Boys soccer: Naperville North prevails over upset-minded Batavia
Great teams find a way to win even when they're not at their best.
Naperville North took advantage of a pair of dead-ball situations in the first eight minutes of Tuesday's Class 3A Oswego boys soccer regional semifinal and then held on for a 2-1 victory over upset-minded Batavia.
"I was super disappointed with our game today," Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. "I'm hoping it was just first-game jitters and something we can now get out of the way."
Naperville North started strong and looked like it was going to bury the Bulldogs early.
The Huskies scored just 2:14 into play when Jack Barry's shot off a corner kick was collected and sent in by Colin Iverson.
Not much later, the Huskies extended their lead to 2-0 on another set play. Chris Sullivan's corner kick with 32:08 left in the opening half was sent in via header by Will Ritzmann.
It was Sullivan's 37th high school assist, pushing him into second place on the school's all-time list. In doing so he broke a tie with his older brother Joe, who finished with 36 assists.
"We got off to a nice start, but it wasn't one of our better games," Sullivan said. "We'll take this over our season ending, but at the end of the day we've got to get better. We'll take the win, which is maybe undeserved, but we won and advanced."
Batavia (4-12-2) frustrated the Huskies throughout the rest of the first half and throughout the second half. They first put a bit of a scare into the Huskies when they scored with just 3:20 left before the break when Brandon Knapp assisted Joe Corno.
"We got that and then we had some other chances, but that's been our season in a nutshell," Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "We give up some easy goals early and then we're forced to fight and claw to get back in position and that's how it's been."
The Bulldogs limited Naperville North's chances in the second half while creating a handful of their own, but they couldn't net the equalizer.
"We had a couple chances there to toe-poke a couple and unfortunately it didn't happen," Gianfrancesco said. "I thought for a No. 1 and No. 16 seed we have them a game. We played more organized after giving up a couple early and then we limited them the rest of the way."
The DuPage Valley Conference champs can breathe a sigh of relief and prepare for Saturday's regional final after being held scoreless during the run of play, as well as during more than 70 consecutive minutes.
"We fell apart mentally so we'll try to fix some things before Saturday to get back on track," Konrad said. "Tonight we found a way to win, which we're thrilled with. Cesar Recendez was spectacular, especially as a freshman in his first state tournament, and Ty (Konrad) chased down balls and Jack (Barry) and Will (Ritzmann) in the midfield, figure some things out. Our back line has been great all season, but it still needs to be better."