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Naperville N. sees how low it can go

Naperville North enjoyed a double-digit lead when the first foursome checked into the clubhouse.

Naperville Central made a serious run in the teams' DuPage Valley Conference boys golf match on Tuesday afternoon at Springbrook Golf Course in Naperville, but Dave Considine ended all discussion with a personal-best-tying round.

The Huskies' fifth man unleashed his driver with devastating results, taming the two par 5s with ease and adding another birdie on the sixth hole en route to a 2-under-par 34. Naperville North was collectively in the red with its first three scores as prized freshman Raymond Knoll had bookend birdies in shooting level-par 36, and senior leader Ben Nelson had back-to-back birdies to close out his 37.

Eighth-man Ryan Gottschalk then enabled the team to throw out two 40s with a 3-over 39, and Naperville North remained undefeated in league play with its 146-155 victory.

"One-forty-six is in a different time zone than what I'm used to seeing here," Naperville Central coach Barry Baldwin said. "That's the lowest (team) score I've ever seen on the front nine at Springbrook."

"That's about as well as we can play," said Naperville North acting coach Jason Dycus. Naperville North improved to 5-1 overall, 4-0 in the league; Naperville Central is 3-2, 3-1.

Nelson and Knoll established the tone in the lead group. With their counterparts from Naperville Central struggling with their short games, the Huskies' lead twosome were both in the red after two holes.

But the two found problems in the middle portion of their round, and Nelson was staring square in the face at the most dreaded word in golf - "snowman" - after a series of poor pitches at the par-5 fifth. Nelson, though, regained his composure by draining a 15-footer to save double bogey, and the senior played textbook golf down the stretch with an accurate driver and laser-like iron play to play his last four holes in 2-under.

"I said to myself, 'If I miss this, this (fifth hole) is going to be disastrous,' " Nelson said. "I didn't play very well. The sky is the limit for us right now. If one guy has a poor round, then somebody is there to pick him up."

Knoll had his round interrupted by back-to-back bogeys after consecutive misses to the left on the third and fourth holes, but the freshman secured all pars through the eighth hole. Knoll found himself slightly off the fairway on nine, only to recover with a brilliant knock-down shot to within four feet of the hole.

"I was on a downslope and hit a punch 6-iron," Knoll said.

Considine, though, trumped them both with his sterling play.

"I only hit four full shots," Considine said of his aggressive play off the tee, "the rest were all pitch shots. I was putting it close."

Jeremy Dlabal and Jaskaran Sangha paced Naperville Central with 38s; Matt Smith fired a 39, and freshman Peter Mandich carded a 40.

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