St Charles North’s sectional title hopes end in OT loss
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: October 31, 2011 11:13AM
Jake Savino's header off a throw-in by Nick Abel found the back of the net to give Schaumburg a 2-1 comeback victory over St. Charles North for the Bartlett Class 3A Sectional title Saturday at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.
Schaumburg (16-4-1), which advances to Tuesday’s Barrington Super-Sectional to face Warren, had fallen behind 1-0 only 1:13 into the match when the taller Stars used their height advantage perfectly with a goal on Justin Stanko’s header off of a corner kick by Alex Behm.
The Saxons shortly after the goal began to consistently beat St. Charles North (14-5-4) to balls along the sidelines or loose balls. They eventually tied the match with 26:04 left in regulation when forward Jake Savino beat two defenders to get off a shot on the move to his right just outside the penalty area that eluded the reach of North goalie Garrett Creasor in the upper right corner.
“We felt confident going into overtime,” Saxons coach Hamid Mehreioskouei said after his school’s third sectional crown in five years. “We know that we’ve got Nick coming in with some big throw-ins. It’s difficult to defend.”
Before Abel could make that throw-in, the Saxons had to withstand Davis’ free kick off the left corner of the crossbar.
Schaumburg outshot St. Charles North 13-10 overall and 4-2 in the overtime.
“That’s part of the sport, you know,” St. Charles North coach Eric Willson said about Davis’ free kick carom. “I thought Schaumburg was all over us for the majority of that game anyway.
“You get a good look there with a free kick and hit the bar, I thought that would be a little bit more momentum for us to settle down and play a little bit more of our game. But Schaumburg’s work ethic just completely took us out of our style of play.”
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