Anna Starr’s overtime goal lifts Crystal Lake Central co-op

CRYSTAL LAKE – Aptly named Anna Starr padded her Crystal Lake Central co-op career-record goal total, which surpassed a staggering 200 during the week.

The final one the junior lacrosse star fired home Friday night was maybe her best yet.

Starr’s fifth goal of the game and 205th of her career came 1:02 into overtime, lifting Central to a 12-11 win over Huntley in a seesaw battle that was played on slippery grass due to the recent rain. Central improved to 8-0 and 3-0 in the Fox Valley Conference as it seeks its fifth FVC championship in a row.

Starr made Huntley (6-2, 3-1) her second OT victim in the past year, as her sudden-death heroics beat St. Charles East last season. A 5-foot-11 attacker and Villanova recruit, Starr scored 74 goals as a freshman, 86 last year and has 45 this season.

“That’s probably the biggest goal she’s had,” Central coach Joe Capalbo said. “To beat our conference rival, in a Fox Valley Conference championship type of game, that’s a big moment.”

Starr scored her 200th goal in Central’s previous game, at McHenry.

“We’ve been a program for seven years, and we used to celebrate girls who got 100 goals,” Capalbo said. “So 200 is pretty crazy, that she’s there as a junior, and she’s probably going to end up with over 300.”

Starr’s sudden-death winner came after she took an errant stick to the head, giving her an eight-meter attack opportunity to the right of Huntley goalie Savannah Stone, who stopped three point-blank shots from Starr during regulation. Starr zigged toward the middle and fired low into the net.

The shot capped a wild game that never saw a lead larger than two goals. Huntley rallied from two-goal deficits four times, but Central needed Starr’s wraparound goal with 2:59 left in the fourth quarter to even the score at 11-11.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Starr said. “I’d like to first thank the defense for holding the game together for so long. And also the draw circle, even though I was taking the draws, Addie (Bechler) and Fiona (Lemke) were scooping up most of the possessions.

“So I’d say it was a team win.”

Bechler had four goals, Lemke added two, and Sydney Cruz also scored for Central. Starr had three assists as well.

“Our defense, honestly, was not on-point tonight,” Capalbo said. “We’ve been holding teams to five goals a game, so to give up 11, that’s not what we do. I think the field conditions had a lot to do with that. We play a zone defense, and I think we were just a step slow reacting to cutters.”

Starr almost won the game in regulation. As the final seconds ticked down, she took a pass in transition from a sprinting Lemke and fired a shot off the post at the buzzer.

“It was a fantastic pass,” Starr said.

Huntley, which plays its home games on turf, was playing its first contest on grass.

“Unfortunately, we play a lot on turf, and (Central) had a little advantage,” Huntley coach Joe Domka said. “It’s a little muddy out there, a little slippery, but I think our girls held up 100%. They did their job. It just didn’t end up our way.”

Huntley sisters Leah and Mya Holmberg had five and three goals, respectively. Leah Holmberg, who opened the scoring, had multiple players draped on her back when she fired in a shot with 7:07 left in the fourth, giving Huntley three consecutive goals and a 10-9 lead.

Central pulled even on Lemke’s goal two and a half minutes later, only to see Leah Holmberg finish a pass from Katie Ferrara with 3:52 left to snap a 10-10 tie.

Mya Holmberg’s hat trick included two goals 42 seconds apart in the second quarter.

“They work really well together because they grew up playing together, but they play different games,” Domka said of the Holmberg sisters. “Leah’s kind of like the brute player out there. She gets that ball, she gets through, and she gets to that goal. Mya is that finesse player. They complement each other.”

Huntley also got goals from Ferrara, Lauren Cardinal and Allison Schneider, who had two second-half assists in helping the Raiders erase a 6-5 halftime deficit.