Girls soccer: Kaitlin Glenn nets olimpico goal as St. Charles North gets 2-1 win over Batavia

ST. CHARLES – An Olimpico goal may be one of the rarest things to happen in a soccer game, let alone a high school girls soccer game.

That didn’t stop St. Charles North’s Kaitlin Glenn from scoring one April 11.

The junior sent a corner kick from the left side of the south side goal into the box, where Keira Kelly got in front of Batavia goalie Reagan Sulaver, which made Sulaver miss the ball as it found the right side of the net for an Olimpico goal – a goal that is scored directly from a corner kick. In 1924, Argentina player Cesareo Onzari scored against reigning Olympic champion Uruguay from a corner kick and the goal became known as “Gol Olimpico,” Spanish for “Olympic goal.”

“It always feels good to have a goal off a corner and watching the ball curve in,” Glenn said. “But it wouldn’t have been possible without Kelly getting in front of the keeper and causing her to make a mistake and that’s what we capitalize on.”

Glenn added an assist in the second half in helping lead the North Stars to a 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs for their first DuKane Conference win of the season.

“The first conference win always feels good,” North coach Brian Harks said. “It’s never easy to get a conference win in the DuKane, that’s for sure.”

The North Stars (6-0-3, 1-0-1 DuKane) kept the pressure on the Bulldogs’ defense in the first half with most of the play being in Batavia territory. Harks said he felt the North Stars did well in managing the field and pace of play throughout the game.

“I thought our backline did a good job just being in control and being super disciplined,” Harks said. “And I felt that our frontline did a nice job in finding the back of the net when needed.”

Laney Stark added an insurance goal for the North Stars just 2:36 into the second half. The Wisconsin-Green Bay commit found a line down the center field and a well-placed through ball from Glenn left her one-on-one with Sulaver, who couldn’t get a hand on the shot as it found its way to the right side of the net to make it 2-0.

Some great saves by Sulaver kept the Bulldogs in the game. The junior had five saves in the first half and another in the second half.

“Sometimes as a goalie you have got to have a short memory,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “After giving up the [first] goal, she bounced back and made some saves. I thought her distribution was pretty good, but I wish we could have gotten on the end of those.”

The Bulldogs (5-4, 1-1) staged a late-game comeback with 15:18 left on the clock. Senior Addison Lowe took a deflected cross from junior Alexa Schorr and blasted the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal to pull her team to within one. However, the Bulldogs couldn’t find the equalizer in the final minutes.

Despite the loss, Gianfrancesco said he felt his team stayed organized and together throughout the game, responded well after the goals, especially in the second half, and just needed to capitalize on more opportunities.

“When you’re down, it’s easy just to give up and I don’t think we gave up. We stayed with it and we want to continue doing that,” Gianfrancesco said. “We had some things that we did well, but yet things we need to work on moving forward.”

Glenn said the win hopefully will give St. Charles North more confidence.

“We need to realize that anything is possible and that’ll help us win conference games and possibly further than that,” she said.

https://www.shawlocal.com/kane-county-chronicle/2024/04/12/girls-soccer-kaitlin-glenn-nets-olimpico-goal-as-st-charles-north-gets-2-1-win-over-batavia/