A close game at the PepsiCo Showdown Saturday against St. Charles North brought the varsity soccer team’s winning streak to an end, leaving them with a 5-1-1 record.

  St. Charles North scored at the beginning of the first half.  Lane responded in the middle of the second half, with Zach Rodgers sending a free kick to Charlie Bauer, who scored on a header.

  Attempting to break the 1-1 tie, both teams played throughout overtime hoping to score, but failed to do so.

  “We were getting a lot of chances on goal in overtime and were solid on defense,” Bauer said.

  The tie led to penalty kicks, and St. Charles North converted more penalties than Lane. Knowing that they had to start off the tournament against their “hardest game,” they felt good with the result, according to Alex Mezyk, Div. 860.

  “Well we lost to them 4-0 last year, so I knew it was going to be tough,” Mezyk said. “We have a better team this year and we went into this game undefeated.”

  Not only were they confident, but they also believed that if they had just 10 additional minutes, they would have continued playing on in the tournament.

  “The opposition was playing aggressive all game,” Mezyk said. “They began to be even more aggressive and started fouling us more, especially in their own half, which gave us more chances in their half and which also led me to believe we would win if we had this 10 extra minutes. We kept our cool just like coach always said, and like we always tell each other to show our class and stay calm. I believe we did that well.”

  The opposing team’s aggressiveness went to the extent of the referee having to pull out his cards. The crowd did not see yellow, but they did see a bright red.

  “The ball was leaving the field and Alfredo Guzman was shielding the ball to let it go out,” Mezyk said. “The guy on the other team got mad and elbowed him in the back of the head and pushed him down once the ball was already out of the field.”

  Although the PepsiCo Showdown came to an end for Lane, this season is already shaping up to be very different from last year. The team last season lost to suburban opponents Highland Park and Niles West, but this season, the team has been able to win both games against those schools — and added another 2-0 victory Tuesday against New Trier.

  “We’ve won as many games this year as we did last year and we are only three weeks in,” Coach Ricks said.

  With a 6-1-1 record as of Sept. 13, the team’s morale has increased steadily, giving the players hope for a strong season.

  “This shows me that our team is talented and we have great potential to go far in the city tournament and hopefully the state tournament,” said Captain Alex Rydberg, Div. 766.