North’s run comes to an end

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HOFFMAN ESTATES – St. Charles North boys soccer coach Eric Willson “had a vibe” the match would swing his North Stars’ way after a dramatic goal to tie the match late in regulation.

But Wheaton North seemingly barely noticed the turn of events. The Falcons just kept playing, making short work of the North Stars once overtime began in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime win against North in an IHSA Class 3A Hoffman Estates Sectional semifinal.

Wheaton North won it when Jacques Ntahoturi muscled his own rebound past North goalkeeper Tyler McEnery off an assist from Josh Bennett just more than 2 minutes into overtime. The Falcons had an odd-man break leading to the winner.

“I thought it was a pretty clear hand-ball at midfield but it’s our reaction to that hand-ball that’s most disappointing,” Willson said. “The boys fought hard, but we got a little wrapped up in the refereeing.

“I think we had our hands raised as if it was a hand-ball and were too worried about convincing the referees about that instead of getting back.”

The loss knocks North (12-11-3) out of the postseason and prevented the 10th-seeded North Stars from upending their third straight better-seeded opponent.

North senior midfielder Angelo Catalano tied the match, 1-all, with 15:25 left in regulation on a free kick from about 25 yards out.

“The last couple days, people have been joking about us couple guys who take free kicks,” said Catalano, who is leaning toward playing college soccer at Washington University (St. Louis). “We haven’t made any all year so we’ve kind of been getting a little flak here lately.

“It’s just ironic that that one went in. Sometimes you hit it and it feels great right from the start ... it’s what I practice for. You’ve got 21 other guys looking, and I feel like they kind of look to me to make a play sometimes.”

Wheaton North didn’t let the equalizer chip into its resolve, outplaying North in the closing minutes of regulation.

“We’ve been in close matches all year,” Falcons coch Bryce Cann said. “We’ve held one-goal leads, we’ve come back from one-goal leads. We responded well, and we created a couple opportunities in the last 10 minutes [of regulation] to win.”

No. 9 seed Wheaton North (8-9-5) took a 1-0 lead with 33:23 left in the second half on a Pat Langan penalty kick, deposited in the upper-left corner. The penalty kick followed a frenetic sequence during which several North Stars defenders attempted to stave off the persistent Langan and North’s Trent Coyle came away shaken up.

North outplayed Wheaton North in a scoreless first half but a nice save by Falcons goalkeeper Nick Barry on Catalano helped keep the match scoreless.

Willson expressed pride in North’s late-season output after rocky play during most of the regular season.

“A roller coaster ride for sure for us,” Willson said. “At times it felt like it was underachieving, but at the end of the year, when it’s most important, we played to our potential.”

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