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Stars Soccer: Girls 13U team on a roll

Northern Stars Soccer

IRON MOUNTAIN — Northern Stars 13U girls soccer team rattled off three straight wins in East Central Classic 1 League play this past week.

The division-leading Stars (3-0-1) started off with a 1-0 victory against the previous season league co-champions Neenah Lightning on Thursday.

The tie game was broken with eight minutes remaining off a breakaway goal by Megan Bittinger who took a lead pass from Maria Fornetti.

“That was a crazy goal,” said Stars coach John Bittinger. “Maria placed a perfect pass to Megan who was finally able to break past their very fast defensive line only to end up in a three-way collision with the goalie and one of the defenders. All three girls ended up in a pile on the ground as the ball rolled into the goal.”

The second game of the streak was a 3-1 victory in Niagara over Water Cities Soccer Club out of the Oshkosh area. Fornetti tallied two quick goals to put the Stars on top and Bittinger added the insurance goal late in the game.

Two of the three goals scored were off corner kicks.

“Peyton Johnson and Lexie Vross both placed perfect kicks into to the box allowing easy redirects into the goal by Fornetti and Bittinger,” coach Bittinger said.

The final was a 2-1 win against the other fall league co-champion FC Green Bay at Niagara’s Riverside Park. FC Green Bay scored first off a penalty kick early in the game.

Jaedyn Simonetti’s goal off a cross from Fornetti in the second half pulled the Stars level at 1-1 then Mia Counter added the go ahead goal late in the game off a Bittinger cross to seal the victory.

“This was quite a run for our girls,” said coach Bittinger. “We moved up to tougher Classic 1 Division this year with hopes of being competitive. We didn’t expect half way into the season we would be sitting in first place and undefeated, especially playing two of the league champions in this stretch.

“We do have to give a large amount of credit to our defense. Teams have a very difficult time getting through our defensive line rotation.

Bittinger cited Lexie Vross, Peyton Johnson, McKenna Trulock, Sarah Kay, Mia Counter and Sarah Scullon on defense,

“If they happen to get through they have to contend with our goalkeeper Alyssa Englund who has played strong all season,” Bittinger said. “We still have a lot of soccer to play in June, but we definitely had a great month of May and you cannot take that away from us. We hope we can build on this past success and keep improving with every game.”

The Stars head to Madison for a tournament the first week of June and then return home to play United Hurricanes from Green Bay on June 7 at Riverside Park.

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