Naperville North stays perfect with win over Central

The Naperville North boys soccer team accomplished so much in Tuesday’s 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference win against rival Naperville Central.

The Huskies remain perfect at 5-0 in conference play and are well on their way to winning the league trophy for the 20th time in program history. They have won 15 games in a row and are now 16-0-1 (the tie was against Oswego East in the second game of the year). This was their 12th shutout of the year.

“It’s always our first goal — to win the DVC,” said Naperville North coach Jim Konrad, whose Huskies have won the title eight times in 10 years and three straight seasons. “It’s something we take very seriously. If we win Saturday (against Wheaton Warrenville South), we will at least have a share of the title.”

Naperville Central is now 12-2 — both losses were shutouts. The Redhawks dropped to 4-1 in DVC action. This is the first game all season they have given up two goals.

“There are certain games during the year you don’t really have to say much,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “They have been looking forward to this game for a long time. (Naperville North is) having a good season, we are having a good season...the atmosphere of the game was fantastic. Obviously, the result isn’t what we wanted, but I thought they played their hearts out.”

Naperville North senior forward Evan Trychta scored both goals. His first was at the 16:01 mark in the first half and the second was with 3.3 left in the game. He now has eight goals this year.

“Lee (Grander) played a beautiful ball in, and Kyle (Lindberg) got a flick on it, and I was just right there,” Trychta said of the first goal. “(For the second goal) Connor Sharples was able to clear it, and I hit it open net.”

“(Evan is) a big-time kid,” Konrad added. “He doesn’t have a lot of goals this year, but when we know the game is on the line, Evan is going to come through.”

Despite not scoring, Adams thinks his Redhawks played better in the second half, especially in the last 20 minutes.

“We played in spurts in the first half,” Adams said. “We’d come out, we’d get 3-4 minutes, then we’d give away 10. Second half, we were much more consistent with doing a better job playing our style of game.

“To North’s credit, we haven’t seen a team as fast as they are. They are as fast as any team we’ve seen. They are going to be a dangerous team. Everybody obviously knows they are good.”

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