North Stars stay unbeaten with a win over Lockport

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By Darryl Mellema

There's always something satisfying when the things a team works on during training show up in a match.

For St. Charles North, the focus on training has been on improving its play from set pieces, especially corner kicks. And you could tell the North Stars were pleased when both goals they scored in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Lockport came following left-sided corner kicks.

“In the past, we've had difficulty scoring on corner kicks,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “So to score off of two set pieces, which we have been working on and working on, that was huge for us.”

Sophomore Alex Gage took both those corner kicks. The first came off various heads in the center of the goal before coming to Alex's senior sister Sammy Gage, who scored at the right post.

“Converting on set pieces has never been our biggest strength,” Sammy Gage said. “So I was really excited that we scored. We have been doing a lot of work on set pieces so it was nice to reap the benefits of our work.”

That goal came 15 minutes into the match. The killing second goal came following another Alex Gage corner kick with a half-minute to play before halftime. This time, the ball caromed in the six-yard box off various players, including St. Charles North's Tess Fisher before Kenzie Rose stabbed the ball home off a Lockport defender. The halftime horn sounded just after the ensuing kickoff and the North Stars carried that critical second goal into halftime.

“This team, they're physical,” Vostal said. “You don't have to say to them to go in and go to the ball. They're running in to anticipate the play.”

The match was played in the same brisk wind as all of Saturday's matches. St. Charles North attacked with the wind at its back in the first half. Then at halftime, the wind shifted slightly to a cross wind and Lockport never got an advantage in the second half.

Possession time in the first half vastly favored St. Charles North (3-0) though Lockport (3-2) had just enough chances to stay in the match. As that second half progressed, St. Charles North continued to dominate possession but neither team was able to gain many clear chances on goal. And fatigue began to be a factor, especially for the North Stars, who had long training sessions during their Spring Break week off school.

“You know, we've been going three to three-and-a-half sessions all week, things that we haven't done like fitness multiple days in a row,” Vostal said. “So their legs are probably a little tired. We knew coming in here that we were trying to train for stamina and then to give them the weekend to rest so we'd be ready to go on Tuesday.”

For St. Charles North, Saturday's match presages a busy week. The North Stars visit Batavia on Tuesday and then travel to Wisconsin for a pair of tough weekend matches.

The North Stars have found a strong attacking combination in their front line thanks to the partnership formed between Sammy Gage and Lauren Koehl. Gage played midfield a year ago but has moved into the forward line this year. She and Koehl, who is a junior, seem to instinctively know where the other is going to be and their passing movement is solid even after three matches.

“Lauren and I, especially this year, we just seem to have clicked,” Sammy Gage said. “We play off each other really well. Lauren is especially fast. So it's really nice, especially if I hit a ball badly and it's way too far – she can always get onto it.”

Communication in all areas of the field is important, but it was clear watching Koehl and Sammy Gage move at the top of the North Stars formation that their communication was solid – and Gage confirmed it.

“We're really good at talking and Sophie (Pohl) is also great at that too,” Gage said. “They're always making great runs.”

Gage said she is comfortable with her new role moving farther forward.

“I was more of a center midfielder, more of a distributor,” she said. “Now I've definitely taken on more of an attacking and scoring role. I like playing forward a lot.”

The changes in the formation have been made, in part, due to the fact that Leah DeMoss graduated last May.

“Last year, Sammy was in the midfield and we had Leah (DeMoss) up top with Koehl most of the time,” Vostal said. “This was the first time they've played this number of minutes up top together. I wasn't really sure where Sammy was going to fit in. I thought we might put her back in the midfield. But we have Lisa (Manski) back strong and Shannon Lee's playing great back there and we have Tess (Fisher) who can come in and play. So hopefully those two can stay there up top.”

Add the outside play from Alex Gage and the support from the rest of the midfield and the North Stars look strong going forward so far this season.

“Alex has been practicing all summer, working on those corner kicks and other things,” Sammy Gage said. “When we put Alex up on a corner kick or something, we all have faith that she's going to put the ball where it needs to be and it's just a matter of us getting on the end of it.”

Lockport has lost to a pair of west suburban powers – Downers Grove South and St. Charles North.

“We have decent skill,” Lockport coach Todd Elkei said. “It's just getting that competitive winning mentality, that edge. Club and high school are different sports. We're coming here and we're playing the best that everyone's high school has to offer. We have a lot of sophomores playing varsity and getting them used to that speed of play is why we play these tough games in the beginning of the year.”

Despite the sometimes one-sided nature of the match, Lockport came away knowing there were areas in which it had performed well. Notably, the team never collapsed and suffered a goal rush against a team that had scored 11 goals in its opening two matches.

“At times, I felt we played OK,” Elkei said. “They're obviously a very skilled team up and down their formation. But we just couldn't match their speed and their intensity. We were trying to learn some of the competitiveness, that competitive edge that they have, winning 50-50 balls.”

St. Charles North's possession in Lockport's defending third made keeping a formation shape difficult for the Porters. The midfield quartet often found itself compressed into the same space as the defenders. Then the forwards had to come back to help, meaning that when Lockport did win the ball, its 10 field players were within the same space and building was then difficult. That said, the Porters never stopped trying to make those buildups happen.

“We were obviously having trouble driving the ball against the wind in the first half,” Elkei said. “At the same time that we couldn't drive the ball, we couldn't find seams to gain possession to build out of the back. No matter what we did, they kind of kept us pinned back in. And when they got that second goal with 30 seconds left in the half, that was the back breaker.”

With Alyssa DeYoung sidelined with a shoulder injury suffered in the Downers Grove South loss, Jen Meyer played in goal on Saturday for the Porters. While the ball was in her penalty area for much of the match and despite surrendering two goals, DeYoung showed some obvious skills.

“She's another one who's very athletic,” Elkei said of DeYoung. She's just got to have that confidence. In the first half, those two goals, we'd like to have her take command of her box and control those balls. But that will come with time.”

The Porters never stopped trying to put moves together and in junior Lexi Cozzi, they had a player who was able to carve the occasional half-chance.

“Lexi Cozzi, yeah she's a beast,” Elkei said. “She's definitely one who can play at the next level. She's athletic. She's strong. When she gets a chance, she usually finishes. She had the one chance in the first half but she got beat to the ball a little bit.”