Girls soccer: Stark’s early goal sends St. Charles North past Fremd in state semifinals

St. Charles North is headed to the Class 3A state championship final after its 1-0 victory over Fremd Friday night at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on the campus of North Central College.

The North Stars’ (18-2-5) dream of lifting their first big trophy is one step closer after Laney Stark netted the opener in the 14th minute — which would hold up under tremendous second half pressure from Fremd (16-5-4) who was unable to find the back of the net.

"Laney got us an early goal, and after that we just played with a lot of heart and grit, and did just a great job as a team to defend in order to hold onto our lead to advance into the final tomorrow night," said Stars senior Kayla Floyd, who turned in a marvelous performance in the middle of the park all throughout this intense and hard fought state semifinal contest.

The North Stars will take on Edwardsville (18-3-1), a 2-1 winner over New Trier (23-4-4), in the final at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Naperville.

"(That) early mistake in our own end cost us. But we did everything we could do except find the back of the net," said Vikings coach Steve Keller, whose club will play New Trier for third at 11:45 a.m. Saturday.

Stark took advantage of some miscommunication deep in the Vikings end to find a way to slot her 18th goal of the season under keeper Emily Gordon to give the North Stars a lead they would never relinquish.

The Vikings attack would come alive for a brief time near the half hour with Gwen Zimmerman, Sami Serpico and Natalia Wala at the heart of this uprising.

However, Floyd, who was stationed in front of her central-defenders Abby Sims and Kyra Treanor, did well with their organization in order to keep their keeper Lauren Korioth safe from trouble.

"We were in their end for most of the second half, and put so much pressure on them, but they did a great job of managing the lead," said the sophomore Zimmerman, who was moved up top after the break to join Serpico, who were looking to add to their combined 27 goals to equalize.

The North Stars nearly doubled their advantage when Kaitlin Glenn went wide in the 66th minute before Floyd headed wide from in close moments later.

"It's all kind of surreal right now (knowing) we're playing the state final tomorrow night in my senior year," said Floyd, who will attend the University of Missouri in the fall.