Girls soccer: St. Charles North’s offense shines, takes St. Charles Invitational with 6-0 win

ST. CHARLES – The championship match of the St. Charles Invitational looked to be a highly competitive match between two teams that made deep runs in last season’s playoffs. And for the first 20 minutes, it was.

The other 60 minutes? Not so much.

St. Charles North had five goal scorers over that span and took home the invitational title with a 6-0 win over Crystal Lake Central on March 23 at St. Charles East.

After recording a 1-1 tie against the Tigers to open the season March 12, North Stars coach Brian Harks said he was pleased after getting a big win against the team that placed third in the Class 2A state tournament last season and hopes it generates momentum heading into DuKane Conference play.

“They were able to generate quality scoring opportunities in a variety of ways,” Harks said. “I think their creativity and their relentless play was exactly what we were looking for today.”

The North Stars kicked off the scoring in the 19th minute from the foot of senior Juliana Park. After a cross from sophomore Kaitlyn Nudera fell at her feet in the box, Park sent the ball to the left side of the net and despite Tigers goalie Addison Cleary getting a hand on the ball, the shot still found the back of the net.

Park got her second goal of the game in the 58th minute. After clearing the Crystal Lake Central defenders on the left side of the field, she drove the ball to the box and sent the ball across her body, hitting the right post before bouncing the ball in for the score.

“It feels really good to win with the team,” Park said. “It felt like a really strong game where we dominated overall.”

Senior Kyra Tremor (22nd minute), senior Laney Stark (30th minute) and junior Maura Sikorski (39th minute) each added a goal in the first half to put the North Stars up 4-0 at halftime. Nudera was the fifth goal scorer for St. Charles North, scoring in the 55th minute.

“I’ve been really, really impressed with our ability to attack in a variety of ways,” Harks said. “Goals have been coming from a variety of players and that’s been really pleasant to see. I wouldn’t say that we have one singular player that stands out at this moment. It’s been a true team effort and that’s been really great to see so far.”

Crystal Lake Central had a rough showing in the championship match. The Tigers, who had five players out because of injury, had only one shot on goal in the 74th minute.

Central coach Sarah Fack said the team didn’t have the same intensity it had in the season opener against the North Stars.

“We thought we played extremely well in the first three games of the tournament, especially considering that we’ve had to have a number of players playing at different spots,” Fack said “But this game, it wasn’t quite our day. We’re just going to have to learn and figure out how we’re going to play together and get that same level of intensity when we have different people on the field.”

St. Charles North will look to keep its momentum going when it starts conference play on the road against Wheaton North at 4:30 p.m. April 4. Crystal Lake Central hopes to get back in the win column when it faces Belvidere North at home at 4:30 p.m. April 2.