SCN takes big lead, survives SCE response
North Stars gain regional title, bragging rights with 3-2 win
By Dave Owen
ST. CHARLES -- For St. Charles North, three weeks of frustration began to evaporate in less than two minutes Saturday.
After suffering a 3-0 loss to St. Charles East on Sept. 26, the no. 1-sectional seeded North Stars set the tone quickly in the crosstown rivals’ Class 3A regional final.
Peter Willis’ header off a Matt Beaulieu right side free kick just 1:44 into the match gave SCN a quick 1-0 lead.
Then after building on that instant momentum to amass a 3-0 lead, the North Stars had to endure a wild final 25 minutes of play. It consisted of two Saints goals, one of which came after a second yellow card ejection with 13:36 left that left North to finish 10 players in its 3-2 win.
The North Stars, 13-2-4 and ranked eighth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, advance to face surging 12th-seeded Wheaton North a Conant Sectional semifinal on Tuesday. And with the win over the Saints (8-10-4), the hosts erased a bad memory from an otherwise great season.
“When we lost that game in September, the next day at school was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life,” senior co-captain Willis said. “There was a big crowd there (at the game), and everybody was watching us get demolished by East.
“Everybody’s talking that ‘You guys choked’ and stuff, and that kind of lit the fire that’s been burning and building up until today. And now we got redemption. We were the better team both games, and we showed them who’s the better team today.”
Willis used his height advantage to give North a head start towards victory. And on either side of the East-North rivalry, one thing was agreed upon: Willis’ early goal was gigantic.
“I think honestly, when we play them whoever scores the first goal kind of runs the game,” East junior forward George Maridis said. “And unfortunately they got the first goal early on.”
Said North coach Eric Willson: “If you can ask for any better start, I don’t know what it is. An early goal is a huge game like this is massive obviously. It puts you in the right spot.”
The early Willis goal was one of two free kicks that produced goals for North on Saturday.
“We knew what they were going to do on set pieces, and we talked about it all week,” East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “So for us to give up that first one was frustrating. We knew Willis front post or back post, that’s what they’re looking for. We didn’t defend him well enough, and they made us pay. That goal took a lot out of us.”
From the painful aftermath of the September loss, Willis put one lesson learned into quick action.
“I told pretty much the whole team multiple times leading up to this game that whoever scores the first goal is going to have a huge advantage,” said Willis, whose excellence both on offense and at center back earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Earlier in the season they were the ones who scored first, and we were kind of deflated. We’re not used to losing, so scoring first was definitely something that we needed.”
And again harkening back to the recent past, North took a much different approach to the game Saturday than the regular season loss to East.
“Preparation,” Willson said. “I think we prepared for this game a lot differently than the first, and we recommitted to how we defend as a team. And I think that showed. The defensive pressure from our forwards caused turnovers and gave us good opportunities.
“We asked a lot out of our wingers -- to defend and track their outside backs -- and that’s a difficult thing to do. (Forwards) Bernard (Elegbede), Matt Beaulieu and Noah Linn were exhausted after the game, and that just shows that they worked hard for their teammates. I think that was a big difference.”
But with a strong wind at their backs in the first half, the Saints hardly wilted after the North Stars’ sizzling start.
In the 5th minute, North goalkeeper Piercarlo Ricossa made a nice high grab of a 40-yard free kick by East’s Truitt Battin. Then 13 minutes in, Maridis’ short-hop 15-yard drive was denied by a Ricossa initial block and then dive to cover the rebound.
Then it was North senior Bernard Elegbede’s turn to cause havoc. Racing in right off a Josh Amaro pass in the 15th minute, Elegbede’s angle shot was blocked by East goalkeeper Zach Kennedy and cleared from the crease by Rajin Bains.
The North Stars then endured three East corner kicks in a four-minute span. On the first (18:20 before halftime), a strong clear set up a counterattack for Jake Persenico and Linn that ended with a low Kennedy save of a 15-yard Linn shot.
The second Saints corner kick in that sequence (by Tyler Villanueva) had a different ending. With 15:40 left, Luke Schnitker sent a header in front off the crossbar, and Maridis’ rebound try was swatted wide of the net by Ricossa.
Near-miss sequences like that were at the core of East coach DiNuzzo’s postgame perspective.
“I thought we had a number of opportunities to score three goals ourselves,” DiNuzzo said. “Their defender either comes up with a big block or their goalie comes up with a big save, or we just don’t hit the target.
“In my opinion we created enough chances to tie at least and cause overtime, but against good teams when it’s win or go home you have to finish chances. And we didn’t today.”
East finished the first half with one more quality chance, a run into the box by Grayson Biddle and Maridis that was denied by good defense from North’s Parker Kolb and an eventual Saints foul.
Keeping East scoreless with the first half wind in its favor took a strong North effort.
“I thought our movement off the ball was really good,” Persenico said, “and our defensive pressure forcing turnovers in the back and getting counterattacks was working really well.”
Up 1-0 at the half, North would experience early ecstasy with a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead before a very nervous finish.
First came the scoring celebrations.
With the wind now at the team's back in the second half, North threatened early with two shots just wide of the net by Persenico in the first 4:10 of the half.
Then with 34:06 to play, history repeated as another early half North free kick paid off.
Beaulieu’s 35-yard free kick from the sideline again targeted Willis. This time, Willis drew both East goalkeeper Kennedy and a defender to deny his sliding try near the goal line near post.
But as the ball spun loose from that scrum, teammate Amaro’s run to the back post paid off with an open net goal and a 2-0 North lead.
The goal was doubly painful for the Saints. Kennedy was injured in the near post scramble. He was replaced in goal by Zach Doerr.
Less than seven minutes later, Elegbede rudely welcomed the new keeper with an incredible effort.
After a right side attack to the end line, Elegbede stopped beside the right post with a Saints defender and Doerr expecting to be able to force him over the boundary for a goal kick.
Instead, Elegbede was able to somehow stop, keep the ball in play and send a perfect short cross to Persenico running into the box for a 6-yard putaway and a 3-0 lead with 27:21 to go.
“Coach is always telling me to pick my head up when I’m dribbling down the line,,” Elegbede said. “I picked my head up, and Jake was yelling. So I was just able to find him, and he was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Persenico’s extra effort was part of the North Stars’ theme Saturday.
“We just knew we had to come out way better than the last game,” Persenico said. “We’ve been practicing and knew them from last time obviously. So we’ve been practicing the stuff we had weaknesses in last time like defensive pressure.
“And we came out not as cocky as last time and played with more pride and heart. And we couldn’t lose on our home field. We wanted to keep playing. As a senior you can’t lose. You want to keep playing.”
Down 3-0 to an emotion-fueled and talented top sectional seed like North, East dug deep to keep playing and produce a strong finish.
Step one in the rally came with 26:40 left, but it was denied when Ricossa made two big plays in one sequence (batting away a Biddle cross to the back post, then blocking a point-blank rebound try left of the net). Off the scramble in front on the ensuing corner kick, Willis nicely cleared the ball out of the crease.
With 25:28 to go, a three-man East rush erased the shutout.
Schnitker’s sideline pass was deflected in the box by Matt Clancy to Colin Caine in front. His 6-yard shot was almost denied by a great sliding attempt at the line by a North defender, but the ball crossed the line to make the score 3-1.
Then after dueling decent chances the next 12 minutes by North’s Beaulieu (a free kick right of the box across the crease and out with 18:40 to go) and East’s Battin (a right side 15-yarder wide of the net), an official’s whistle took care of any semblance of comfort on the North side.
North Stars midfielder Alex Somera was whistled for a foul with 13:36 left and then issued a second yellow card that ended his day and gave East a man advantage the rest of the way.
“I thought there were a lot of calls both ways that kind of stopped the flow of the game and made it difficult for both teams to get into a rhythm,” Willson said. “I certainly didn’t agree with the second yellow. And once you go down a man, that changes the complexion of the game and changes what we need to do.
“Sure it’s a foul, but you need to know the situation (with the yellow card) and know the bigness of the game,” Willson added. “To take him off the field, I just don’t understand it. And now he won’t play next game.”
Before that play, Somera’s impact had been huge.
“Our back line continues to play very well,” Willson said, “and before he got his second yellow, Alex Somera was asked to defend Truitt. He’s their best player, and I thought Somera did an awesome job of eliminating him from being the really dangerous player that he normally is and still is. If I had to say one standout (on defense), it would be Alex Somera.”
With that difference-maker out of the mix, North had to rely on recent experience and depth to close out the win.
“In the Geneva game we had a similar situation (a red card with 22 minutes left),” Elegbede said. “We unfortunately tied that game (1-1) from a 1-0 lead. So the past couple of weeks we’ve been practicing a lot with a man down. So I think we were pretty ready going a man down and having to react in a short span of time.”
East’s man advantage began with a Coine 18-yarder just over the crossbar with 13 minutes left and was followed by a long clear from 25 yards out by North’s Joey Sommer with 9:15 to go.
“When we got the red card, everyone had to step up,” Willis said. “Joey Sommer stepped up, and Parker Kolb -- he really did a lot out of the midfield. The midfield worked very hard this game. I have to give them a lot of credit.
“We were looking to coach for guidance,” Willis added, “and he made some key changes, putting in Joey Sommer at left back and sent one of our forwards out.
“I trust Jake Persenico and Bernard Elegbede as the only two guys up-top to go 2-v.-5 and keep the ball. They stepped up big time tracking runners and helping us out on defense. And Mitch Bricker came in late to help us out on defense. A lot of guys stepped up when we were down a man.”
But against a relentless East push, holding on to the lead wasn’t easy.
Coine was tripped on a run into the box with 7:50 left. Recently back from injury, Coine converted the ensuing penalty kick, and the once three-goal North lead was 3-2.
“He (Coine) scored two goals and created a number of opportunities,” DiNuzzo said. “I don’t think we’ve really had him 100 percent other than the first game of the season.”
But despite more pressure to come, North’s run to a regional title would not be denied.
Ricossa came up big with a diving save on a 24-yard Maridis free kick with 6:30 left, and the nine remaining teammates in front of Ricossa did the rest.
Willis first headed a 49-yard free kick out of danger (then cleared by Kolb) with five minutes left, then Kolb and Willis followed with long clears of the back third at 3:05 and 1:50 to go respectively.
Persenico then cued the band to start playing “Celebration”, winning a 50-50 ball on a long East free kick with 20 seconds left and sending it to the other end to finally take the last breath from the Saints’ fierce finish.
“We can’t let that (ejection) faze us,” Persenico said. “The refs, we just let our coach handle that and just played our game.
“It’s been an amazing season. I hope we can keep going and keep winning.”
Said Willson: “I think fortunately for us that happened to us against Geneva pretty recently, when we played 22 minutes down a man. So we were pretty familiar with what we wanted to do, and I’m really proud of the guys out on the field for closing the game out the way we needed to.”
East had its own reasons for pride, turning North’s apparent runaway win into a nail-biter.
“To come back from three goals down shows a lot of character from our kids,” said DiNuzzo, whose team closed with five wins in its last seven games. “But we can’t be happy with the results.
“From the start of the season to the end, we made a lot of progress. We just have to look forward.”
Maridis reflected on Saturday and the season, while also focusing on the potential ahead.
“After we scored the PK we had a little momentum going,” he said. “It was a tough loss, but I thought we did all right during the season.
“I had to deal with injury (eight games missed), come back stronger and try to help the team out as much as I could,” Maridis added. “But I’m only a junior -- I have next season. I think we’ll be able to make a run next year and have a great team next year.
“A lot of our team is injured. We just tried to finish off as strong as we could. We tried our best, and our seniors really gave it all they had for our school.”
For North’s senior-dominated squad, the rest of 2017 holds huge promise. But focus remains first on Tuesday and Wheaton North.
“We’re zero and zero, that’s our motto,” Willis said. “We’re only guaranteed 80 more minutes of the season, that’s it. We have like nine starting seniors (eight Saturday) and a ton more on the bench, and we’re only guaranteed so many more minutes (of soccer).”
The no. 1 seed and 13-2-4 record also isn’t going to the North Stars’ heads.
“We’re only 2-0 on this season (the playoffs) – that’s kind of our thinking,” Willis said.
Whatever the future of the playoffs hold, Saturday’s regional title will be a step to remember.
“It means a lot to us,” Elegbede said. “Last year’s team accomplished the same goal, but this year we feel we can do more.
“This is just a stepping stone to get to state. We’re looking forward to playing Tuesday.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Zach Kennedy
D Riley Arnold
D Jeff Waynick
D Drew Olsen
D Grayson Biddle
M Kieran Patel
M Truitt Battin
M Luke Schnitker
M Rajin Bains
F Colin Caine
F George Maridis
St. Charles North
GK Piercarlo Ricossa
D Connor Bettini
D Kyle Koledziej
D Peter Willis
D Alex Somera
M Parker Kolb
M Matt Beaulieu
M Jameson D’Amico
M Josh Amaro
F Bernard Elegbede
F Jake Persenico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Peter Willis, sr., D, St. Charles North
Scoring summary
First half
SCN – Willis (Beaulieu), 1:44
Second half
SCN – Amaro (Beaulieu), 45:54
SCN – Persenico (Elegbede), 52:39
SCE – Coine (Clancy), 54:32
SCN – Coine (PK), 72:10
North Stars gain regional title, bragging rights with 3-2 win
By Dave Owen
ST. CHARLES -- For St. Charles North, three weeks of frustration began to evaporate in less than two minutes Saturday.
After suffering a 3-0 loss to St. Charles East on Sept. 26, the no. 1-sectional seeded North Stars set the tone quickly in the crosstown rivals’ Class 3A regional final.
Peter Willis’ header off a Matt Beaulieu right side free kick just 1:44 into the match gave SCN a quick 1-0 lead.
Then after building on that instant momentum to amass a 3-0 lead, the North Stars had to endure a wild final 25 minutes of play. It consisted of two Saints goals, one of which came after a second yellow card ejection with 13:36 left that left North to finish 10 players in its 3-2 win.
The North Stars, 13-2-4 and ranked eighth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, advance to face surging 12th-seeded Wheaton North a Conant Sectional semifinal on Tuesday. And with the win over the Saints (8-10-4), the hosts erased a bad memory from an otherwise great season.
“When we lost that game in September, the next day at school was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life,” senior co-captain Willis said. “There was a big crowd there (at the game), and everybody was watching us get demolished by East.
“Everybody’s talking that ‘You guys choked’ and stuff, and that kind of lit the fire that’s been burning and building up until today. And now we got redemption. We were the better team both games, and we showed them who’s the better team today.”
Willis used his height advantage to give North a head start towards victory. And on either side of the East-North rivalry, one thing was agreed upon: Willis’ early goal was gigantic.
“I think honestly, when we play them whoever scores the first goal kind of runs the game,” East junior forward George Maridis said. “And unfortunately they got the first goal early on.”
Said North coach Eric Willson: “If you can ask for any better start, I don’t know what it is. An early goal is a huge game like this is massive obviously. It puts you in the right spot.”
The early Willis goal was one of two free kicks that produced goals for North on Saturday.
“We knew what they were going to do on set pieces, and we talked about it all week,” East coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “So for us to give up that first one was frustrating. We knew Willis front post or back post, that’s what they’re looking for. We didn’t defend him well enough, and they made us pay. That goal took a lot out of us.”
From the painful aftermath of the September loss, Willis put one lesson learned into quick action.
“I told pretty much the whole team multiple times leading up to this game that whoever scores the first goal is going to have a huge advantage,” said Willis, whose excellence both on offense and at center back earned him Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honors.
“Earlier in the season they were the ones who scored first, and we were kind of deflated. We’re not used to losing, so scoring first was definitely something that we needed.”
And again harkening back to the recent past, North took a much different approach to the game Saturday than the regular season loss to East.
“Preparation,” Willson said. “I think we prepared for this game a lot differently than the first, and we recommitted to how we defend as a team. And I think that showed. The defensive pressure from our forwards caused turnovers and gave us good opportunities.
“We asked a lot out of our wingers -- to defend and track their outside backs -- and that’s a difficult thing to do. (Forwards) Bernard (Elegbede), Matt Beaulieu and Noah Linn were exhausted after the game, and that just shows that they worked hard for their teammates. I think that was a big difference.”
But with a strong wind at their backs in the first half, the Saints hardly wilted after the North Stars’ sizzling start.
In the 5th minute, North goalkeeper Piercarlo Ricossa made a nice high grab of a 40-yard free kick by East’s Truitt Battin. Then 13 minutes in, Maridis’ short-hop 15-yard drive was denied by a Ricossa initial block and then dive to cover the rebound.
Then it was North senior Bernard Elegbede’s turn to cause havoc. Racing in right off a Josh Amaro pass in the 15th minute, Elegbede’s angle shot was blocked by East goalkeeper Zach Kennedy and cleared from the crease by Rajin Bains.
The North Stars then endured three East corner kicks in a four-minute span. On the first (18:20 before halftime), a strong clear set up a counterattack for Jake Persenico and Linn that ended with a low Kennedy save of a 15-yard Linn shot.
The second Saints corner kick in that sequence (by Tyler Villanueva) had a different ending. With 15:40 left, Luke Schnitker sent a header in front off the crossbar, and Maridis’ rebound try was swatted wide of the net by Ricossa.
Near-miss sequences like that were at the core of East coach DiNuzzo’s postgame perspective.
“I thought we had a number of opportunities to score three goals ourselves,” DiNuzzo said. “Their defender either comes up with a big block or their goalie comes up with a big save, or we just don’t hit the target.
“In my opinion we created enough chances to tie at least and cause overtime, but against good teams when it’s win or go home you have to finish chances. And we didn’t today.”
East finished the first half with one more quality chance, a run into the box by Grayson Biddle and Maridis that was denied by good defense from North’s Parker Kolb and an eventual Saints foul.
Keeping East scoreless with the first half wind in its favor took a strong North effort.
“I thought our movement off the ball was really good,” Persenico said, “and our defensive pressure forcing turnovers in the back and getting counterattacks was working really well.”
Up 1-0 at the half, North would experience early ecstasy with a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead before a very nervous finish.
First came the scoring celebrations.
With the wind now at the team's back in the second half, North threatened early with two shots just wide of the net by Persenico in the first 4:10 of the half.
Then with 34:06 to play, history repeated as another early half North free kick paid off.
Beaulieu’s 35-yard free kick from the sideline again targeted Willis. This time, Willis drew both East goalkeeper Kennedy and a defender to deny his sliding try near the goal line near post.
But as the ball spun loose from that scrum, teammate Amaro’s run to the back post paid off with an open net goal and a 2-0 North lead.
The goal was doubly painful for the Saints. Kennedy was injured in the near post scramble. He was replaced in goal by Zach Doerr.
Less than seven minutes later, Elegbede rudely welcomed the new keeper with an incredible effort.
After a right side attack to the end line, Elegbede stopped beside the right post with a Saints defender and Doerr expecting to be able to force him over the boundary for a goal kick.
Instead, Elegbede was able to somehow stop, keep the ball in play and send a perfect short cross to Persenico running into the box for a 6-yard putaway and a 3-0 lead with 27:21 to go.
“Coach is always telling me to pick my head up when I’m dribbling down the line,,” Elegbede said. “I picked my head up, and Jake was yelling. So I was just able to find him, and he was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Persenico’s extra effort was part of the North Stars’ theme Saturday.
“We just knew we had to come out way better than the last game,” Persenico said. “We’ve been practicing and knew them from last time obviously. So we’ve been practicing the stuff we had weaknesses in last time like defensive pressure.
“And we came out not as cocky as last time and played with more pride and heart. And we couldn’t lose on our home field. We wanted to keep playing. As a senior you can’t lose. You want to keep playing.”
Down 3-0 to an emotion-fueled and talented top sectional seed like North, East dug deep to keep playing and produce a strong finish.
Step one in the rally came with 26:40 left, but it was denied when Ricossa made two big plays in one sequence (batting away a Biddle cross to the back post, then blocking a point-blank rebound try left of the net). Off the scramble in front on the ensuing corner kick, Willis nicely cleared the ball out of the crease.
With 25:28 to go, a three-man East rush erased the shutout.
Schnitker’s sideline pass was deflected in the box by Matt Clancy to Colin Caine in front. His 6-yard shot was almost denied by a great sliding attempt at the line by a North defender, but the ball crossed the line to make the score 3-1.
Then after dueling decent chances the next 12 minutes by North’s Beaulieu (a free kick right of the box across the crease and out with 18:40 to go) and East’s Battin (a right side 15-yarder wide of the net), an official’s whistle took care of any semblance of comfort on the North side.
North Stars midfielder Alex Somera was whistled for a foul with 13:36 left and then issued a second yellow card that ended his day and gave East a man advantage the rest of the way.
“I thought there were a lot of calls both ways that kind of stopped the flow of the game and made it difficult for both teams to get into a rhythm,” Willson said. “I certainly didn’t agree with the second yellow. And once you go down a man, that changes the complexion of the game and changes what we need to do.
“Sure it’s a foul, but you need to know the situation (with the yellow card) and know the bigness of the game,” Willson added. “To take him off the field, I just don’t understand it. And now he won’t play next game.”
Before that play, Somera’s impact had been huge.
“Our back line continues to play very well,” Willson said, “and before he got his second yellow, Alex Somera was asked to defend Truitt. He’s their best player, and I thought Somera did an awesome job of eliminating him from being the really dangerous player that he normally is and still is. If I had to say one standout (on defense), it would be Alex Somera.”
With that difference-maker out of the mix, North had to rely on recent experience and depth to close out the win.
“In the Geneva game we had a similar situation (a red card with 22 minutes left),” Elegbede said. “We unfortunately tied that game (1-1) from a 1-0 lead. So the past couple of weeks we’ve been practicing a lot with a man down. So I think we were pretty ready going a man down and having to react in a short span of time.”
East’s man advantage began with a Coine 18-yarder just over the crossbar with 13 minutes left and was followed by a long clear from 25 yards out by North’s Joey Sommer with 9:15 to go.
“When we got the red card, everyone had to step up,” Willis said. “Joey Sommer stepped up, and Parker Kolb -- he really did a lot out of the midfield. The midfield worked very hard this game. I have to give them a lot of credit.
“We were looking to coach for guidance,” Willis added, “and he made some key changes, putting in Joey Sommer at left back and sent one of our forwards out.
“I trust Jake Persenico and Bernard Elegbede as the only two guys up-top to go 2-v.-5 and keep the ball. They stepped up big time tracking runners and helping us out on defense. And Mitch Bricker came in late to help us out on defense. A lot of guys stepped up when we were down a man.”
But against a relentless East push, holding on to the lead wasn’t easy.
Coine was tripped on a run into the box with 7:50 left. Recently back from injury, Coine converted the ensuing penalty kick, and the once three-goal North lead was 3-2.
“He (Coine) scored two goals and created a number of opportunities,” DiNuzzo said. “I don’t think we’ve really had him 100 percent other than the first game of the season.”
But despite more pressure to come, North’s run to a regional title would not be denied.
Ricossa came up big with a diving save on a 24-yard Maridis free kick with 6:30 left, and the nine remaining teammates in front of Ricossa did the rest.
Willis first headed a 49-yard free kick out of danger (then cleared by Kolb) with five minutes left, then Kolb and Willis followed with long clears of the back third at 3:05 and 1:50 to go respectively.
Persenico then cued the band to start playing “Celebration”, winning a 50-50 ball on a long East free kick with 20 seconds left and sending it to the other end to finally take the last breath from the Saints’ fierce finish.
“We can’t let that (ejection) faze us,” Persenico said. “The refs, we just let our coach handle that and just played our game.
“It’s been an amazing season. I hope we can keep going and keep winning.”
Said Willson: “I think fortunately for us that happened to us against Geneva pretty recently, when we played 22 minutes down a man. So we were pretty familiar with what we wanted to do, and I’m really proud of the guys out on the field for closing the game out the way we needed to.”
East had its own reasons for pride, turning North’s apparent runaway win into a nail-biter.
“To come back from three goals down shows a lot of character from our kids,” said DiNuzzo, whose team closed with five wins in its last seven games. “But we can’t be happy with the results.
“From the start of the season to the end, we made a lot of progress. We just have to look forward.”
Maridis reflected on Saturday and the season, while also focusing on the potential ahead.
“After we scored the PK we had a little momentum going,” he said. “It was a tough loss, but I thought we did all right during the season.
“I had to deal with injury (eight games missed), come back stronger and try to help the team out as much as I could,” Maridis added. “But I’m only a junior -- I have next season. I think we’ll be able to make a run next year and have a great team next year.
“A lot of our team is injured. We just tried to finish off as strong as we could. We tried our best, and our seniors really gave it all they had for our school.”
For North’s senior-dominated squad, the rest of 2017 holds huge promise. But focus remains first on Tuesday and Wheaton North.
“We’re zero and zero, that’s our motto,” Willis said. “We’re only guaranteed 80 more minutes of the season, that’s it. We have like nine starting seniors (eight Saturday) and a ton more on the bench, and we’re only guaranteed so many more minutes (of soccer).”
The no. 1 seed and 13-2-4 record also isn’t going to the North Stars’ heads.
“We’re only 2-0 on this season (the playoffs) – that’s kind of our thinking,” Willis said.
Whatever the future of the playoffs hold, Saturday’s regional title will be a step to remember.
“It means a lot to us,” Elegbede said. “Last year’s team accomplished the same goal, but this year we feel we can do more.
“This is just a stepping stone to get to state. We’re looking forward to playing Tuesday.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles East
GK Zach Kennedy
D Riley Arnold
D Jeff Waynick
D Drew Olsen
D Grayson Biddle
M Kieran Patel
M Truitt Battin
M Luke Schnitker
M Rajin Bains
F Colin Caine
F George Maridis
St. Charles North
GK Piercarlo Ricossa
D Connor Bettini
D Kyle Koledziej
D Peter Willis
D Alex Somera
M Parker Kolb
M Matt Beaulieu
M Jameson D’Amico
M Josh Amaro
F Bernard Elegbede
F Jake Persenico
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Peter Willis, sr., D, St. Charles North
Scoring summary
First half
SCN – Willis (Beaulieu), 1:44
Second half
SCN – Amaro (Beaulieu), 45:54
SCN – Persenico (Elegbede), 52:39
SCE – Coine (Clancy), 54:32
SCN – Coine (PK), 72:10