SCN set pieces key 3-0 win vs. Glenbard N.
North Stars' victory sets up rematch in regional final vs. rival SCE
By Gary Larsen
ST. CHARLES -- Like water to a man lost in the desert, set piece goals are coveted once the postseason arrives and scoring gets harder to come by.
“They can get you far, and they can get you wins,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said.
The North Stars got a win on Wednesday thanks to two goals set up by corner kicks, en route to a 3-0 win over Glenbard North in a 3A regional semifinal at St. Charles East.
The win sent St. Charles North (12-5-1) to Saturday’s regional title game against rival St. Charles East (12-7-0), a 4-0 winner over Glenbard East.
The North Stars struck first at 12 minutes when Matt Beaulieu sent a low corner kick to the near post, where Logan Michels touched it back out to Jared Sinnaeve.
Sinnaeve teed off from 16 yards and scored the goal that ultimately stood up as the game-winner.
“That first goal was really important,” Michels said. “We’ve been working on corners the last few weeks in practice, perfecting those plays and making sure we know what we want to do. Before the game we knew those were the first two plays we wanted to do on the first two corners.”
Glenbard North (5-10-4) attacked hard for a 10-minute span following Sinnaeve’s goal but came up empty. The Panthers have high skill and pace in their attack, but they’ve been haunted defensively by restarts.
“That’s been the story of our season -- defending set pieces,” Glenbard North coach Spero Mandakas said. “We’ve been getting killed on set pieces. … It was a nice, clean, clinical set piece, but we’re standing around watching it.”
Four minutes before halftime, the North Stars scored again when a Beaulieu corner kick hit the carpet and Adam Baer located and buried it from eight yards.
The North Stars were happy with their 2-0 halftime lead against Glenbard North, especially since there was no score at halftime when they beat the Panthers 3-0 on Sept. 25.
“It was really important to come out and just kind of make a statement of who we are and who we want to be,” Willson said. “And I thought we did a really, really good job of that in the first half, for sure.”
St. Charles North eperienced a major roster change recently. Willson brought up three juniors and two sophomores from the lower levels to fill out his bench, and the team as a whole did him proud Wednesday.
“Whoever is on the field for us, we have a specific concept of how we play and how we want to accomplish things, and I was super proud of the way that we competed today,” Willson said.
The North Stars had to deal with a dangerous Glenbard North team chasing a two-goal deficit through most of the second half. The Panthers’ Ben Solano headed a shot off the crossbar at 46 minutes and North Stars keeper Bobby Curran saved a hard-hit shot at the post from Gabe Jurado one minute later.
Glenbard North’s Nestor Dominguez reached the endline on the left side and Curran snared his low blast to the near post at 49 minutes.
“We’ve been a team that’s been able to create quality chances. It’s just been about finishing them,” Mandakas said. “We had some really nice goals, but we also missed
some we should have had. Gabe and Nestor did a lot of good work up there. They had some quality chances.”
North Stars central defender Joey Sommer, along with defenders Nathan Hanselman, Xander Jao, and Colin Nelson, knew they had their hands full.
“They have a really good counterattack,” Sommer said of Glenbard North. “We saw that the last time we played them, so we tried to prepare for it for this game.
“They have a lot of fast players with good foot skills. We tried to stay compact in the back. We communicated well, and I thought we moved in to help each other a lot.”
For his role in leading a young backline under trying team circumstances, Sommer was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
St. Charles North continued to fight forward to extend its lead.
Beaulieu curled a free kick around a wall of defenders at 52 minutes, forcing Glenbard North keeper Martin Argirov to make a diving save. Argirov saved a Matt Polovin shot at 58 minutes, and Polovin ran down a Hanselman through-ball into the box at 72 minutes but sent his shot wide past a charging Argirov.
The North Stars’ final goal came on a shot taken inside the box on the left side by Michels at 79 minutes.
“We had a really good game tonight,” Michels said. “We connected well, we got a bunch of opportunities and put three in the back of the net. It was a good night.”
Asked which of his players he thought played particularly well after the game, Willson had a quick reply.
“All of them,” Willson said. “It’s a team win for us. You get into the postseason, and it can’t be one guy. It can’t be just Matt (Beaulieu), who we know is going to get keyed on. It’s important for the guys around him to know what their roles are on the team, to be able to execute.
“Our backline was really good today. They’ve got pace in the middle of the field, and I thought our middles did a really nice job delaying that counter for Glenbard. We knew going into the game that we had to deal with some speed in the middle of the field, and I thought our guys did a nice job with that.”
As the fourth seed of the Class 3A Addison Trail Sectional, St. Charles North will play a regional title game against a fifth-seeded St. Charles East team that won 5-3 over the North Stars on Sept. 20.
North knows that giving up five goals in the rematch would be less than ideal.
“We’ll try not to, but they have a lot of good forwards, and I anticipate a very similar strategy,” Sommer said. “But I think we’re playing much better on defense now than we were then.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles North
GK Bobby Curran
D Joey Sommer
D Nathan Hanselman
D Xander Jao
D Colin Nelson
MF Vito Lagoia
MF Matt Beaulieu
MF Nolan Sinnaeve
MF Jared Sinnaeve
F Adam Baer
F Logan Michels
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Owen Van Poucke
D Yaj Maheshwari
D Andres Sanchez
D Ramon Acosta
MF Ode Emena
MF Emmanuel Castanon
MF Erik Hernandes Flores
MF Nestor Dominguez
F Gabe Jurado
F Ben Solano
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match — Joey Sommer, sr., D, St. Charles North
Scoring summary
First half
St. Charles North - J. Sinnaeve (Michels) 12 minutes
St. Charles North - Baer (UA) 36 minutes
Second half
St. Charles North - Michels (UA) 79 minutes
North Stars' victory sets up rematch in regional final vs. rival SCE
By Gary Larsen
ST. CHARLES -- Like water to a man lost in the desert, set piece goals are coveted once the postseason arrives and scoring gets harder to come by.
“They can get you far, and they can get you wins,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said.
The North Stars got a win on Wednesday thanks to two goals set up by corner kicks, en route to a 3-0 win over Glenbard North in a 3A regional semifinal at St. Charles East.
The win sent St. Charles North (12-5-1) to Saturday’s regional title game against rival St. Charles East (12-7-0), a 4-0 winner over Glenbard East.
The North Stars struck first at 12 minutes when Matt Beaulieu sent a low corner kick to the near post, where Logan Michels touched it back out to Jared Sinnaeve.
Sinnaeve teed off from 16 yards and scored the goal that ultimately stood up as the game-winner.
“That first goal was really important,” Michels said. “We’ve been working on corners the last few weeks in practice, perfecting those plays and making sure we know what we want to do. Before the game we knew those were the first two plays we wanted to do on the first two corners.”
Glenbard North (5-10-4) attacked hard for a 10-minute span following Sinnaeve’s goal but came up empty. The Panthers have high skill and pace in their attack, but they’ve been haunted defensively by restarts.
“That’s been the story of our season -- defending set pieces,” Glenbard North coach Spero Mandakas said. “We’ve been getting killed on set pieces. … It was a nice, clean, clinical set piece, but we’re standing around watching it.”
Four minutes before halftime, the North Stars scored again when a Beaulieu corner kick hit the carpet and Adam Baer located and buried it from eight yards.
The North Stars were happy with their 2-0 halftime lead against Glenbard North, especially since there was no score at halftime when they beat the Panthers 3-0 on Sept. 25.
“It was really important to come out and just kind of make a statement of who we are and who we want to be,” Willson said. “And I thought we did a really, really good job of that in the first half, for sure.”
St. Charles North eperienced a major roster change recently. Willson brought up three juniors and two sophomores from the lower levels to fill out his bench, and the team as a whole did him proud Wednesday.
“Whoever is on the field for us, we have a specific concept of how we play and how we want to accomplish things, and I was super proud of the way that we competed today,” Willson said.
The North Stars had to deal with a dangerous Glenbard North team chasing a two-goal deficit through most of the second half. The Panthers’ Ben Solano headed a shot off the crossbar at 46 minutes and North Stars keeper Bobby Curran saved a hard-hit shot at the post from Gabe Jurado one minute later.
Glenbard North’s Nestor Dominguez reached the endline on the left side and Curran snared his low blast to the near post at 49 minutes.
“We’ve been a team that’s been able to create quality chances. It’s just been about finishing them,” Mandakas said. “We had some really nice goals, but we also missed
some we should have had. Gabe and Nestor did a lot of good work up there. They had some quality chances.”
North Stars central defender Joey Sommer, along with defenders Nathan Hanselman, Xander Jao, and Colin Nelson, knew they had their hands full.
“They have a really good counterattack,” Sommer said of Glenbard North. “We saw that the last time we played them, so we tried to prepare for it for this game.
“They have a lot of fast players with good foot skills. We tried to stay compact in the back. We communicated well, and I thought we moved in to help each other a lot.”
For his role in leading a young backline under trying team circumstances, Sommer was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.
St. Charles North continued to fight forward to extend its lead.
Beaulieu curled a free kick around a wall of defenders at 52 minutes, forcing Glenbard North keeper Martin Argirov to make a diving save. Argirov saved a Matt Polovin shot at 58 minutes, and Polovin ran down a Hanselman through-ball into the box at 72 minutes but sent his shot wide past a charging Argirov.
The North Stars’ final goal came on a shot taken inside the box on the left side by Michels at 79 minutes.
“We had a really good game tonight,” Michels said. “We connected well, we got a bunch of opportunities and put three in the back of the net. It was a good night.”
Asked which of his players he thought played particularly well after the game, Willson had a quick reply.
“All of them,” Willson said. “It’s a team win for us. You get into the postseason, and it can’t be one guy. It can’t be just Matt (Beaulieu), who we know is going to get keyed on. It’s important for the guys around him to know what their roles are on the team, to be able to execute.
“Our backline was really good today. They’ve got pace in the middle of the field, and I thought our middles did a really nice job delaying that counter for Glenbard. We knew going into the game that we had to deal with some speed in the middle of the field, and I thought our guys did a nice job with that.”
As the fourth seed of the Class 3A Addison Trail Sectional, St. Charles North will play a regional title game against a fifth-seeded St. Charles East team that won 5-3 over the North Stars on Sept. 20.
North knows that giving up five goals in the rematch would be less than ideal.
“We’ll try not to, but they have a lot of good forwards, and I anticipate a very similar strategy,” Sommer said. “But I think we’re playing much better on defense now than we were then.”
Starting lineups
St. Charles North
GK Bobby Curran
D Joey Sommer
D Nathan Hanselman
D Xander Jao
D Colin Nelson
MF Vito Lagoia
MF Matt Beaulieu
MF Nolan Sinnaeve
MF Jared Sinnaeve
F Adam Baer
F Logan Michels
Glenbard North
GK Martin Argirov
D Owen Van Poucke
D Yaj Maheshwari
D Andres Sanchez
D Ramon Acosta
MF Ode Emena
MF Emmanuel Castanon
MF Erik Hernandes Flores
MF Nestor Dominguez
F Gabe Jurado
F Ben Solano
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match — Joey Sommer, sr., D, St. Charles North
Scoring summary
First half
St. Charles North - J. Sinnaeve (Michels) 12 minutes
St. Charles North - Baer (UA) 36 minutes
Second half
St. Charles North - Michels (UA) 79 minutes