There have been recent seasons when St. Charles North posted a great overall record despite having a very difficult time beating local Upstate Eight River Conference foes, including Batavia, Geneva and crosstown St. Charles East.

This fall, the North Stars have had a difficult time beating most teams as they’ve struggled to find consistency, taking the field on Tuesday night against Batavia with only four wins in 14 matches.

But thanks to a pair of first half goals and a strong defensive effort that minimized Batavia’s scoring chances, the North Stars picked up their first victory since Sept. 13 and just third win of the month, beating the Bulldogs 2-1 at St. Charles East’s Norris Stadium.

“It’s common knowledge with sports that when you get into a losing streak, and then get into a tight game, that’s it’s hard for (players) not have in their mind that something bad is going to happen,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said. “They wonder ‘What’s going to cause us to lose this game?’ and I was really proud of the boys because they didn’t allow that to get into their minds and believed they could get it done, so it’s good.”

It certainly helped that the North Stars were able to get on the scoreboard midway through the first half and then add an all-important second goal just before halftime.

Junior Matt Picinich, who had just entered the game, pounced on a loose ball and set it into the back of the net with 19:16 left in the half.

“I think we subbed him in 20 seconds before he scored,” Willson said. “That’s a pretty good percentage. If he could do that every time, I think we’d be pretty happy with that.”

St. Charles North (5-8-2, 2-2-0) finished the half strong and with resilience. Senior Kyle Swanson blasted a shot off of Batavia keeper Nick Foster, but Foster was able to bat it away. The North Stars were unable to capitalize on their ensuring corner kick but they were able to secure possession again before halftime and Swanson buried his next shot with 24 seconds left to make it 2-0.

It was definitely a backbreaking goal for the Bulldogs.

“I thought we started out really well for the first 15 to 20 minutes sitting back in our shell and breaking out really well,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “I thought we came out pretty confident playing the ball to feet but we gave up both goals by playing poor defense.”

Batavia (2-10-2, 1-5) nearly recovered before the mid-game break when Kyle Rakos was able to take a last-second shot from straight in front of the goal, but St. Charles North keeper Billy Larsen was lined up perfectly to safely snag Rakos’ effort.

While goals via throws happen all the time in water polo, they rarely happen in soccer, but the Bulldogs were able to cut their deficit in half with an unconventional
goal with 27:05 left in the contest.

Converted goalkeeper Michael Rueffer, who has been asked to play a different role for the remainder of the season, notched his third goal of 2012 on the throw-in.

Rueffer, who is just one of five seniors on Batavia’s roster, inadvertently fired his throw-in too far but Larsen botched the save as it bounded off of his hands before resting comfortably in the back of the net.

As luck would have it, throwing in a goal rather than heading or kicking one in, is something Rueffer’s teammates have at least teased him about.

“They’ve joked about my long throw-ins and that I should just throw one in some time,” he said. “Of course, why would I want to just throw it in because then it would be a goal kick, why would I want to do that? I just tried to run a play and get everyone of the end line and then pop it right back out. I have to admit the ball slipped a bit and I got lucky that he didn’t catch it, but I’m not sure what (Larsen) was arguing with the officials about.”

Rueffer’s previous two goals this season came on headers.

Larsen admitted that his attention wasn’t fully on Rueffer’s rare play.

“I was trying to get my team organized and the ref was telling everybody to stay off each other. I just got distracted,” Larsen said. “The throw came in and I just wasn’t set.”

It proved to be the only goal Larsen and the North Stars allowed though as they limited Batavia’s scoring chances, although they were unable themselves to put the Bulldogs away with any second-half scoring of their own.

“I definitely thought we played better, although I wish we would’ve seen a better second half performance,” Willson said. “I wish we had more of a killer instinct though, but a win is a win, especially in a very difficult conference, and we’re struggling for wins right now, so we’re going to take it.”

The North Stars are striving to play the tough-nosed defense that’s been their reputation for years. Now they’re hopeful that they can take some positives out of this victory and continue it during their final three regular season games and head into the post-season with some momentum.

“Since we lost to Geneva we’ve really been focusing on defense and after losing three defenders from last year it’s been a lot of rebuilding and getting to know each other,” North Stars senior Justin Stanko said. “We’ve taken awhile to get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses but we’ve progressed and I’ve been proud of them.

Stanko knows that the North Stars don’t stand much of a chance if they don’t play great defense.

“We know it has to be our key focus,” he said. “It wins games and if we don’t do it we’re obviously going to be struggling. Today we played well in the back. We were still just kicking it out, but I thought we limited them, and helped out Billy (Larsen) as much as we could.”

Unlike Larsen whose keeping busy in net for the North Stars, Rueffer is on the move now trying to get the ball into the net. Rueffer hasn’t had any regrets with his transformation, but admitted that it’s been a tough season for the Bulldogs with so few seniors and the losses accumulating.

“It’s been rough, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “No one likes losing, especially after how successful we were last year, but I’m helping the young guys get experience and we’re definitely not putting this season on the backburner. We’re still trying to get better every week, but when you lose 16 guys it doesn’t matter if you’re playing soccer, basketball or football, it’s going to take some time.”

Batavia finished winless against their Tri-Cities foes as they dropped a 3-0 match to St. Charles East and a 4-1 decision to Geneva earlier this year. The North Stars are the only team standing in the way of St. Charles East sweeping its three local foes as the teams are scheduled to play on Oct. 6.