1. The right seeds. Each Courier-News squad seeded tops for its regional or sectional opened with a shutout victory. St. Charles North, No. 1 for the 18-school Conant Sectional, beat Lake Park 2-0; South Elgin sailed by Larkin 10-0; and Huntley blanked Jacobs 5-0. The North Stars, who moved from No. 11 after the season-opening poll, are currently No. 9 in the Sun-Times poll. Huntley, once as high No. 13, is No. 15 for a third week.
2. Empty nets. As St. Edward advances, goalie Paige Dykstra and the Green Wave boast an eye-popping 20 shutouts. However, they’re not alone. Jessica Galason and Huntley have 16 clean sheets while Shelby Stitz owns 11 solo efforts and one shared shutout for St. Charles North.
3. High tide. The Green Wave boasts the area’s top three point producers — Chelsea Gnan (77 points on 33 goals/11 assists); Allison Kruk (60 points, 29 goals/2 assists); and Alex Zeller (52 points, 19 goals/17 assists). Corey Lepoudre is the area assist leader with 25. Others goal-assist leaders include Huntley’s Taryn Jakubowski (49, 19/11); Bartlett’s Kendra Videckis (39, 18/3; and Burlington Central’s Cali Andrew (38, 15/8.).
