Wheaton-Warrenville S. trips Huskies

After some nifty passing led to the tying goal in the second half, things were looking up for Naperville North at Tuesday's DuPage Valley Conference soccer showdown at Wheaton Warrenville South.

Unfortunately for the visiting Huskies, not much went their way after Kyle Green's goal knotted the score 1-1 with 32:34 left in the second half.

First, the Tigers' Nico Galto scored to give Wheaton Warrenville South a 2-1 lead, then Naperville North's Jordan Baker was taken away on a stretcher after an injury, and now the defending DVC co-champs will need some help in order to finish with at least a share of the league title for a third straight year.

"I was happy about that goal, but it turns out it didn't matter," a somber Green said after Naperville North dropped to 11-3-3 on the year and 3-1-1 in the DVC. "I thought we were going to get the win then. Now we're just thinking about Jordan (Baker)."

Baker, was injured with 11:33 left to play in the second half when the Tigers Tommy Barlow made a sliding tackle near the end line. Baker's momentum carried him off the playing field and near a cemented area. After the game was stopped for more than 20 minutes, Baker left the field on a stretcher.

"With both teams undefeated (in league action) you couldn't ask for a better situation," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "But it's unlucky to have an injury. It's certainly a somber thing to have a player of that caliber hurt like that."

The injury may have dampened the mood some, but it couldn't fully take away from the sharp soccer on display. With the key victory Wheaton Warrenville South moves to 14-2-3 on the year and remains unbeaten at 3-0-2 in the DVC. Next Tuesday's game with Naperville Central will go a long ways toward determining the conference champion this fall.

The Tigers' first score came on a perfectly placed shot by Joshua Exclusa with 17:40 left in the first half. Scott Larson fed Exclusa on the left side and he struck the ball just inside the far right post. Huskies goalkeeper Devon Moon, who kept his team in the contest with a couple great saves, came toward Exclusa on the play to cut down the angle but still could not stop the ball from just getting inside the post.

But Green got his team back even in the second half before Galto punched home the game-winner off a free kick that was tipped by Wheaton Warrenville South's Tim Litterio before Galto finished things off.

"We knew we had to win this game," said Galto, who now has 13 goals on the season. "We wanted to keep the title."

Galto almost iced the game late, but Moon robbed him on a redirected shot right in front of the net with 6:12 left to play and two minutes later charged out of the net just in time to prevent a Galto breakaway.