Glenbard East happy to escape with draw

The scoreboard read that the game finished even, but Glenbard East left the field feeling a whole lot better than Naperville North following Tuesday night's boys soccer game.

The Rams (0-3-2), after all, needed a break to score their lone goal and had to survive a flurry of scoring chances from the host Huskies in the 1-1 tie that kicked off the DuPage Valley Conference soccer season. After a scoreless first half Glenbard East scored first when Josh Finn buried a ball that was mishandled with 20:33 left to play in regulation.

Despite numerous opportunities, it looked like Naperville North (2-1-3) might just finish on the wrong end of that 1-0 score. But Chris Boswell finally struck for the Huskies with 6:05 left to play. After a pair of 10-minute overtime sessions delivered excitement but not goals, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

"Any time you come to someone else's field and you play to a tie it's like a victory," Rams coach Josh Adler said. "This is the kind of game that can help you in the (DVC) race. And it would have been easy when they got the goal to tie it up to say we didn't have a chance to win. But they came back and played hard the next 25 minutes."

The Huskies had 5 shots on goal in the first half compared to 1 for the visitors yet had to settle for a scoreless tie at the break. Rams goalkeeper Nick Marks made one stellar stop in the first half, and Naperville North's Tyler Cortez nailed the crossbar on a header late in the half. Several other Huskies threats ended with shots just off target.

So it was easy to see why the Huskies appeared frustrated after Finn gave the Rams the lead midway through the second half.

"It was an amazing ball out to me and I was just hoping to get a chance at it," Finn said. "When it got by the goalie I was just lucky enough to get it in."

It was lucky for the Huskies that they quickly regrouped from the miscue and kept on attacking. Moments after a dangerous deep throw-in by Naperville North's Riley Breese was covered up by Marks near the far post, Huskies senior Kyle Green set up Boswell for the equalizer.

"We just couldn't get the ball in the net," Boswell said. "We had so many chances. So it felt really good to get that goal."

In the first OT Andrew Menendez set up the Huskies Kurt Deichstetter in close, but his shot caromed off the crossbar. At the end of the second regulation, the Huskies had two headers off a corner by Cortez, but neither one was on goal as the game ended 1-1.

"Obviously we were thrilled and relieved to tie the game, but it's not enough to play nice and possess the ball," Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. "We have to find ways to win."