Huskies go to 3-0 in DVC following win over Tigers

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF SCOTT BUTLER

By Eddie Burns

There are about five weeks remaining in the regular season and conference races are just beginning to heat up.

Naperville North took a big step up on the rest of its DuPage Valley Conference brethren thanks to a 2-1 win at Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday night in Wheaton.

The Huskies upped their record to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in the DVC while the Tigers dropped to 4-4-1 overall and 0-1 within the league.

"We knew this match would go a long way in helping shape the conference race and tonight the boys got the job done," North coach Jim Konrad said.

North has looked different since Konrad inserted Kyle Lindberg at forward alongside Evan Trychta – together they are a formidable duo.

The two played a big role in North's initial goal, which game in the fifth minute. Bob Ren put the goal in motion when he worked the ball to Lindberg, who found Trychta, who did the rest.

North has scored five goals in its past two matches after scoring a total of nine goals in its first six matches.

A lot of the credit for the sudden abundance of goals is being given to Lindberg's presence at forward.

"I think we really started to click once we put Kyle up top," junior defender Lee Grander said. "His presence has been felt. With him up there, we've been dominating.

"He is not only big, but very skillful. He really reads the game well. When we have him up top it really provides another weapon opposite Trychta. It showed on that first goal."

Konrad had a feeling Lindberg had the ability to become a difference maker and so far, he has.

"Lindburg up top changes things because any ball that goes up there makes us immediately a dangerous team," Konrad said.

Another area where the Huskies can be very formidable is off restarts and they showcased their skills in that particular area on their second goal.

Grander scored the goal when he headed the ball to the far post off Joe Sullivan's corner kick in the 26th minute.

"We practice those set plays all of the time and that one happened to go in and I got so excited when I saw it go in," Grander said.

"It was great. It was a team-booster and lifted a lot of weight off of our shoulders."

Konrad dedicated a large portion of Monday's practice to restarts.

"As a coach, it is good to see the kids get a little positive reinforcement when we scored there before the half," Konrad said.

"Even the (set pieces) we didn't score on we were dangerous. It is something we have to be able to continually focus on."

WW South coach Guy Callipari was impressed with North's second goal.

"It was a brilliant goal," Callipari said. "(North) set that up nicely. We allowed them to get a little bit too much separation from the mark and it was a beautiful header to the back post – what are you going to do to stop that?

"It is not like they got cheap goals. That was a great goal by them."

North led 2-0 at intermission and had chances to put a bit of distance between itself and the Tigers.

But the Huskies couldn't convert on the handful of good scoring opportunities they created after their initial goal.

"We have to do a better job of finishing our chances we had two or three other chances that we could have scored on and it would have opened up and finished the game," Konrad said. "We didn't and then they made things close."

WW South did cut the lead in half with seven minutes remaining thanks to Sam Paver's first career goal.

But the Huskies defense led by Grander, Jimmy Butler, Jack Henderson and Max Auden were solid, as was goalie Kevin Anderson.

"We worked on defending as a group because we knew that (WW South) was going to come at us and withstood it," Konrad said.

North will travel to the Morton, Ill., Tournament this weekend and meet Batavia on Friday.

The Huskies will look to put a stranglehold on the DVC race next Tuesday when they travel to Naperville Central.