St. Charles North’s Jacob Piper had not scored all season, but coaches continued to encourage the North Stars junior defender to push up field and mix it up offensively.

On Friday against Huntley, Piper finally found his time to shine as he jumped high in the air and headed in the go-ahead goal on a set piece in the first overtime.

“I don’t know how I got that. That was the highest I’ve ever jumped before,” Piper said of his game-winner. “That was my first one of the season. My coaches kept telling me to push up the whole time, and I finally got it.

“It felt amazing.”

The North Stars, too, were amazing Friday night.

St. Charles North scored twice in the final 15 minutes to force overtime, and Piper’s goal with 3:35 left in the first OT put the North Stars in front for the first time en route to a 4-2 victory against host Huntley at the Class 3A Huntley Regional championship.

It was St. Charles North’s first regional championship since 2019.

“It means a lot. I’ve been on varsity since I was a freshman, and we’ve made it to the regional final all four years,” said senior defender Ashton Goettel, who scored a header goal with 10:17 remaining in regulation to tie the score at 2.

“It’s been heartbreaking all three years. Going down 2-0 early, I knew it wasn’t over and this had to be done. It’s my last year, so I just gave it everything I had. Each and every one of us believed in each other. We really talked through it at halftime, and we knew we could do it.”

Things looked bleak for St. Charles North (10-6-3) after Huntley scored a pair of first-half goals from juniors Cody Hammer (27:13 left in first half) and Liam Nixon (8:18 left in first half) and held the North Stars scoreless for the game’s first 65 minutes.

Both Red Raiders’ goals came on shots from about 25 yards out. Nixon’s rocket just snuck past St. Charles North goalkeeper Tomas Makishima (seven saves) into the top left of the goal.

Huntley (13-3-3) simply ran out of gas.

“First goal was really my fault because I wasn’t marking my guy,” Huntley senior defender Noah Gomez said. “That was on me. After the first goal, it just started going downhill after that for us. By the end of the [first] half, I already felt beaten, so it was kind of rough.”

“We kind of sat back a little bit,” Huntley coach Matt Lewandowski added. “They get one and they get a lot of energy. Then they get the second and its a full swing of momentum, and now we’re fighting an uphill battle.

“With a group like this and the depth that we have and skill that we have, there’s always hope for a group like this. Any one of these guys at any moment can turn something on and make something happen.”

St. Charles North’s Dino Valenti put his team on the scoreboard with a goal off a corner kick from Oliver Longosz with 15 minutes left in the first half. Valenti added a second goal in the second overtime with 6:46 remaining.

“It’s been a really long time. We’ve been in a lot of regional championships, and it has not been easy to lose some really close games,” said North Stars coach Eric Willson, whose team was playing in a regional final for the 11th time in 12 seasons.

“You find yourself down 2-0 at halftime, and it’s something I think we’re just proud of the character from these boys. We were finally able to break down the wall, and that’s a special feeling for all of us.”

Ethan Knaus made eight saves for Huntley, while Gomez and Finley Williams had assists.

Huntley graduates 13 from its Fox Valley Conference championship season. The Raiders went a perfect 9-0 to win the title.

“It truly was a blessing to have all of these guys,” Williams, a senior midfielder, said. “I came in my sophomore year and knew nobody, and these guys welcomed me like I was their own blood. To have that mentality with everyone, it truly is a blessing.”

“This is a group of guys I coached back when they were 8, 9 years old,” Lewandowski said. “It’s a tough one to go out in a way that you don’t want to. But to see where these guys have gone, where they started and where they’re at now, it’s pretty incredible. It’s a group that I’ll remember forever.”

St. Charles North will face the winner of Saturday’s regional final between Dundee-Crown and St. Charles East in a South Elgin Sectional semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“This group is special,” Goettel said. “We just feed off each other’s energy. When Dino got that first goal on the set corner play, we knew the momentum was on our side. We had that trust in our teammates.”