North earns 9th straight regional title with win over EG

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By Darryl Mellema
Photos courtesy of St. Charles North

If you line up all of St. Charles North's girls soccer regional plaques, you'll find that there are nine of them and you won't find any gaps in the sequence. That's not bad for any school, and especially good for a school that didn't exist before 2000.

The North Stars latest success came after a tightly-contested 2-0 victory over Elk Grove on Friday night in St. Charles North's own regional.

“It was a good game overall,” St. Charles North senior Lauren Koehl said.

The North Stars needed a pair of second-half goals to claim the victory. The first came from Koehl when she headed in the rebound of her own shot after being played in with a nice through ball by Lisa Manski.

“We kept talking about taking shots on the goalie,” Vostal said. “We knew she was young. We were looking to take long shots and then to expect the rebound. So Koehl was expecting that and she did just as we asked.”

As sometimes happens, the second goal came while Elk Grove was adjusting to being 1-0 behind. Sammy Gage dribbled near the penalty area and was fouled, though she stopped moving angrily, wishing that an advantage had been played. Gage took the resulting free kick from 25 yards to the right of the “D” at the top of the penalty area and rocketed her shot into the left upper portion of Elk Grove's goal.

“You look and Koehl comes up big and Sammy comes up big,” Vostal said. “We've been working on those set pieces and that came through. That first goal was the result of a combination what we worked on (Thursday.)”

The North Stars had been trying to work some form of through ball, usually with a pass over the top of Elk Grove's defenders, throughout the match and the connections had never been sharp. On Koehl's goal, the pass forward was near-perfect and Koehl's effort to finish the shot was equally strong.

“I was kind of there at the right time and it was a good ball by (Manski),” Koehl said. “It just so happened that it popped up and I was there. Getting that, we knew we could settle in and get another.”

There was universal agreement that Gage's shot was nearly unstoppable. Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus called the shot “a bomb” and reckoned few keepers in the state would have been able to save it. Vostal concurred with the tenacity of Gage's strike.

“That would be difficult for anybody to stop,” Vostal said. “But (Gage) has been working hard on those for the past couple of days.”

Those goals made it easy to forget just how tight the match was through the first hour of play. While neither team seriously tested the opposition's keepers in the first half, neither did the North Stars nor Grenadiers give an inch to each other.

“I think it was a pretty even game in the first half, and even into the second half,” Klaus said. “I don't think there was a really dangerous chance for either team in the first half.”

St. Charles North entered the second half with a different mindset, and their play improved as the half progressed.

“We just needed to settle down,” Koehl said. “It was really frantic and we needed to settle down. It was the excitement of regionals and for most people on our team, it's their first time being in the playoffs.”
Seniors like Koehl who were key members of last year's third-place team proved essential at that juncture.

“We have to be the leaders and guide people and help people settle down.” Koehl said.

The second half came to life within 8 minutes of the resumption of play when Gage sent a pass from the middle of the field to Sophie Pohl, who shot back to the left across the goalmouth with Elk Grove goalie Melissa Solorio advancing. The shot went wide.

“I thought our keeper did well in making herself big and making the goal look small,” Klaus said.
Elk Grove's best scoring chance of the match came next, in the 16th minute of the second half. Kelli Hubly got free on the right edge of the penalty area and sent the ball back to the middle, where Michelle Calmeyn was standing unmarked. As she set to take the shot, Calmeyn slipped to the turn. But the senior was able to get up again and still snap off a shot toward the goal – only to see North Stars goalie Kendall Karr make the save.

“Usually when I make saves like that, I don't think, I just go,” Karr said. “I just don't overanalyze anything and go with my instincts.”

Klaus knew that save was a key moment of the match.

“I talk to girls about using their instep when they shoot and (Calmeyn) kind of flicked it with the outside of her foot,” Klaus said. “I don't know if she didn't get enough on it or if she hit it at their keeper, but their keeper did well.”

The save was one of the key moments of the match while the teams remained in their scoreless tie, but the North Stars were beginning to take control of the match, and that continued in the minutes preceding their goals.

“I thought North may just outdid us a little in the middle third,” Klaus said. “But I thought it was an outstanding effort on our part.”

Three minutes after Karr's save on Calmeyn, Solorio had an equally-fine save when she stuck out a foot and deflected a Koehl shot wide of the left post.

But then Koehl scored and Gage scored and the North Stars lifted the regional plaque before their home fans.

St. Charles North advances to the St. Charles East Sectional. The North Stars face Schaumburg at 6:30 on Tuesday.

“We're still in our town,” Vostal said. “Last year, when we went to the state tournament, all these people in the community, it didn't matter which side of the (Fox) river, were sending us good-luck messages. And those people will be there next week to support us in what is another home-like match.”

For Elk Grove, the defeat ends a second strong season in a row. In 2010, the Grenadiers surged from a 3-4-3 record and finished 12-7-3. This year, there were some bumps along the way but Elk Grove still finished 10-7-5.

“Hopefully the girls can understand, every game of the season, what they have to do,” Klaus said. “I think that's the biggest lesson coming from this season. Every day has to be like what just happened here.”

The Grenadiers graduate three players – Carin Fearing, Anne Klancnik and Calmeyn, players who helped take the Grenadiers and make them a team that no one can take lightly.

“I love the consistency of last year and this year,” Klaus said. “We want to get over that hump now and not just be good and be a little better than good. It's exciting to know that there's not a game that we can't walk into and win.”

One of the additions through the season was Hubly, who had knee surgery in November and was not back to 100 percent when she began playing for the Grenadiers at midseason.  The junior was still very influential for her team's stretch run.

“She gives us that second dimension with attacking and that calmness on the ball as we distribute trying to go from the middle third to the final third,” Klaus said. “I think she did a tremendous job considering she had her surgery in November. But (Hubly) at 80 percent is above a lot of players at 100 percent. I know she's going to continue making strides.”

And the seniors went out with a strong performance, as did the rest of the Grenadiers' squad.

“There's not a place I can look out there on the field and see anyone didn't play well,” Klaus said. “The effort was there. North's was just a little more alert than we were. That's a playoff-tested team. Does it make a difference them having been through a playoff run last year? I don't know. But it was a good game.”