Hosler shines as North Stars blank Lake Zurich

By Curt Herron
Photos courtesy of Sue Figura

It's a pretty good bet that very few squads will be able to keep dangerous Lake Zurich off of the scoreboard this season.

With Division I recruits Nick Janus, Tim Kreutz and Eric Pothast on hand, the Bears are seen as one of the state's top teams.

But Lake Zurich came up empty-handed against St. Charles North in Saturday's third-place match at the Barrington Classic.

And the man who was most responsible for pulling off that impressive accomplishment was North Stars keeper Zach Hosler.

The North Star senior made 15 saves against the high-powered Bears attack to give his team a chance to pull of the upset.

But North had to wait until only about four minutes remained in the match before it was finally able to find the net.

With 3:59 left, James Mrotek sent a pass to Angelo Catalano who connected for a goal to give the Norths Stars a 1-0 win.

"It was nice to get that goal so that all of our hard work paid off," Hosler said. "Maybe it wasn't the most ideal win but we'll take it.

"We had a few troubles at the beginning with our defense and in staying tight on our marks and that gave them a couple of opportunities.

"But after a little bit we picked it up and started playing a lot better and our defense got tighter. It was an all-around group effort."

After getting off to a 1-2 start this season, the North Stars closed out the tournament in style by winning three in a row.

They rallied for a 3-1 win over Barrington and then captured a 4-1 victory over Warren prior to the triumph over Lake Zurich.

North Star coach Eric Willson is pleased with his team's progress this week following their 3-1 loss to New Trier on Tuesday.

"To take a term from the World Cup, this was kind of group of death that we were in," Willson said. "So we feel good about getting three wins out of four games in this tournament.

"Zach kept us in this game but I don't think that we played as well as we could have. But some times as long as you can find a way to get one goal then that may be good enough.

"We weathered a storm for most of this game so we tried to stay positive and hoped to sneak one in. We won a 50-50 ball and got a ball wide quickly, which is where we're at our best."

The North Star keeper is also encouraged by what he's seen from his squad during the first two weeks of the season.

And he's hoping that North can continue to show signs of improvement as it begins play in this week's Pepsi Showdown.

"This win will help us by getting us motivated for our next few games," Hosler said. "Hopefully we're taking the right steps in a forward direction.

"To get the last three wins was huge for our team. There's been a lot of improvement so far and now it's just about getting into the right mindset."

2009 Schedule