Huskies finish unbeaten in DVC

The Huskies were just in no mood to share.

After last week's win over Wheaton North secured at least a share of the DuPage Valley Conference boys soccer championship, Naperville North (15-3-2, 7-0) blasted Glenbard North with a 3-goal barrage in the second half of Tuesday night's conference finale to finish off the visiting Panthers 4-0 and to finish off one of their annual goals.

"We didn't want to be co-champions, so we got focused before the game," said junior Andrew Menendez, whose goal less than five minutes into the second half made it a 2-0 lead for the hosts.

Senior Riley Breese, whose dead-on throw-ins instantly create scoring chances, said this season's unbeaten run through the DVC is all the more sweet after last year's team came up short.

"Last year we didn't get any of it," said Breese, who assisted on Sean Kuehne's score just 54 seconds after Menendez' goal. "We want to win it every year and to beat (Naperville) Central outright is great."

The Panthers didn't make matters easy in the first half. Goalkeeper Jack Dailly made a superb save on the Huskies Ediz Yorulmazoglu early on to keep the game scoreless, and only a great cross by Emerson Beck that was kicked home by Yorulmazoglu kept the game from being 0-0 at the break.

But Naperville North put together a dominating 25-minute stretch of soccer in the second half that turned the tight affair into a 4-0 runaway victory. After two nice assists, Beck scored the game's final goal himself with 11:00 left to play.

"We did a much better job in the second half," Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. "I was much happier with the chances we created in the second half."

Konrad's school has claimed 17 DVC soccer crowns in the school's 32 years.

"It's huge," Konrad said. "We take a lot of pride in that at North. And to go 7-0 and win it outright, we're very proud of that."

Glenbard North dropped to 10-5-4 overall and 2-3-2 in the league with the setback. Alex Graf had one strong opportunity to score in the first half thwarted by Huskies starting goalkeeper Devon Moon, but the Panthers managed to put just 2 shots on goal in the second half as Naperville North goalkeeper Mike Wiest preserved the shutout.

"In the first half it seemed like we were able to play with them," Panthers coach Greg Chrisman said. "But they came out and wanted it more in the second half and they dominated the half."