Heroes? Huskies have several

Jessica Arabia, Hunter Drendel, and Ellen Campbell stepped into heroes' roles on Monday, and Naperville North's conference hopes stayed alive.

Arabia dribbled up against WWSouth in their DuPage Valley Conference soccer game, and slid a ball wide to Drendel on the right side, six minutes into overtime in a 1-1 game.

Drendel took it to the corner, crossed it toward the far post, and Campbell buried it from 6 yards out, keeping the Huskies (14-2-3, 5-0-1) even with Naperville Central in the hunt for the DVC crown.

"I don't even know what to say," Campbell said. "It's an awesome feeling."

Through 40 minutes, fans in Wheaton saw a typical DVC game, played largely at midfield, with neither team managing a shot on net.

"It wasn't us not trying to do our thing," said North coach Brent Terada. "They just took it away. They're such a good, organized back four, and we couldn't solve the transition from the middle third to the top third."

"It was fairly even," said WW South (10-5-1, 4-2) coach Guy Callipari. "I thought we had most of the middle, but they certainly worked well in transition and used speed on the weak side."

A North team playing without injured forward Haley Krentz has had players aiming to pick up the slack, and Jessica Kodiak did her share in the 69th minute, turning on a ball from 25 yards out and burying a left-footed goal.

"Kodiak stepped up for us," Terada said. "She's taken on a bigger role now that Haley's been out for a while. She has had to be more of an impact player for us."

North held the lead until the game's 78th minute, when the Tigers' Jill Langlas sent a ball in that went off a North defender to tie the game.

"We thought we had it won," Campbell said. "We definitely wanted to get (a goal) right at the beginning of overtime. We had to go hard, and we had to mark."

"That's all about heart. The kids are so resilient, and they keep working," Terada said. "They were shell-shocked a little bit, but we regained our composure relatively quickly."

North's lightning strike ensued, and the Huskies had the win.

"We talked at halftime about them getting the ball wide, and that we needed to hold the middle," Callipari said. "We just got shredded a bit, but it was a nice run and a great finish."

Callipari applauded the play put in at midfield by Langlas and Nicole La Petina, and the play up top by Bridget Kragie. Terada was pleased with another strong effort put forth by his back line of Kristina Dolak, Emily Janecek, Jamie Meno, and Jennifer Korn.