Naperville North earns invite to state
Zoe Swift hopes to get a lot of RSVPs to her invitation.
The Naperville North sophomore is looking for a big turnout from her fellow Huskies when the girls soccer team plays in the Class 3A semifinals at 5 p.m. Friday. Naperville North students should know the way; cross-town rival Naperville Central is hosting the Final Four this year.
“I hope our whole school comes,” Swift said after the Huskies defeated York 2-1 in the Tuesday’s supersectional. “They’d better come now since we proved (the doubters) all wrong.”
The Naperville North boys volleyball team could put a damper on Swift’s invitation, however. The boys volleyball team also made this weekend’s state tournament, playing at 1 p.m. Friday at Hoffman Estates High School.
After a York defender stopped a Christa Szalach shot with her hands in the York penalty area, Zoe Swift opened the scoring by burying her 29th-minute penalty kick.
York equalized in the 35th minute. Naperville North cleared a corner kick almost to midfield, where Dukes senior Allie Whitcomb collected the ball and sent it back in from 47 yards out. The ball sailed over the York front line, over the Naperville North back line and into the goal.
“Allie Whitcomb, when the ball comes to her, she plays it back in. Opportunistic and it goes in,” York coach Krzysztof Halupka said. “That kind of gets us back in.”
Naperville North (17-5-1) had a chance to take the lead in the 50th minute on another penalty kick after Swift was taken down in the box, but this time the shot sailed wide right.
“It’s hard to score twice on a PK against the same keeper, so that stuff happens,” Huskies coach Brent Terada said. “She picked her spot, she struck it and unfortunately she missed, so that’s OK. We’re proud of the fact that she was able to stay focused, rebound, keep positive and really work hard to get forward and then create dangerous opportunities. I couldn’t be more ecstatic how mentally tough she is.”
York had an edge in possession in the second half, but it couldn’t convert.
“In the end every time you step on the field you’ve got to solve the other team’s puzzle, and I don’t think that we did that tonight,” Halupka said.
Instead the Huskies found the game-winning goal in the 69th minute. Kirsten Anderson’s pass out of the back found forward Hunter Drendel, who offered a back-heel flick-on pass to Swift.
“It was a great pass,” Swift said.
“It’s just a matter of our kids are allowed to be creative, show their personality,” Terada said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But we don’t try to stifle kids with patterns as much, we just want kids to express themselves, and if that’s how she wants to do it, in the supersectional game,” Terada added laughing, “there might be a better way to do it, but, hey, that’s up to her. I think the result speaks for itself.”
Swift needed one touch to turn past the York defenders and find space with which to bury a shot on her second touch.
“After the PK I was kind of down,” Swift said, “but I was like, we still have a whole half to go, so I can’t get my head down. I have to keep playing.”
Naperville North meets Conant Friday at Naperville Central. York’s season is over.
“We started the season a little bit rough,” Halupka said. “We started the season at 2-3 and right now we ended up with a record of 21-5-1, so I’m extremely proud. This is obviously a huge moment for our program in the sense that it’s a step forward. We won a conference championship, a regional championship, a sectional championship and it comes close here, and to not get further it leaves kind of a sour taste in your mouth.”