, for the second time in three matches, St. Charles North looked sluggish in the early moments and paid for it.

"I think this team is capable of the best, but we just came out slow again," St. Charles North forward Joe Stone said. "We were able to make some plays to pull even and that was good to see."

So what exactly was the difference in the second half?

"Plain and simple -- we played a lot harder with more heart," Stone said.\

It certainly was a tale of two halves.

The North Stars hardly mustered much of anything in the offensive third as Waubonsie built a 2-0 halftime lead.

Everything changed in the second half. Stone had two close calls as him and teammates Connor Lefelstein, David Farr and Trent Coyle began to apply pressure in around Elvert and Waubonsie's penalty area.

Casey eventually cut Waubonsie's lead in half when he blasted home a left-footed shot from near the penalty area in the 51st minute.

From there, the North Stars continued to create dangerous scoring chance before they eventually pulled even.

"We were two different teams for sure," Willson said. "It is hard not to be proud of a team that can come out and come back on a team like Waubonsie.

"I mean, Waubonsie is so well-coached and so well-disciplined and to be able to come back and at least get a draw – we're happy. At the same time, this is two out of three games now where we've been poor in the first half.

"We're a growing team and we're still learning how to play that full 80 like we're capable of, but it is a long season and we have some time to sort that out."