Naperville North a juggernaut vs. WWS
'Yankees of the DVC' unstoppable in 7-0 win
By Matt Le Cren
WHEATON – Maybe it was pure talent.
Maybe it was the wind.
Or maybe it was their reading material.
Whatever the case, Naperville North’s stunning 7-0 demolition of host Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday night at Red Grange Field was one for the record books.
It was the first time the Huskies have scored seven goals in a game during Jim Konrad’s tenure as coach and also their biggest margin of victory in that time.
The outburst, for the defending state champs and Chicagoland Soccer's second-ranked team, came against a well-coached team that prides itself on playing tough defense.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari could recall only two other times in his 27-year career that an opponent had scored seven goals.
Naperville North senior midfielder Ethan Harvey led the way for the Huskies (19-1-1, 6-1-0 DuPage Valley Conference) by recording a goal and three assists. His corner kicks led directly or indirectly to five goals and the Huskies scored six times on restarts.
All seven Naperville North goals came in the first 28 minutes, thus shortening the match to 60 minutes.
When did Harvey know it was going to be North’s night?
“In the pregame talks,” Harvey said. “Coach has been going through this book about the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team.
“They’re a great program; they always win. So that is kind of our story line this year. It’s all about how we can maintain greatness.
“We’re finishing up the book. We’ve been reading about being humble and accepting greatness and how we can do that, so that was a good pregame talk today that got us going.”
The Huskies, who extended their winning streak to 11, took advantage of a driving rain and steady wind at their backs to pin the Tigers (7-11-2, 1-6-1) in their own end for nearly the entire first half.
North forced 14 corner kicks and that doomed the Tigers. The left-footed Harvey consistently swerved the ball into the wind – and in one instance into the goal – to create chaos in front of Tigers goalkeeper Joe Adamek, who was under siege from the get-go.
Adamek made six saves and got a hand on two of the goals, but he got little help from his defense, which seemed as tentative as the Huskies were aggressive.
Jack Barry headed home the first goal in the fourth minute off a Harvey corner kick that probably would have gone in by itself. Harvey then curved one in himself seven minutes later to make it 2-0.
The Huskies scored the first four goals on corner kicks. Colin Iverson scored the third one on a rebound and Guppy knocked in the fourth midway through the half.
The visitors made it 5-0 just 12 seconds later with their only goal in the run of play. After intercepting the kickoff, Guppy found Barry on a counterattack for a quick finish.
The half still had over 20 minutes left, but the game was essentially over.
Patrick Koenig extended the lead to 6-0 when he converted a penalty kick after Ty Konrad was taken down in the box, and three minutes after that sophomore Myles Barry headed in another Harvey corner.
“In practice we’ve been working on our restarts a lot, just whipping it in front of the net,” Harvey said. “When we throw it in there it’s always got a chance, and I think the wind kind of played in our favor by bending it.
“Obviously seeing that first corner go in gave me confidence for the second and third and luckily my teammates got there. Myles had great header on that last one.”
It was the first varsity goal for Myles Barry, a sophomore who watched his older brother, Jack, help the Huskies win the state title last year.
“Ethan played in a great ball, and I just tried to get anything I could on it to direct it toward the goal,” the younger Barry said. “Obviously (to score) my first goal was big.”
The strike capped the biggest output North has had under Konrad, who couldn’t get his starters out of the game fast enough.
“We’re good enough to do it,” Myles Barry said. “We finally showed that tonight.
“We caught a couple breaks. We just need to do the little things, and we should be good.”
Indeed, the Huskies, who can clinch their fourth-straight DVC title outright by beating Neuqua Valley on Thursday or a share of the crown with a tie, appear poised to make a run at a second-straight state title.
“There were a few (goals) that were pretty soft, and we have to take blame for some of that,” Callipari said. “We needed more intensity and be more aggressive to the ball. When the ball hits the ground before it gets to the net, that’s a problem.
“But you also give credit where credit is due. They’re a class act and if anybody understands who they are, it would be them.
“They come at you with two ideas. One, that they’re going to win, and two, this is how we’re going to do it. And they never change from that.
“They just keep finding guys that can play that way and that style. To their credit they do it better than anybody else. They are the Yankees of the DVC.”
That’s an apt desciption with one exception -- the Huskies aren’t hated, and they aren’t arrogant. Konrad was almost apologetic after the win.
“We typically hold the boys at six,” Konrad said. “It’s just that Myles scored quick enough that we couldn’t manage the game quick enough, so I do feel bad about that.
“Guy Callipari is one of my favorite people, and I’m so sad to see him leave the conference. Wheaton South is a team that I have great memories of playing against back when they were Wheaton Central and then coaching against them.
“I’ve learned so much from Guy. I consider him a friend and a mentor. The sportsmanship pin exchange after the game is something that Guy established.”
Both teams give sportsmanship pins to one player on the opposing team, an exchange that takes place regardless of the final score.
“Tonight was one of those weird games,” Konrad said. “We’re not seven goals better than Wheaton South.
“The ball bounces weird ways, and we were fortunate to get two or three goals super early on weird restarts. The wind and rain was in their face in the first half, and we were on them physically and scored. That’s tough.”
The early flurry damaged the Tigers’ psyche.
“They got that first corner kick, and the ball kind of just floated and floated and no one went to it. And then next thing you know, the guy glances it right off his head,” Tigers defender Will Buxton said. “If he didn’t touch it, it probably would have gone in, too.
“The second one we misjudged it, and then it just kept getting worse. Every corner kick I was like, ‘Oh, God, here’s another corner kick.’ Every throw-in from the 20 in I was like, ‘They’re going to put this in the box.’ Everything was in our half for the 35 minutes in the first half.”
Buxton’s fellow defender, Gabby Lazcano, wasn’t surprised at the Huskies’ prowess but proved powerless to counter it.
“We knew that was going to happen,” Lazcano said. “The player that kept taking the corner kicks, he just knew how to utilize the wind to his advantage.”
It was not the way Lazcano, Buxton and the 11 other seniors on the WW South roster envisioned their final appearance at Red Grange Field.
“What’s done is done,” Lazcano said. “Obviously we didn’t want to lose 7-0 at home in our last game here.
“But it did (happen). It’s just a learning opportunity.”
The Tigers only had one scoring opportunity against the Huskies. That came with 3:05 left in the first half when senior Unla Husseini got into the box. His hard 12-yard shot was stopped by North goalkeeper Tommy Welch.
The Tigers figure to have an opportunity to win a regional title. They are the 11th seed at the Conant Sectional and will play host Glenbard East in a regional semifinal on Oct. 17. If they win, third-seeded York could await in the regional final.
“We feel we have a pretty good path for us to make a run,” Callipari said. “We can manage if we can play to our potential.
“It will be a challenge but we’ve had some nice moments, and we’ll look forward to it.”
Lazcano, for one, hasn’t lost confidence.
“We’ve proven plenty of times that we’re a great team,” Lazcano said. “We’re better than what the statistics show.
“Hopefully we’ll do great things out there. We’ve just got to get our mentality up, know what to do better as a team.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Tommy Welch
D Cesar Recendez
D Mitch Konrad
D Colin Iverson
D Matt Bilardello
M Ethan Harvey
M Jack Barry
M Will Ritzmann
F Patrick Koenig
F Ian Guppy
F Ty Konrad
WW South
GK Joe Adamek
D Sam Schlegel
D Jordy Morales
D Will Buxton
D Gabby Lazcano
M Nick McCrath
M Fabian Aranda
M Unla Husseini
M Marco Barrios
F Sumani Husseini
F Declan Ermer
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Ethan Harvey, M, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
1st Half
Naperville North – Jack Barry (Ethan Harvey) 36:38
Naperville North – Harvey 29:19
Naperville North – Colin Iverson 23:56
Naperville North – Ian Guppy (Harvey) 20:59
Naperville North – Jack Barry (Guppy) 20:47
Naperville North – Patrick Koenig (PK) 15:21
Naperville North – Myles Barry (Harvey) 12:31
'Yankees of the DVC' unstoppable in 7-0 win
By Matt Le Cren
WHEATON – Maybe it was pure talent.
Maybe it was the wind.
Or maybe it was their reading material.
Whatever the case, Naperville North’s stunning 7-0 demolition of host Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday night at Red Grange Field was one for the record books.
It was the first time the Huskies have scored seven goals in a game during Jim Konrad’s tenure as coach and also their biggest margin of victory in that time.
The outburst, for the defending state champs and Chicagoland Soccer's second-ranked team, came against a well-coached team that prides itself on playing tough defense.
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari could recall only two other times in his 27-year career that an opponent had scored seven goals.
Naperville North senior midfielder Ethan Harvey led the way for the Huskies (19-1-1, 6-1-0 DuPage Valley Conference) by recording a goal and three assists. His corner kicks led directly or indirectly to five goals and the Huskies scored six times on restarts.
All seven Naperville North goals came in the first 28 minutes, thus shortening the match to 60 minutes.
When did Harvey know it was going to be North’s night?
“In the pregame talks,” Harvey said. “Coach has been going through this book about the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team.
“They’re a great program; they always win. So that is kind of our story line this year. It’s all about how we can maintain greatness.
“We’re finishing up the book. We’ve been reading about being humble and accepting greatness and how we can do that, so that was a good pregame talk today that got us going.”
The Huskies, who extended their winning streak to 11, took advantage of a driving rain and steady wind at their backs to pin the Tigers (7-11-2, 1-6-1) in their own end for nearly the entire first half.
North forced 14 corner kicks and that doomed the Tigers. The left-footed Harvey consistently swerved the ball into the wind – and in one instance into the goal – to create chaos in front of Tigers goalkeeper Joe Adamek, who was under siege from the get-go.
Adamek made six saves and got a hand on two of the goals, but he got little help from his defense, which seemed as tentative as the Huskies were aggressive.
Jack Barry headed home the first goal in the fourth minute off a Harvey corner kick that probably would have gone in by itself. Harvey then curved one in himself seven minutes later to make it 2-0.
The Huskies scored the first four goals on corner kicks. Colin Iverson scored the third one on a rebound and Guppy knocked in the fourth midway through the half.
The visitors made it 5-0 just 12 seconds later with their only goal in the run of play. After intercepting the kickoff, Guppy found Barry on a counterattack for a quick finish.
The half still had over 20 minutes left, but the game was essentially over.
Patrick Koenig extended the lead to 6-0 when he converted a penalty kick after Ty Konrad was taken down in the box, and three minutes after that sophomore Myles Barry headed in another Harvey corner.
“In practice we’ve been working on our restarts a lot, just whipping it in front of the net,” Harvey said. “When we throw it in there it’s always got a chance, and I think the wind kind of played in our favor by bending it.
“Obviously seeing that first corner go in gave me confidence for the second and third and luckily my teammates got there. Myles had great header on that last one.”
It was the first varsity goal for Myles Barry, a sophomore who watched his older brother, Jack, help the Huskies win the state title last year.
“Ethan played in a great ball, and I just tried to get anything I could on it to direct it toward the goal,” the younger Barry said. “Obviously (to score) my first goal was big.”
The strike capped the biggest output North has had under Konrad, who couldn’t get his starters out of the game fast enough.
“We’re good enough to do it,” Myles Barry said. “We finally showed that tonight.
“We caught a couple breaks. We just need to do the little things, and we should be good.”
Indeed, the Huskies, who can clinch their fourth-straight DVC title outright by beating Neuqua Valley on Thursday or a share of the crown with a tie, appear poised to make a run at a second-straight state title.
“There were a few (goals) that were pretty soft, and we have to take blame for some of that,” Callipari said. “We needed more intensity and be more aggressive to the ball. When the ball hits the ground before it gets to the net, that’s a problem.
“But you also give credit where credit is due. They’re a class act and if anybody understands who they are, it would be them.
“They come at you with two ideas. One, that they’re going to win, and two, this is how we’re going to do it. And they never change from that.
“They just keep finding guys that can play that way and that style. To their credit they do it better than anybody else. They are the Yankees of the DVC.”
That’s an apt desciption with one exception -- the Huskies aren’t hated, and they aren’t arrogant. Konrad was almost apologetic after the win.
“We typically hold the boys at six,” Konrad said. “It’s just that Myles scored quick enough that we couldn’t manage the game quick enough, so I do feel bad about that.
“Guy Callipari is one of my favorite people, and I’m so sad to see him leave the conference. Wheaton South is a team that I have great memories of playing against back when they were Wheaton Central and then coaching against them.
“I’ve learned so much from Guy. I consider him a friend and a mentor. The sportsmanship pin exchange after the game is something that Guy established.”
Both teams give sportsmanship pins to one player on the opposing team, an exchange that takes place regardless of the final score.
“Tonight was one of those weird games,” Konrad said. “We’re not seven goals better than Wheaton South.
“The ball bounces weird ways, and we were fortunate to get two or three goals super early on weird restarts. The wind and rain was in their face in the first half, and we were on them physically and scored. That’s tough.”
The early flurry damaged the Tigers’ psyche.
“They got that first corner kick, and the ball kind of just floated and floated and no one went to it. And then next thing you know, the guy glances it right off his head,” Tigers defender Will Buxton said. “If he didn’t touch it, it probably would have gone in, too.
“The second one we misjudged it, and then it just kept getting worse. Every corner kick I was like, ‘Oh, God, here’s another corner kick.’ Every throw-in from the 20 in I was like, ‘They’re going to put this in the box.’ Everything was in our half for the 35 minutes in the first half.”
Buxton’s fellow defender, Gabby Lazcano, wasn’t surprised at the Huskies’ prowess but proved powerless to counter it.
“We knew that was going to happen,” Lazcano said. “The player that kept taking the corner kicks, he just knew how to utilize the wind to his advantage.”
It was not the way Lazcano, Buxton and the 11 other seniors on the WW South roster envisioned their final appearance at Red Grange Field.
“What’s done is done,” Lazcano said. “Obviously we didn’t want to lose 7-0 at home in our last game here.
“But it did (happen). It’s just a learning opportunity.”
The Tigers only had one scoring opportunity against the Huskies. That came with 3:05 left in the first half when senior Unla Husseini got into the box. His hard 12-yard shot was stopped by North goalkeeper Tommy Welch.
The Tigers figure to have an opportunity to win a regional title. They are the 11th seed at the Conant Sectional and will play host Glenbard East in a regional semifinal on Oct. 17. If they win, third-seeded York could await in the regional final.
“We feel we have a pretty good path for us to make a run,” Callipari said. “We can manage if we can play to our potential.
“It will be a challenge but we’ve had some nice moments, and we’ll look forward to it.”
Lazcano, for one, hasn’t lost confidence.
“We’ve proven plenty of times that we’re a great team,” Lazcano said. “We’re better than what the statistics show.
“Hopefully we’ll do great things out there. We’ve just got to get our mentality up, know what to do better as a team.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Tommy Welch
D Cesar Recendez
D Mitch Konrad
D Colin Iverson
D Matt Bilardello
M Ethan Harvey
M Jack Barry
M Will Ritzmann
F Patrick Koenig
F Ian Guppy
F Ty Konrad
WW South
GK Joe Adamek
D Sam Schlegel
D Jordy Morales
D Will Buxton
D Gabby Lazcano
M Nick McCrath
M Fabian Aranda
M Unla Husseini
M Marco Barrios
F Sumani Husseini
F Declan Ermer
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match – Ethan Harvey, M, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
1st Half
Naperville North – Jack Barry (Ethan Harvey) 36:38
Naperville North – Harvey 29:19
Naperville North – Colin Iverson 23:56
Naperville North – Ian Guppy (Harvey) 20:59
Naperville North – Jack Barry (Guppy) 20:47
Naperville North – Patrick Koenig (PK) 15:21
Naperville North – Myles Barry (Harvey) 12:31