Girls Soccer: St. Charles North breaks through in OT, beats Bartlett for regional title

STREAMWOOD – St. Charles North never lost its composure. Held scoreless for 80 minutes by a scrappy Bartlett side, the North Stars finally broke through in overtime.

Sophie Sutherland scored less than four minutes into overtime, Sidney Timms added an insurance goal, and Hannah Lehmann made three saves in goal as the North Stars downed the Hawks 2-0 to claim the plaque at the Class 3A Streamwood Regional.

St. Charles North (18-2) advances to play Wheaton Warrenville South in the St. Charles East Sectional semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

For 80 minutes, the Hawks battled the North Stars, with the back line giving up few opportunities and keeper Megan Kron stopping everything that got through.

In the first overtime, Sutherland took a feed from Juliana Park about 10 yards from the net and let loose. The ball glanced off the keeper’s hands and into the net.

“In the talk before overtime, we talked about ‘not here, not now,’ Sullivan said. “For a lot of people this is our senior season, and we’re not losing our regional. We haven’t ever lost our regional, so we’re doing it here and we’re not doing it now. So we were really motivated.”

When the opportunity finally presented itself, she took advantage.

“I felt like our mids had been working hard all game and an opportunity was coming,” Sutherland said. “At the top of the box it was wide open and nobody was filling that space, so I figured fill it.”

“Bartlett I thought played outstanding,” St. Charles North coach Brian Harks said. “They had a game plan and it worked really well. Their back line was solid, and their goalkeeper came up with some big saves throughout the game.

“And when you get to this point in the season, the mindset of most teams is to find a way to win or find a way to not get scored on and I was proud of our girls with their ability to keep composure, to not let emotions like frustration take over, and to keep grinding and to just know that it was going to come.”

The North Stars controlled play for most of the first half but couldn’t find the back of the net. In one sequence, Kron stopped shots by Isabelle Najera, Lauren Balster, and Najera again.

After intermission, the North Stars stepped up the pressure but still couldn’t solve Kron. She made acrobatic saves against Parks on consecutive possessions, then made a diving stop of close-in attempt by Sophie Kirsten.

Kron finished with 11 saves. Lehmann made three stops for St. Charles North.

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