Huskies grab DVC win

When conference play begins in the DuPage Valley, Naperville North's boys soccer team knows to step up the intensity level.

Staked to a 1-0 lead in just the sixth minute of action, the Huskies held off West Aurora on Thursday night for a 3-0 victory, pushing their record to a perfect 4-0 in the DVC.

Senior midfielder Riley Breese assisted 2 Huskies goals, proving that Naperville North once again contains a formidable weapon in throw-in situations.

"We haven't really been scoring off the throw-ins this year," Breese said. "We had two last game and two this game, so it's starting to work."

Blackhawks coach Joe Sustersic acknowledged the dangers Breese presented when the ball rolls out of bounds.

"It just puts that much more pressure on you to execute. When a kid's in danger, instead of kicking the ball out of bounds and regrouping, it's not regrouping. I would say it's more of an asset than a corner kick," Sustersic said. "(Breese) puts it right on a dime. Both balls were right on a header."

Chris Boswell scored the game's first goal 5:03 in, lofting the ball just over West Aurora goalkeeper Stephen Walan's head to spot Naperville North a quick lead.

The Huskies (11-2-2, 4-0) padded their lead in the 27th minute, pushing the score to 2-0 after West Aurora (9-5, 2-3) suffered an own-goal.

"We had a few really good chances and we didn't finish," Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. "When you're working and working and nothing's going in, and then you get a break - it lifts us and it demoralizes them."

Thursday's win gave the Huskies shutouts in all four conference games thus far.

"We've definitely stepped up our game in the DVC," Breese said. "We've been getting up for every game, and it seems like we've been working a lot harder."

A 2-0 halftime deficit took some wind out of the Blackhawks' sails, proving too large to overcome against the 16-time DVC champions.

"They executed; we didn't. We had some chances early on that we didn't want to finalize," Sustersic said. "It's difficult to play catch-up when you're playing against a quality team."

As an added bonus, Naperville North took home the Morton Pumpkinfest trophy - a prize from a tournament rained out three weeks ago.

"It's nice to win the Pumpkinfest tournament, but more importantly, it's a big conference win," Konrad said. "Conference is really important to us, and it's something we take a lot of pride in trying to win."