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Naperville North plays its best game in loss to WW South By Eddie Burns Throughout Naperville North’s eight-match streak where it did not allow a goal Huskies’ coach Jim Konrad sensed his had it deficiencies and they would eventually get exposed. North lost its showdown with Wheaton Warrenville South by a 1-0 decision on Tuesday night in Naperville, but the tone from Konrad was far from negative regarding the Huskies’ play. “This is the best we’ve played all year,” Konrad said. “I hate to lose, obviously, but I couldn’t be happier with the way the boys played. I thought, for the first time all year, we put a complete game together and that takes the sting out of the loss.” Konrad was extremely pleased with the defensive efforts he received from Jimmy Butler, Ramsey Elshafei, Jake Remegi and Lee Grander. Senior goalie Mike Wiest agreed. “I am disappointed, but at the same time we played 79 minutes of the best soccer we’ve played all year and the one minute we didn’t play well – it cost us the game,” Wiest said. “It was amazing. I never thought I would get eight shutout games in a row,” Wiest said. “One game in a row is fine – to get eight in a row was incredible. You have to give some credit to the guys in the back and the offense too for scoring a bunch of goals during the streak.” Wiest injured his left thumb while attempting to secure a ball of a restart. Wiest charged into a group of players and jammed his left hand into someone. Wiest had to leave the match, but he returned on the next dead ball. Not long after Wiest returned WW South’s Ricky Munguia tallied the winning goal with right-footed strike from outside North’s penalty area. “Their guy hit a bomb,” Wiest said. “It was a great shot. If I was going to give up a goal, I would want to be a goal like that because it was a great shot. ” Konrad agreed. “(Munguia) hit a bomb from 25 yards out,” Konrad said. “You just have to give him a hand and move on.” North (11-1-4, 3-1 DVC) did not leave the field short of scoring chances against WW South (15-1-2, 3-0-1). Chris Boswell, Dean Gastouniotis, Jack Henderson, Evan Trychta and Kyle Lindberg all found themselves in and around the Tigers’ net all night. They each missed some shots, but also had several stopped by Tigers’ goalie Derek Babb. “I thought Boswell was outstanding,” Konrad said. “He created bunch for us. We generated a ton of chances. Babb came up big a couple of times and we let him off the hook by playing a couple right to him a couple of times.” The Huskies were not doom and gloom after suffering their first defeat of the season. “It was definitely good for us to lose,” Wiest said. “The underclassmen haven’t experienced a loss at the varsity level and this showed that we’re not unbeatable. We are not like this giant great team, don’t get me wrong we are a great team, but it shows that we can be beaten and the fact we know that can only make us a better.” Konrad said the loss provides him with ammunition when it comes to motivating his squad. “We needed to lose because I was starting to run out of things to say to the team,” Konrad said. These two teams could meet again in the postseason if the seeds play out. North received the No. 2 seed in the Downers South Sectional while WW South is the third seed.
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2009 Schedule
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