Boswell's overtime goal lifts Naperville North past DG South

By Gary Larsen

Downers Grove South brought a boisterous student fan section to Naperville North on Tuesday, and for 80-plus minutes those fans loudly rode North’s players mercilessly.

But North’s Chris Boswell had the last laugh.

Boswell’s goal in overtime gave the Huskies a 1-0 win over the Mustangs in their Class 3A regional semifinal, and as soon as he scored it he made sure to take a victory run past the Mustangs’ fan section.

Were any words passed? “No,” Boswell said. “I was just screaming.”

DG South played a whale of a game, as a No. 15 sectional seed going up against No. 2 Naperville North. North won 5-0 over South on October 3 but the rematch was a whole different animal.

“In that (first) game, the ball fell in our lap a lot,” North coach Jim Konrad said. “We had a lot more chances in that game but they outplayed us, soccer-wise, in that game too.”

Tuesday’s game pitted a team in Naperville North (15-2-4) that has played great defense all year against a team in DG South (8-10-5) that found its way down the season’s stretch, and elevated its play to meet the program’s long standards.

North’s ability all year to keep teams from finding dangerous scoring chances was on display again Tuesday, and South’s defense battened down the hatch the second time around.

“This game had to be 1-0 and that was our mindset coming in,” South coach Jon Stapleton said. “We were right where we wanted to be, and it’s just unfortunate that it had to end the way that it did.”

After a scoreless 80 minutes, North’s Evan Trychta finally managed to get behind South’s back line and was taken down to set up a penalty kick, two minutes into the first overtime period.

South goalkeeper Andrew Reed dove left to stop Boswell’s shot, but the Huskies’ senior charged the net. “Luckily it came right back to me and I just put it in,” Boswell said. “I’m happy that went in but I should have scored two other goals tonight.”

With neither side giving ground in back, first-half restarts supplied the game’s main scoring threats. Boswell leaned in and sent a solid head shot towards the post in the 39th minute, but Reed stopped it to maintain the scoreless tie.

“I’ll give our whole team credit – on restarts I thought we were great,” Konrad said. “We got there first to everything.”

South limited North’s play in the flow of the game and moved the ball well offensively, but Naperville North has stayed in contention in every game this year thanks its work in the defensive third of the field.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a goalkeeper anywhere that has been better than North’s Mike Wiest this year. The senior posted his 14th shutout in 21 games on Tuesday, and a North back line featuring Ramsey Elshafei, Lee Grander, Jimmy Butler, and Jake Remegi rose to the occasion the way it has all season.

“There have been games this year that we’ve been absolutely awful, but even on our worst day our defenders have done a really good job of not giving up quality chances to score,” Konrad said.

“We were bad. We were bad all over tonight. But as bad as we played, we didn’t give them many good chances to score.”

Boswell sent a good chance high of net in the 75th minute, Wiest left his line to snare a South corner kick offering in the 78th, and the game’s next big play came when Trychta earned the penalty kick.

Boswell has taken North’s penalty kicks all year.

“It’s my job,” Boswell said. “But it was a little nerve-wracking, and I should have put it in, in the first place. But it ended up for the best.”

North takes on Downers Grove North on Saturday in Naperville at 2 p.m. with a regional title on the line. DG North won its regional semifinal 3-0 over Lockport on Tuesday.

Naperville North starters vs. DG South