Naperville North stuns No. 1 Neuqua Valley
To beat the No. 1-ranked girls soccer team in the country, Naperville North needed to play a near-perfect game.
It did.
The Huskies stunned Neuqua Valley at Friday night’s Class 3A Waubonsie Valley sectional final, knocking out the Wildcats 1-0 on a 32nd-minute goal by Hunter Drendel, then withstanding a withering second-half assault on their goal.
“We had nothing to lose,” Drendel said. “We were the underdogs. We wanted to go and win that.”
“I’m not saying we’re the better team,” Huskies coach Brent Terada said. “I’m saying maybe today we’re the better team. We play them 10 times, they probably beat us eight, but we were good enough today, and that’s all that really matters.”
Drendel scored off a Cora Climo corner kick, heading the ball toward the net, where Neuqua Valley senior Morgan Mulcahy appeared to clear the ball off the goal line. But the assistant referee raised his flag, and after a brief conference, the referee pointed to midfield, signaling a goal.
“We were very, very fortunate,” Terada said. “We ran a corner, got it, got on the end of it and we were very, very fortunate. We hung on for the rest of the game.”
“You can’t play 40 minutes of soccer,” Wildcats coach Joe Moreau said. “I thought we played very flat in the first half. The second half we picked it up, and obviously we had a lot of quality chances. We just didn’t finish. That’s how the game is sometimes a little cruel, but hats off to North. They played very well.”
The Wildcats tried to attack down the middle of the field more, and they managed 16 second-half shots, forcing Huskies goalkeeper Abby Green to make 9 saves in the half, 10 for the game.
“The second half felt really long, especially the last 10 minutes,” said Green, who made a couple of key saves and got plenty of help from defenders Adrienne Schertz, Jamie Meno, Anglea Widlacki and Kirsten Anderson, as well as the goal post and crossbar. “We were just doing our best to hold them off, come out with a win.”
Neuqua Valley (24-1) scored 105 goals this season, but it couldn’t crack the Huskies defense.
“(Green) stepped up huge for us,” Terada said. “They constantly put us under pressure, put us under tons of pressure. For us to withstand that and stay organized, I give all the credit in the world to the seniors. Our back line, our senior leadership is amazing, and they kept us focused.”
The Huskies didn’t bunker down, looking to use Zoe Swift’s speed to catch Neuqua Valley with a counterattack.
“I’m actually shocked that one goal was able to win this game,” Terada said. “I’m still stunned because I thought they would at least get two, because they are the most prolific scoring team I’ve seen in high school soccer in a long time. For us to keep them to one, we’re ecstatic. It’s really a surprise. So we felt we needed to push for at least one more goal.”
They didn’t get it, but they didn’t need it either. The Huskies ended Neuqua Valley’s sterling season with just one goal.
“Take away nothing from our season, though,” Moreau said. “We had a great season. It’s a great group of girls to work with and tremendous leadership. I’m very proud of them.”
Naperville North will play York at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Benedictine University supersectional.