Naperville N. battles past game Lyons
Huskies take 2-0 road win to begin quest for three-peat
By Matt Le Cren
LA GRANGE – When last we saw Naperville North play, the Huskies scored a goal off a long throw-in and got a shutout from star goalkeeper Tom Welch in the Class 3A state championship game last November.
Some of the names have changed, but the methods – and the result – remains the same.
Naperville North scored once in the run of play and once on – yes, you guessed it – a hefty heave from the sideline and Welch notched another shutout in the Huskies’ 2-0 season-opening win over host Lyons.
While the Lions (1-1-0) aren’t as strong or experienced as the Libertyville team Naperville North knocked off to win its second-straight state title, it still took an impressive effort to beat them.
Lyons has an entirely new starting 11 and half of the bench players are varsity rookies. Yet the match was evenly played for over a half until the Huskies scored on one of their trademark set pieces.
“Obviously, they were an excellent team,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “They put us under pressure, and they’re super-fast in the midfield and up-top and didn’t give us much time to do much.
“That’s great. That’s why we play great programs early-on to kind of see where we stand.”
The Huskies (1-0-0) are standing as tall as the 6-foot-8 Welch, who recorded five saves, including two on dangerous high balls that would have been difficult for many shorter keepers to stop.
The visitors, despite starting two new defenders in junior Christian Romano and senior Cam Ferus, were stellar in the back. Returning stars Cesar Recendez and Colin Iverson were their usual disruptive selves, with Iverson again figuring into a score on a restart.
That came with 28:47 to go in the second half. Romano, taking the place of graduated Jack Barry, uncorked a throw-in from the right side that sailed toward the back post.
Iverson got his noggin on the ball and flicked it onward to Ty Konrad, who knocked in a volley to make it 2-0.
“It wasn’t much of a volley,” Ty Konrad said. “It was more of a toe poke, but it worked. The ball ended up in the net.”
That’s a script the Huskies have used over and over during the past several seasons. They have been deadly on restarts, especially throws. Romano isn’t quite in the class of Barry but he’s eager to fill his shoes, at least when it comes to tossing it in.
“I do feel like I’m put in that position now,” Romano said. “I have to step up on that.
“(On the goal) I saw the keeper continue to step up on Colin. So I figured if I threw it a little harder Colin could slip it to the back post, and Ty and Patrick (Koenig) were there.”
The Huskies are counting heavily on Romano, who made his first varsity start, and not just on throws.
“He’s going to have to be great for us,” Jim Konrad said. “My nephew, Mitch, graduated and he was that anchor, that speed guy back there for us.
“He was able to clean up anything that got in behind us. So Christian is going to have to play that role, be a vocal leader when Colin is up on restarts and then hold us together.”
The Lions, who routed Sandburg 5-0 on Tuesday, tested that adhesion as forwards Nolan O’Malley, Jonny Gray and Julio Torres made some aggressive attacks, especially in the first half.
But nothing came of the effort as the Huskies gave up only one corner kick, which ended when Ty Williams’ secondary header was picked out of the air by Welch midway through the second half.
“First half I thought we did a lot of things we like to do,” Lyons coach Paul Labbato said. “I felt second half they came out and stepped up their intensity just a little more. They were a little bit more into their tackles and faster.”
The Lions went to their bench liberally after halftime, especially after Ty Konrad’s goal, in an effort to see what they’ve got and to get everyone minutes against the reigning state champs.
“We played the whole roster,” Labbato said. “I was pretty happy with that. We played four sophomores. They all got in and did some good things.”
“We ended up with a lot of different combinations of kids on the field, which I think is good for the future.”
But it’s clear that the Huskies are still masters of the present. They were outshot 4-2 in the first half but still led 1-0 at the break on a beautiful strike from Koenig in the run of play.
Ty Konrad had his fingerprints on the decisive goal as he found Koenig streaking through the middle of the box. Koenig was headed away from the right post but turned and fired a 12-yard shot that eluded starting Lyons goalkeeper Gavin Fertitte and snuck inside the far post at the 15:33 mark.
“We got them on the counter a little bit,” Ty Konrad said. “(Koenig) turned and made a great finish.”
Ty Konrad was impressed with the Lions, who hung tough despite their brand-new lineup.
“They’re a good team,” he said. “I thought we did a good job and worked hard to end up with the victory.”
Konrad’s uncle agreed.
“I’m proud of how hard the boys worked,” Jim Konrad said. “We kind of picked up where we left off in terms of our team effort.
“We definitely have to start fine-tuning some things. It’s game one, guys are nervous.
“Even though we have the (top) ranking there’s a lot of guys that haven’t played real minutes yet in big games. So we’ve got some fresh faces that need to find their way a little bit, but after our first game I couldn’t be happier with how hard they played.”
Despite the loss, the Lions were of similar spirit. Junior goalie Bradley De Boer, who relieved Fertitta at halftime and made six saves, said Lyon’s lack of name players won’t hinder the team.
“I think that is one of our strengths,” De Boer said. “We’re really collective as a unit.
“Everybody likes working together. We have a lot of fun in practice. We work really hard. I think that just showed in the game today by how hard we worked.”
That was especially true of the backline of Jason Lichtenauer, Kyle Reblin, Skip Locke and Zack Kristy.
“Our defense fought really hard,” De Boer said. “I was just really proud of the way we kind of stuck to it.
“Even though we were (trailing) everybody kept going, and we were really positive. Everyone was bringing everyone up the whole time.”
That camaraderie is unusual for such an inexperienced team, but it doesn’t surprise De Boer.
“The chemistry is awesome,” he said. “We’ve been hanging out, and we love each other. We like to play as a team, and I think it’s as simple as that. We really love each other.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Tom Welch
D Cesar Recendez
D Christian Romano
D Colin Iverson
D Cam Fergus
M Zach Smith
M Nata Rojas
M Myles Barry
F Ali Khorfan
F Patrick Koenig
F Ty Konrad
Lyons
GK Gavin Fertitta
D Jason Lichtenauer
D Kyle Reblin
D Graham Bearman
D Zach Kristy
M Skip Locke
M Mike Niedermeyer
M Ty Williams
F Nolan O’Malley
F Jonny Gray
F Julio Torres
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Ty Konrad, jr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Patrick Koenig (Ty Konrad) 15:33
Second half
Naperville North – Ty Konrad (Colin Iverson, Christian Romano) 28:47
Huskies take 2-0 road win to begin quest for three-peat
By Matt Le Cren
LA GRANGE – When last we saw Naperville North play, the Huskies scored a goal off a long throw-in and got a shutout from star goalkeeper Tom Welch in the Class 3A state championship game last November.
Some of the names have changed, but the methods – and the result – remains the same.
Naperville North scored once in the run of play and once on – yes, you guessed it – a hefty heave from the sideline and Welch notched another shutout in the Huskies’ 2-0 season-opening win over host Lyons.
While the Lions (1-1-0) aren’t as strong or experienced as the Libertyville team Naperville North knocked off to win its second-straight state title, it still took an impressive effort to beat them.
Lyons has an entirely new starting 11 and half of the bench players are varsity rookies. Yet the match was evenly played for over a half until the Huskies scored on one of their trademark set pieces.
“Obviously, they were an excellent team,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “They put us under pressure, and they’re super-fast in the midfield and up-top and didn’t give us much time to do much.
“That’s great. That’s why we play great programs early-on to kind of see where we stand.”
The Huskies (1-0-0) are standing as tall as the 6-foot-8 Welch, who recorded five saves, including two on dangerous high balls that would have been difficult for many shorter keepers to stop.
The visitors, despite starting two new defenders in junior Christian Romano and senior Cam Ferus, were stellar in the back. Returning stars Cesar Recendez and Colin Iverson were their usual disruptive selves, with Iverson again figuring into a score on a restart.
That came with 28:47 to go in the second half. Romano, taking the place of graduated Jack Barry, uncorked a throw-in from the right side that sailed toward the back post.
Iverson got his noggin on the ball and flicked it onward to Ty Konrad, who knocked in a volley to make it 2-0.
“It wasn’t much of a volley,” Ty Konrad said. “It was more of a toe poke, but it worked. The ball ended up in the net.”
That’s a script the Huskies have used over and over during the past several seasons. They have been deadly on restarts, especially throws. Romano isn’t quite in the class of Barry but he’s eager to fill his shoes, at least when it comes to tossing it in.
“I do feel like I’m put in that position now,” Romano said. “I have to step up on that.
“(On the goal) I saw the keeper continue to step up on Colin. So I figured if I threw it a little harder Colin could slip it to the back post, and Ty and Patrick (Koenig) were there.”
The Huskies are counting heavily on Romano, who made his first varsity start, and not just on throws.
“He’s going to have to be great for us,” Jim Konrad said. “My nephew, Mitch, graduated and he was that anchor, that speed guy back there for us.
“He was able to clean up anything that got in behind us. So Christian is going to have to play that role, be a vocal leader when Colin is up on restarts and then hold us together.”
The Lions, who routed Sandburg 5-0 on Tuesday, tested that adhesion as forwards Nolan O’Malley, Jonny Gray and Julio Torres made some aggressive attacks, especially in the first half.
But nothing came of the effort as the Huskies gave up only one corner kick, which ended when Ty Williams’ secondary header was picked out of the air by Welch midway through the second half.
“First half I thought we did a lot of things we like to do,” Lyons coach Paul Labbato said. “I felt second half they came out and stepped up their intensity just a little more. They were a little bit more into their tackles and faster.”
The Lions went to their bench liberally after halftime, especially after Ty Konrad’s goal, in an effort to see what they’ve got and to get everyone minutes against the reigning state champs.
“We played the whole roster,” Labbato said. “I was pretty happy with that. We played four sophomores. They all got in and did some good things.”
“We ended up with a lot of different combinations of kids on the field, which I think is good for the future.”
But it’s clear that the Huskies are still masters of the present. They were outshot 4-2 in the first half but still led 1-0 at the break on a beautiful strike from Koenig in the run of play.
Ty Konrad had his fingerprints on the decisive goal as he found Koenig streaking through the middle of the box. Koenig was headed away from the right post but turned and fired a 12-yard shot that eluded starting Lyons goalkeeper Gavin Fertitte and snuck inside the far post at the 15:33 mark.
“We got them on the counter a little bit,” Ty Konrad said. “(Koenig) turned and made a great finish.”
Ty Konrad was impressed with the Lions, who hung tough despite their brand-new lineup.
“They’re a good team,” he said. “I thought we did a good job and worked hard to end up with the victory.”
Konrad’s uncle agreed.
“I’m proud of how hard the boys worked,” Jim Konrad said. “We kind of picked up where we left off in terms of our team effort.
“We definitely have to start fine-tuning some things. It’s game one, guys are nervous.
“Even though we have the (top) ranking there’s a lot of guys that haven’t played real minutes yet in big games. So we’ve got some fresh faces that need to find their way a little bit, but after our first game I couldn’t be happier with how hard they played.”
Despite the loss, the Lions were of similar spirit. Junior goalie Bradley De Boer, who relieved Fertitta at halftime and made six saves, said Lyon’s lack of name players won’t hinder the team.
“I think that is one of our strengths,” De Boer said. “We’re really collective as a unit.
“Everybody likes working together. We have a lot of fun in practice. We work really hard. I think that just showed in the game today by how hard we worked.”
That was especially true of the backline of Jason Lichtenauer, Kyle Reblin, Skip Locke and Zack Kristy.
“Our defense fought really hard,” De Boer said. “I was just really proud of the way we kind of stuck to it.
“Even though we were (trailing) everybody kept going, and we were really positive. Everyone was bringing everyone up the whole time.”
That camaraderie is unusual for such an inexperienced team, but it doesn’t surprise De Boer.
“The chemistry is awesome,” he said. “We’ve been hanging out, and we love each other. We like to play as a team, and I think it’s as simple as that. We really love each other.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Tom Welch
D Cesar Recendez
D Christian Romano
D Colin Iverson
D Cam Fergus
M Zach Smith
M Nata Rojas
M Myles Barry
F Ali Khorfan
F Patrick Koenig
F Ty Konrad
Lyons
GK Gavin Fertitta
D Jason Lichtenauer
D Kyle Reblin
D Graham Bearman
D Zach Kristy
M Skip Locke
M Mike Niedermeyer
M Ty Williams
F Nolan O’Malley
F Jonny Gray
F Julio Torres
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match – Ty Konrad, jr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Patrick Koenig (Ty Konrad) 15:33
Second half
Naperville North – Ty Konrad (Colin Iverson, Christian Romano) 28:47