Huskies stay unbeaten with DVC finale win over Panthers

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By Matt Le Cren

One day soon, Evan Trychta is going to be eating sushi for dinner.

The Naperville North star thinks it will be a nice treat as well as a change of pace. After all, he’s been eating other teams for lunch.

Trychta did it again Tuesday night with the best statistical performance of his career, bagging his first hat trick as the Huskies crushed Glenbard North 4-0 in Carol Stream to win the DuPage Valley Conference championship and complete an unbeaten regular season.

“My assistant coach [Ryan Kuehne] says if I get a hat trick he buys me sushi,” Trychta said. “We always talked about it last year but I never got one.

“After I scored the first goal, I was like, that was quick. We’ve got the first one, so let’s get the second one and maybe we can get the hat trick. I was beautifully set up by Kyle [Lindberg] and Joe [Sullivan]. It was a no-brainer to put [the last two] in.”

The trio of Trychta, Lindberg and Sullivan has accounted for 37 of Naperville North’s 51 goals this fall. Three of them came in a span of seven minutes in the first half, when the Huskies (18-0-1, 7-0) did all of their scoring.

Trychta got things started with 29:28 remaining when his 23-yard free kick from the left wing curved over the defensive wall and bounced past Panthers goalie Eric Tenut, who was screened by three Huskies who were crashing the net.

Lindberg followed that by getting past a defender into the right side of the box and beating Tenut with a 15-yard shot at the 26:58 mark. He then triggered the third goal 4:14 later by sending a pass into the right corner to Sullivan, whose quick cross found Trychta alone at the top of the box. The result was a 17-yarder blast that made it 3-0.

Any chance the Panthers (9-9-3, 2-5) had of mounting a comeback ended with 15:22 left when Yhehia Akif was ejected, forcing the hosts to play with 10 men for the final 65 minutes.

That just gave the Huskies even more room to maneuver and Trychta completed his hat trick, as well as the scoring, 2:23 before intermission when a pass from Lindberg found him unguarded in the box.

Trychta and Sullivan, who hit the crossbar with a shot in the second half, each have 12 goals, but the quiet Lindberg is now North’s scoring leader with 13 goals and nine assists.

“Kyle is so good,” Trychta said. “Kyle is like the dark horse, I feel like. He’s always been on varsity but he’s really breaking out this year and he’s doing awesome. That’s why I love him.

“I’ve known Kyle since elementary school, [as I have] the majority of these kids. It’s great that we’re all together now.”

The Huskies not only have a surplus of talent, but that talent has shown an impressive cohesion during the 17-game winning streak.

“I think that is the key part, is that we are playing as a team now,” senior goalie Kevin Anderson said. “Everyone is working together. Everyone is working for each other.”

That is what makes Naperville North coach Jim Konrad proud.

“In this area, obviously with the schedule we play I’m proud to be undefeated in the DVC, much less the entire season,” Konrad said. “It’s something that you don’t start planning on doing. It’s just something that happens. We were fortunate to win a few of those along the way.

“I thought we played well today, so I’m happy to see that we’re hopefully hitting our stride when it counts.”

With the bulk of the starting lineup returning from a team that placed fourth at the 2010 Class 3A state tournament, the Huskies were expected to be a state-title contender. But did they foresee an unbeaten regular season, something only a handful of teams accomplish?

“It was kind of like a goal sitting in the back of our heads like we know we can get away with an undefeated season, but it’s kind of surreal right now,” Trychta said.

“Not to lose a game is a big thing but come the playoffs it doesn’t matter,” Anderson added. “You lose, you’re out. You win, you’re moving on. It doesn’t matter what you’re record is. It matters what you do on the field in the playoffs.”

Indeed, one bad game in the playoffs can erase all those positive memories. Just ask Neuqua Valley, which went unbeaten in the 2009 regular season but lost in the supersectionals, or the Neuqua Valley girls squad, which was unbeaten and untied last spring before getting upset by Naperville North in the sectional final.

“It’s a nice thing to [be able] to say, but starting next week it doesn’t matter how many we’ve won or lost,” said Konrad, whose squad opens the playoffs Oct. 19 against Oswego or Plainfield East in a regional semifinal match at Metea Valley. “It starts from scratch.

“There’s always a few [unbeatens] and often times that one team gets knocked out because you can only keep it rolling for so long, but I think the boys are focused and as long as they commit to working hard, we’ll always be in the mix.”

The Huskies’ mix includes three players that can put the ball in the back of the net, something few teams have, and an incredible defense that has given up only six goals all season. Anderson, who made four saves Tuesday to record his seventh consecutive shutout and 14th of the year, gave credit to the defenders Lee Grander, Max Auden, Matt Vogel, Neil Wiaranowski and Zach Fischmann.

“Any keeper can make the majority of the saves I make; it’s just being there,” Anderson said. “But the defense works so hard in front of me and they play so clean, so I’ve got to give all the credit to them. It’s mostly them that are getting the shutouts. Throughout the season they’ve all stepped in and played big.”