Down 5-3 at the half against a physical Libertyville squad, St Charles rallied right from the second-half faceoff to earn a hard-fought 12-7 victory in its home opener at East Side Sports Complex.

Libertyville, which two years ago finished third in the state with a 17-3 record, entered the game after journeying to St Louis for a Spring Break tournament. St Charles itself was coming off its own trip to North Carolina, where it split two games.

St Charles jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals by Tim Dalrymple and Thomas Feicco. Libertyville responded with two scores of their own, bracketing a goal by StC's Sean Brogan.

The StC lead then vanished in the second stanza, as Libertyville scored three times to take a 5-3 lead into halftime.

In the third period, however, the StC offense picked up the pace. Three quick goals, one by Conor Hamilton and two by Dylan Ward, reclaimed the lead. Vince Frantz then scored twice after a Libertyville goal, with the second coming off a long clearing pass by Tyler Hines, and Thomas put back a deflected shot to make it 9-6. The quarter ended with a Libertyville score to keep it close at 9-7.

StC pressed the attack in the final quarter, however, with Dylan finding Thomas for a score, and Thomas feeding Vince for the final two StC goals.

StC grabbed 49 ground balls and took the ball away 31 times. Dylan had 8 GBs to lead the StC effort, followed by 6 each by Tyler Hines, Conor Hamilton and Sean Brogan. Sean also had 6 takeaways to lead the team, and Sean Leary took it away 5 times.

In goal, Sean McGushin stopped seven shots on net.

Game Stats