Naperville North keeps result the same

Glenbard East has been competitive in girls soccer against Naperville North over the years in the DuPage Valley Conference, but like many teams, it has usually come up short after 80 minutes.

Things didn't change during Thursday's nonconference match in Naperville.

The Huskies scored five times in the first half and cruised to a 6-1 victory. While the Huskies remain in the DVC, Glenbard East has moved on to the Upstate Eight Conference this spring.

"I thought we did a good job of setting the tone early," Huskies coach Steve Goletz said. "I challenged the girls to be better and they really did a nice job."

Naperville North (3-1-0) didn't waste any time starting things up, getting goals from Allison Svoboda and Abbie Boswell early in the first half to jump to a 2-0 lead.

"It always feels good to score early on," Boswell said. "I feel like we can settle down after doing that. It's more of a blanket, I guess."

Glenbard East (4-1-0) couldn't do much offensively, and when it did push the ball past midfield, the Rams were stifled by Naperville North's backline of Ashley Santos, Morgan Krause, Jen Fortman and Emily Wilhelm.

"I think our communication was great and it's continuing to get better," Fortman said. "We work on it a lot in practice and Goletz will make us go through drills a lot, but it's worth it. We've now been working hard together and playing with each other for awhile now, which has been very helpful."

An own goal, as well as ones from Fortman and Katelynn Buescher, extended Naperville North's lead to 5-0 before halftime. All three additional tallies came in the final eight minutes before the intermission and pretty much sealed the match.

"We didn't play physical enough and they pushed us around and we let it happen," Rams coach Kent Overbey said. "We've been grinding lately, but this was our first real test and we weren't ready in the first half."

The Rams finally broke the potential shutout with 6:14 remaining when Sammie Sarles scored.

"It all started from Holly Ward inside," Overbey said. "Brittany Paganucci played it out and Holly made a nice turn for Sammie. It was something nice to see."

It was one of the few bright spots for the Rams, who will turn their focus over to the Windy City Ram Classic. The Rams will take on Lincoln-Way East on Monday at Toyota Park.

"(Naperville North) is very good, so we need to put this one behind us," Rams senior Megan Mrazek said. "We're excited for Monday. We lost (at Toyota Park) last year so we're excited to be back."

The Huskies will enjoy spring break. They won't play again until April 7 at Lake Park.