Naperville North sounds Katie Horn to eliminate St. Charles East

After what happened to Naperville North in the Mustangs’ pool two years ago, the Huskies are taking no chances at this year’s Metea Valley Sectional.

A two-goal loss to the upstart Mustangs in 2012 is still in the minds of the seniors, and they have imparted the pain of that loss to the many sophomores on this year’s team.

“The girls constantly tell us that they don’t want this to happen again,” Naperville North sophomore Katie Horn said. “We see the videos on YouTube and we’re like, ‘What happened?’

Pretty much our goal this year was to take one game at a time because we don’t know what was going to happen or who we would be playing. Today, we just wanted to play our game, play our best and let teams know that we’re coming to play this year.”

Horn had a big part in top-seeded North’s 13-3 quarterfinal win Thursday over St. Charles East. She led with four goals as the Huskies move on to Friday’s semifinal against third-seeded St.

Charles North, which won a thrilling, 13-12 quarterfinal against Hinsdale Central.

“Everything matters,” Naperville North coach Andy McWhirter said. “First half, some of the things we had the girls doing were just sets, moving around. Still some work we need to do in some other spots, but the girls had a nice run out there.”

Naperville North (27-1) opened a 4-0 lead in the first quarter and pushed it to 11-2 at the half.

Horn scored four times for the Huskies, Jillian Eiken scored three goals, and Dani DiMatteo and Helen Wei each scored twice.

Both of the goals for St. Charles East (8-16) in the first half came from Lexi Kos.

“I told the girls, ‘Let’s get a good start, take it right to them, try to get a good head start and fight from there,’” St. Charles East coach Tori Shields said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game either way. They’re the one seed. They got that for a reason. It was tough, but I was proud of how the girls played. It was a good effort. We have more to work on for next season.”