By Bobby Narang
Four Kane County high schools got together for a special night of girls soccer last week.
St. Charles North was host to St. Charles East in the nightcap of Tri-Cities Nights and Batavia and Geneva played in the opener.
The annual event is a special occasion, filled with contests, giveaways, raffles, donations, and two soccer games between DuKane Conference members.
The April 23 event honored James Oliver’s family. Jame Oliver was a beloved Geneva freshman student-athlete who tragically passed away earlier this year.
“Tri-Cities night is a wonderful event put on by four local high school soccer programs to use our platform to give back to our community and help a local family,” Geneva coach Megan Owens said.
It turned out to be a wonderful night of soccer, too.
The Geneva Vikings started the two-game fundraiser with a 2-0 victory over Batavia. Audrey Stredde, who scored two goals in last season’s win over Batavia on Tri-Cities Night, started the scoring with a goal in the 15th minute.
Stredde, a sophomore, said the atmosphere at TCN brings out the best in her.
“The environment is amazing with all these fans and we were able to pull out another win,” Stredde said. “It was more of a mental game with myself. This happened last year and I wanted to meet the expectation again. It was awesome, got some momentum going with that spark. Everyone wants to get a goal.”
Owens said it was a great night for the community.
“It was a nice win,” Owens said. “It’s always nice to play well on Tri-Cities Night because there’s a lot going on. I’m so thankful that we had such a nice crowd and so many people of the community came out to help the Oliver family, the Geneva family. We’re very appreciative for St. Charles North for hosting. In terms of the game, we are always looking to improve. There’s some things we should’ve done better, but granted, it was another windy game.”
The second game pitted two rivals aiming to make some noise in the playoffs. The North Stars defeated the St. Charles East Saints three times last season, including in the playoffs. The hosts added another big win over the Saints, pulling out a thrilling 1-0 win. St. Charles North star senior Laney Stark, a Wisconsin-Green Bay recruit, scored the only goal in the seventh minute to shock the visitors.
“It was a foul that came across like a corner, and my mentality was I was going to get it,” Stark said of her goal. “It was really early. I think that goal changed the momentum right from the beginning because we’ve been having trouble scoring lately. I think that goal right away gave us that mentality that we could score and win the game. I think it’s good to get the win, but we have to work on finishing our chances. It’s awesome to win it again. Last year was so much fun. We know a lot of players on their team also because of club, so it makes it that much more awesome.”
St. Charles East senior defender MacKenzie Loomis, an Eastern Michigan University recruit, said it was a tough loss, but should help her team in the final weeks of the regular season and playoffs.
“It was a rough game,” Loomis said. “We definitely came into this with a lot of confidence. We wanted to show ourselves and our coaches that we could be successful in this game. Although we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, it was a good game to see where we are at this point of the season. It was definitely a progress check for us. They’re a great team. We just came up short. It was a great game. We struggled a bit scoring goals. It was a defensive game, for sure.”