Helena Niforatos hasn’t worn the St. Charles East jersey for very long.
The freshman forward will likely never forget what she did Tuesday, however.
Niforatos scored with 5.3 seconds left in the first half to give the Saints a 1-0 lead and a ton of momentum, which they used to dominate the second half for a 4-0 Upstate Eight River victory over host Elgin.
“I wasn’t looking at the clock or anything because I was so focused on playing the game,” Niforatos said. “I was just ready for the ball and I guess I was in the right place at the right time.
“It came right to me, so I just shot it and it went in.”
It was the first career high school goal for Niforatos, who despite playing extensively while growing up couldn’t recall scoring a goal so late in a half.
“I’m usually on defense and trying to stop goals, so to get so close to the goal and score one felt pretty good,” she said. “With it being at the end of the half like that, it really helped us out.”
Now, Niforatos feels like she’s even more a part of the team.
“I already felt like I was fitting in nicely, but I also want to help us win,” she said. “This group has been great for me. They’ve been very accepting and I’m glad to do whatever I can.”
St. Charles (3-0-1, 1-0) had a handful of other chances earlier in the first half, but Elgin (0-1-2, 0-1) responded strong defensively by disrupting the Saints on countless occasions.
Junior defender Kylie Graves was pleased with Elgin’s effort.
“That’s an awesome team, so for us to hold them off like that was huge for us,” Graves said. “It’s too bad that we ended up giving up that bad goal so late in the first half, but it happens.
“I still think it was the best we’ve ever played them, and this is my third year on the team.”
The Maroons remained within striking distance at the beginning of the second half before St. Charles East junior Chantel Carranza struck with 20:42 remaining.
“I had some scoring chances earlier that I didn’t take advantage of,” Carranza said. “They compressed the field really well and we needed to go out wide more, which we finally did, so I cut to my left and went from there after struggling for a bit.”
The Saints broke the game open from there, getting a tap-in goal from Hannah Kolb a couple minutes later and then a rebound header from Madison Cady in the final five minutes.
“It took us a while to get going, so give Elgin a lot of credit,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “Defensively, they were very sound. They’re the strongest Elgin team I’ve seen during my time here.
“I thought they did a very good job defensively, and fortunately for us, the game opened up for us in the second half.”
C.R. Walker is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.
