Naperville North takes fourth place
After defeating Neuqua Valley to win probably the state's toughest sectional and equally tough Lyons Twp. in the supersectional, Naperville North's Evan Trychta had one thought: “Is it over yet?”
But once the Huskies got to North Central College in Naperville for the Class 3A semifinals, they found the answer wasn't to their liking.
For the second consecutive day on Saturday, the Huskies lost 3-2 in overtime, this time to Edwardsville in the state third-place game and in just one overtime session.
“I really can't even tell you,” Trychta said, searching for a reason for the Huskies' state struggles. “We weren't ourselves. It's really weird. I'm still thinking about it. Did we do anything differently? We didn't really change anything. I guess we just weren't ready. Big game under the lights.”
Added Huskies coach Jim Konrad: “Not sure what happened. Not sure if playing here at North Central, if it was too many people, or what the deal was but we struggled defensively obviously. We did great against LT and Neuqua to kind of control two very, very explosive offensive teams, then to come here and give up 3 goals against both of those teams, I have no explanation for it. We just didn't play well.”
Kyle Lindberg opened the scoring with a header off a Trychta cross to start the second half, but Edwardsville's Kyle Gramke found the equalizer in the 49th minute, and the Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the 66th on Chris Pearson's goal.
Trychta answered with a 30-yard firecracker of a goal in the 74th to send the game to overtime.
“It was a great goal by Evan, pretty goal by Kyle, so that was nice to get a couple of pretty goals, highlight-type stuff,” Konrad said. “We just couldn't get it done.”
Edwardsville found the game-winner in the 89th minute, Pearson tucking in a loose ball in front of the Huskies' net.
“We gave up more goals in the postseason than we did during the regular season, which is extremely disappointing, especially the fact that some of the goals were soft,” Konrad said. “
“It was disappointing to come back, tie it up and then find a way to lose in overtime again. It was not a good weekend for the Huskies, obviously.”
The Huskies return much of their roster next season, including Trychta and Lindberg, and they're already looking ahead.
“No, I'm not satisfied, but that's what you've got next year for, right?” Trychta said. “I'm hoping this gives us the experience, and then next year we come in with a different mentality, a different idea of what to do.”
Rockford Boylan defeated Libertyville 3-2 in two overtimes in the Class 3A championship game in Naperville.