Naperville North sticks together through tough times to get win

Athletes step up and make big plays all the time.

Not nearly as many are capable of stepping up and helping their teammates during a difficult time in their lives, but it has become a common occurrence at Naperville North.

Once again, the Huskies kept their emotions in check and used a full team effort to clip Metea Valley 1-0 during Thursday's DuPage Valley Conference game in Naperville.

The Huskies were playing without twin sisters Alyssa Siebers and Jessica Siebers, who were attending a funeral service for an aunt who passed away from cancer. The duo makes up half of the team's starting back line.

Naperville North was also playing in honor of Lourdes Santos, the mother of senior Ashley Santos, who died in November after a long battle with mental illness.

Santos ended up making the biggest play of the night, scoring her first goal of the season with 19:31 left in the second half off a corner kick that rattled around a bit before she was able to secure possession and direct it into the net.

"It hit me and bounced around," she said. "I got a little toe on it and it trickled into the goal. It was nothing pretty, but a goal is a goal, right?"

Naperville North coach Steve Goletz could not have been more pleased to see a player like Santos deliver such a clutch shot.

"She's a phenomenal kid who has had a great season, and she's what makes us go," he said. "It's fitting that a gutsy, hard-work, hard-nosed kind of goal came from her, and I couldn't be more excited for her."

She was able to do it in memory of her mother while her father was sitting in the stands; he made the long trip to Naperville from Virginia to see her play.

"It was cool and super fitting to have it happen in this game," she said. "I'm not usually the goal scorer, usually an assist or doing it on the defensive side, but it was very cool tonight to play for something bigger than ourselves."

Naperville North (5-0, 3-0) was able to limit Metea Valley's scoring chances despite having to juggle its defense.

With so many offensive weapons the Mustangs (3-2-2, 2-2) are a difficult team to contain, let alone shut out, but the Huskies were able to do it by limiting their opportunities especially those to seniors Nicki Hernandez and Jade Eriksen-Russo.

Coincidentally, the last time the Mustangs didn't score was in a 2-0 loss last May to Naperville North in the Class 3A sectional title game.

"They took advantage of a ball that dropped in our box," Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley said. "We have to do a better job of clearing that out. That's really what it comes down to, tough plays like that."

Morgan Krause, who sent in the corner kick that resulted in the game-winning goal, praised the play of senior defenders Allison Hegner and Morgan Lockridge.

"Allison played an amazing outside back so I didn't have too much work to do," she said. "And Morgan is always tough. It's nice to have people step up like they did, especially when people are out."