It may not have been the prettiest second half, but St. Charles North’s boys soccer team withstood a late challenge by Metea Valley Tuesday night.

Junior goalkeeper Piercarlo Ricossa stonewalled Metea Valley’s Michael Lothridge from point-blank range off a free kick from Ryan Barry with 45 seconds remaining in regulation to preserve the North Stars’ 1-0 triumph during the second round of the PepsiCo Showdown in St. Charles.

A few moments earlier, the North Stars (6-1-3) avoided another narrow escape on a potential hand ball call in the box.

“It was a tough call,” said Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson. “Credit them for getting the goal and the shutout, but it was an awesome game. It was real competitive.”

North Stars coach Eric Willson admitted his team’s play over the final minutes needs to improve down the line.

“I’d like to see our soccer IQ a little better toward the end of a game,” Willson said. “I’d put that on the coaches. We have to do a better job of teaching game management.”

Despite the late-game scare the victory advances the third-seeded North Stars to uncharted territory.

“At the end of the day, we’re in a spot that we’ve never been in this tournament and that’s the Final Four,” Willson said. “We’re happy to be there.”

St. Charles North will face second-seeded Wheaton Academy (6-0-2) Thursday in West Chicago. The Warriors defeated Downers Grove North 3-1 Tuesday.

The North Stars wasted several scoring opportunities in the first 40 minutes, outshooting the Mustangs 15-3 but only putting 5 shots on goal against Metea goalkeeper Kevin Branch.

“I think we felt at halftime that we really had the run of play,” Willson said. “If we could have capitalized on a couple more of those opportunities, we could have put the game away in the first half but we didn’t.

“You do that against a real hardworking team like that (Metea Valley) and all of a sudden you’re in a battle for 80 minutes.”

Robinson found plenty of positives in defeat.

“We’ll continue to keep fighting,” the Mustangs’ coach said. “A week ago, we probably would have shut down after that first goal but we kept battling and slowly gained momentum in the second half. I was really proud of the way the boys played.”

— Craig Brueske

Huntley 3, Timothy Christian 1:

It was the classic confrontation between David and Goliath.

This time Goliath prevailed.

Huntley, with an enrollment of 2,866 students, produced enough offense to knock off Timothy Christian, enrollment 346, 3-1 in second-round action of the PepsiCo Showdown boys soccer tournament in Huntley on Tuesday night.

“We enjoy playing teams that are bigger than us like Huntley,” said Timothy Christian coach Stephen Fernandes. “We knew we were the underdogs. They are a very talented, classy team that really challenged us. We did a good job of possessing the ball, but we had some costly defensive breakdowns that hurt us. This game was a learning experience for us.”

The Red Raiders (7-2) struck first as Luke Loprieno scored off an assist from Brandon Ruffner with 25:35 remaining in the first half. But the Trojans (4-2) responded with the game-tying goal by Jimmy Allen with 20:46 left in the first half.

The game was tied until the 22:23 mark of the second half when Adam Kaster scored on a header to give Huntley a 2-1 advantage.

Grabner praised his team’s play and the talent level that Timothy Christian possesses.

“We played very well tonight and made a lot of progress,” the Huntley coach said. “We created a lot of scoring chances and were able to finish. Our defense played well and our two goalies did a good job. Timothy Christian has a lot of talent for a small school. They are very well organized and well-coached. They will do very well in the playoffs against teams their size.” — Dave Hess