Naperville North shows it can finish with 3-1 win over Downers Grove S.

There have been seasons in which Naperville North's defense stood out above its attack. The defense is solid again, but this year the Huskies' attack has found a new level of play.

"It's great to see everyone on the same page, working for each other," said Huskies coach Brent Terada. "It seems like we finally have an idea of what we're trying to do. We work real hard off the ball, and that's been the key for us."

Visiting Naperville North (6-1-1) controlled most of a 3-1 win over Downers Grove South (4-4), getting goals from Haley Krentz, Emily Homan and Rycke Guiney.

"We attack high and if we have to, we drop back," Guiney said. "We look to finish on every ball that we can."

The Huskies sent eight scoring chances wide of net through 40 minutes but played unselfish soccer in getting everyone involved in the attack.

"We don't have a Bri Rodriguez or anything like that, but we've got 10 girls on the field looking for opportunities," Terada said. "We're better as a whole than we are individually."

After a scoreless first half the Huskies finished on a ball just two minutes into the second half when Krentz located a ball in a crowd at the goalmouth and slipped a slow roller inside the post.

The Mustangs nearly tied the game when Katie Baschen hammered a head shot off the crossbar four minutes later, but Naperville North took a 2-0 lead when Homan scored from point-blank range.

The Mustangs cut the Huskies' lead to 2-1 when Keri Kujawa followed up a deflected shot in the goal mouth and buried it to the back netting.

With 10 minutes left in regulation, the Mustangs were one goal away from a tie. But Guiney's goal from 6 yards out, on a feed from the right side by Jess Kodiak, provided the Huskies some insurance.

"I knew (Kodiak) was going to cut it back because she's been doing that lately and then crossing it," Guiney said. "And we needed an extra goal."

A Huskies defense led by the back line of Kristina Dolak, Emily Janecek, Jamie Meno and Jennifer Korn have only allowed two goals in eight games, and Terada's central midfielders have bee catalysts thus far.

"It all starts with Adrienne Schertz and Jess Arabia," Terada said. "Without those two in the middle, we couldn't commit to numbers forward like we do."