Rams record good defensive effort against talented Huskies

CLICK FOR PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF SCOTT BUTLER

By Matt Le Cren

Naperville North's players readily admitted Tuesday night they have yet to reach their full potential, even after a 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference victory over visiting Glenbard East extended the Huskies' unbeaten streak to 11 matches.

That's scary news for Naperville North’s remaining opponents.

At the same time, Glenbard East coach Josh Adler was happy with his team's gritty defensive effort, which held the powerful Huskies (11-1-1, 4-0) scoreless for the first 30 minutes of the contest and did a good job of limiting Naperville North's bread-and-butter play.

"I felt our effort was a little bit lacking at first, but we picked it up," Naperville North midfielder Bob Ren said. "Their defense definitely flexed a lot, so our No. 1 play, which is to slot people through, did not necessarily work.

"So we tried to switch things up and take more shots from the outside and I think the second half we had a lot more chances."

Ren gave the hosts a 1-0 lead by scoring his third goal of the season on a great individual effort with 9:57 left in the first half.

The senior worked a give-and-go with Kyle Lindberg in the midfield and weaved his way up the middle of the field past two defenders before ripping a 25-yard shot just inside the left post.

The Huskies, who were coming off a 2-0 win over Joliet Central Saturday in which Evan Trychta and Jimmy Butler found the back of the net, finally got some breathing room at the 29:22 mark of the second half.

Joe Sullivan sent a 22-yard free kick from deep in the left corner through the crease to Lee Grander, who deflected it into Glenbard East goalie Brad Suszek.

Suszek, who finished with seven saves, made the stop but not before the ball had completely crossed the goal line.

"It was close to the corner flag, so we ran a corner play," Sullivan said. "I played it well on the ground so it would just be a tap-in for Lee and that made it a lot easier, instead of putting it in the air."

Naperville North coach Jim Konrad was not impressed with his team's play but he wasn't complaining.

"It wasn't our best game of the year, but we played well enough to win," Konrad said.

"We've been able to find the back of the net all year and Bob had a great individual effort and the second goal was sloppy, but if you give us enough restarts, one's going to go in. It was off Lee's hip and we'll take it."

Despite being outshot 21-4, the Rams (3-9-1, 0-2-1) nearly tied the game five minutes before Grander's goal.

Huskies goalie Kevin Anderson had to make back-to-back saves, including one on a rebound from Glenbard East leading scorer Sam Dennis.

But Dennis, who has six of the Rams' 13 goals, was the only East player able to get a shot off from within the box.

"You can't maintain that defensive stand for an entire game," Adler said. "You've got to be able to find a way to put a little bit of pressure on them and get some opportunities.

"We got forward a little bit. We didn't have great chances, but that one ball that bounces off the keeper, if we get a touch on that and Sam puts it in the back of the net it's a 1-1 game."

For the most part, the Huskies controlled the midfield thanks to Lindberg, Trychta, Sullivan and Max Auden, who again flashed the skills that have doomed many a defense this fall.

But North was not satisfied with scoring just twice.

"We could have done some things better," Sullivan said. "I thought we played pretty good. We're still not 100 percent yet, but we're getting better."

"At this time of year we're really focused on getting better every game," Konrad said. "We didn't tonight, but hopefully we'll grow from taking a quarter-step back."

The Rams defense of Gio Guerrero, Stephen Plotke, Jose Hernandez and Oscar Barraza had a little something to do with that.

"[The Huskies have got some very dangerous forwards," Adler said. "They've got a lot of team speed up there and on the outside they utilize those guys in behind backs and they're extremely effective if you give them that time to size up things.

"And I thought my outside backs did a pretty good job of [handling] their team speed throughout the game. We had one unfortunate situation in front of the net in the second half or it's a 1-0 game."

Adler was especially pleased with the performance of the two-way play of Barraza, who was able to trigger a few offensive rushes before they petered out near North's penalty area thanks to Butler, Grander and Matt Vogel.

"I thought Oscar Barraza had a really solid game back there," Adler said. "He sits in there and waits for guys to make runs and he reads those plays and steps in and wins those balls.

"He's a real heady player. He's patient and he knows who to find in different areas of the field, which is what you want. It gives you a nice little attacking element in the back."

While the Rams have yet to beat a quality opponent this fall, they have held two ranked teams – the Huskies and Downers Grove South – to two goals each and their play on Tuesday was a vast improvement over their showing in a 5-1 loss to Hinsdale South on Saturday.

"I think we take a lot of good things away from this, Adler said. "I always imagine that when you come on somebody else's home field that you're already down a goal in that game and you've got to work a lot harder in it.

"We sustained a lot of things. They had some good opportunities and we kind of weathered the storm early on and we still found a way to build some things. These guys got to feel that they can go out there and compete against good teams in this conference.

"Things are starting to piece together in a way that is making us more and more competitive. I don't think our record right now indicates what we have the potential of being. Wins will come at some point in time."