North Stars capture another victory over Waunakee

By Darryl Mellema
Photos courtesy of Skip Behm

For a team that started the week with a gut-wrenching loss to Waubonsie Valley, St. Charles North recovered quite nicely.

The North Stars completed their next-to-last week of the regular season with a 3-2 victory over Waunakee, a school from Wisconsin.

Although St. Charles North led the entire game it had to play solidly against an opponent it was facing for the second time in eight days.

"We definitely fought back this week," North sophomore Lauren Koehl said. "We want to finish strong, to win all of our games and see what else happens."

Koehl scored one of St. Charles North's goals while Alyssa Peterson and Paige Dusek got the others.

Jennifer Dailey scored twice for Waunakee, though her goals couldn't prevent the North Stars from improving their record to 14-1-1.

"I think we played really well," Koehl said. "We played tough and fought through it against them."

The teams flew at each other from the opening whistle and North goalie Kristen Manski had to make a sharp save in the opening minutes.

Then almost as quickly, the North Stars were ahead. Peterson took the ball on the right, moved infield and then ripped a shot that went into the goal at the right post.

That goal came four minutes into the match. Manski made another solid save four minutes later but the rest of the half belonged to the host North Stars.

With their pressure increasing, Dusek latched onto a poor free kick, advanced quickly on goal and doubled the lead with five minutes left before halftime.

The only blemish on the half came when Dailey took a ball from the left on the volley on the right side of the penalty area and tore a shot into the left side netting.

"We've really been been working hard on combining and getting the ball toward the goal," North freshman Alex Gage said. "We have really fast forwards. We used to just give it to the forwards and tell them to run.

"But now we're really trying to get balls wide and mix up our ways to score. We really try to look for the open player."

The mostly one-way traffic continued in North's favor in the second half and the lead returned to two goals when Dusek poked the ball forward and Koehl scored after 11 minutes of play.

The North Stars could have gone further ahead with 17 minutes left after Koehl was taken down in the penalty area and a penalty kick was called.

But Peterson saw her initial shot saved and she put the rebound over the crossbar.

Nearly all the chances fell to North from this point. Leah DeMoss hit a left wing shot that went off both the crossbar and right post with five minutes to play.

Dailey had the final goal – at almost the exact time as when she scored her goal in the opening half.

"I wasn't disappointed in the goals," Vostal said. "The first was an amazing goal and I don't think anyone is going to save that.

"The second was a goal where the girl was unmarked on the weak side. It's something we knew they would do. They switch the ball pretty well, and that's something we're going to have to continue to work on."

The 'North' in St. Charles North's school name doesn't mean 'North of the Border.'

But the North Stars have played three games against Wisconsin-based opponents and they are 3-0 in those games.

Although they are a veteran team, the North Stars also have some key younger players who contribute.

On Saturday, freshman Alex Gage got some extended minutes on the field in central midfield and she excelled in the role.

"I'm really happy to get a lot of time," Gage said. "It's rough coming into this team. There are so many good girls.

"This team is amazing and you really have to work hard to keep up. I'm really happy with my playing time."

Gage is the younger sister of junior forward Sammi Gage. She and senior Tayler Giannini were among those whose playing presence increased against Waunakee.

"We were looking in the midfield to see if we had another person who could step up with the purpose of winning the ball out of the air," Vostal said. "We were struggling in the first half to do that and some of that was due to the wind.

"(Gage) is someone you can put in for five minutes or 80 minutes and she will run and fight. Both she and her sister work extremely hard. They're the nicest kids, but the effort they put in is unbelievable."

St. Charles North has one week and three matches left in the year and beyond that, the length of the season is anyone's guess but the North Stars were confident as they left their home field on Saturday.

"After we lost (to Waubonsie Valley), we saw that we can't let ourselves down or let our team down," Gage said. "We just have to move on and keep working hard and push through the rest of the season."

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