North Stars post season's first win in home opener

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By Darryl Mellema

When you’re a senior girls soccer player – and St. Charles North has five of those this year – everything is a “last” – even if it’s a “last-first.”

For example, the North Stars opened the home portion of their schedule on Tuesday. This gave seniors such as Lisa Manski and Lauren Koehl a chance to talk afterward about their “last first home game,” a match the hosts won, 4-0 over Bartlett.

“It’s our first home game and we were trying to set the tone for the season,” Manski said. “It’s our last first home game. We wanted to focus on that and to set the tone.”

The win evened St. Charles North’s record at 1-1 and set them toward the first difficult stretch of the season, which hits its peak next week at the Downers Grove South Invitational.

“I think this gives us confidence,” Manski said. “I know we have a lot of new players and they got a lot of playing time today so I think that gives them confidence, knowing that they can play at this level.”

The North Stars (1-1) endured a tricky first half, playing into a strong wind and contending with their bumpy, uneven home field. The edge in chances favored St. Charles North, but they were unable to score.

“We talked about at halftime that we can’t control the wind and we can’t control the field – it’s hard as a rock and narrow,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “But it’s what we’re going to be playing on, so we’ve got to be paying attention.”

Given the conditions coupled with with Bartlett’s determined play, the North Stars needed to make some adjustments before the second half began.

“We just talked about being first to the ball, paying attention to your first touch and actually keeping possession,” Vostal said. “I think we did that much better in the second half.”

Given the early stage of the season, the North Stars attack appears to be working well together.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of time to run set pieces,” Vostal said. “We did a little bit of shooting (Monday) but it was just our pregame shooting. So I’m happy with the way we scored those goals and we did a little bit better job of creating those chances.”

Vostal went to talk to her team at halftime disappointed with what she had seen in the opening 40 minutes. She was somewhat more-pleased at the end of the match.

“Today, I look at it and say that we have a lot of things to work on,” Vostal said. “But at this point of the season, I think everyone does. So we’re just going to pick and choose what we work on.”

St. Charles North did generate chances in the first half – but Bartlett goalie Natalia Grodzki got to everything she was supposed to, and even a shot or two that most others wouldn’t have in order to keep the match scoreless.

And Grodzki made another point-blank save in the first 90 seconds of the second half. All that pressure made a goal likely, and the North Stars finally scored, with 38:02 left in the match. Koehl got the goal, stepping into the penalty area and delivering a 15-yard right-to-left shot into the net.

“It gets to the point where someone has to step up and take control,” Koehl said. “It just came over and I had to get it in.”

The pressure continued for the North Stars. Just after Koehl’s goal, Kenzie Rose shot narrowly wide. Then, from a free kick, Rose hit the ball on the ground toward Manski, who swiveled and hit a first-time shot that doubled the hosts’ lead.

“On the free kick, their defense wasn’t setting a line at all,” Manski said. “So I was just drifting back into the 6(-yard box.) I saw (Rose) and I think she was trying to loft it. But it went on the ground and I just ran back and flicked it right behind me.”

A dominant opening 10 minutes in the second half continued with the North Stars scoring once more. With 34 minutes left in the game, a weakly-cleared ball from the middle of the penalty area came to Kelly Manski. The ball ricocheted off Manski and back into the middle of the penalty area, from where Ashlyn Walter scored.

Koehl completed the night’s scoring when she took an Alyssa Brandt pass and scored with 19:18 to play.

“I think after the first half, we might have been a little nervous,” Koehl said. “We might have been a little on-edge. But eventually we settled down and got ahead of it.”

In the remaining quarter of the match, there was time for Grodzki to make one more key save, her eighth of the match.

“She had some fantastic saves,” Bartlett coach Heather Thomas said. “She is the reason we did not lose 9-0 or 8-0. She played an absolutely fantastic game.”

Bartlett was frustrated with the 0-0 halftime score. Having the wind at its back for those 40 minutes, the Hawks still struggled to test North Stars goalie Carly Dietrich.

“I’m a little discouraged,” Thomas said. “We knew in the first half, going with the wind, that we had to put some away early. It was going to be a challenge in the second half if we didn’t get them in.”

Still, the Hawks were not trailing at halftime and had 40 minutes to carve a winning goal. St. Charles North made sure that didn’t happen and rocked Bartlett with those four goals in just over 20 minutes.

“We talked about the important things, like keeping the ball on the ground and making sure that we worked it up through the midfield, got it to the forwards and to play it to their feet. We just didn’t do it,” Thomas said.

When Bartlett was piecing together its offense, especially in the first half, players like Ashley Johnson were key.

“Our center has its bright moments,” Thomas said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t string anything more than just a couple of passes together in that second half. We had some great first half moments.”

By the end of the match, the Hawks were certainly tired and frustrated. Thomas said she wanted her players to remember the feelings they had during the match.

“I want them to learn pride and playing together as a team – not giving up,” Thomas said. “We’re a small squad this year. We talked at halftime that just because you’re a center mid that you’re stuck in the center all the time. You need to recognize what your teammates are doing and cover them. You don’t want to forget about this. You want to remember how it felt and work on things that need to be worked on.”