Huskies, Redhawks set
for a crosstown classic
Naperville bragging rights, inside track to DVC on line
They need no introduction and certainly don't lack for motivation.
You can bet Naperville North and Naperville Central will be ready to put on a show when the crosstown rivals meet Tuesday night at Naperville North in their annual grudge match.
As usual, more than just bragging rights will be on the line because this game will go a long way toward determining who wins the DuPage Valley Conference championship.
North (8-1, 1-0) is riding an eight-game winning streak, while Central (9-4-1, 1-1) just recovered from a three-game losing streak to win both of its group play games at the Naperville Invitational.
Throwing a new wrinkle into the meeting this year is that it takes place during the middle of the Naperville Invitational. In years past, the match has usually been played after the tournament.
"We're always going to be able to get up for a Central game," Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said. "Even though it's sandwiched in the middle of the invite, I don't think that's going to be a problem for the kids."
Neither does Naperville Central coach Ed Watson.
"It's interesting," Watson said. "We don't get to manicure our conference schedule, and we probably would have liked to play them at another time, but it's a big conference game for us.
"We still control some of our destiny. If we can knock them off and then they knock off Wheaton North, we're back in the running."
The Huskies have won the last three meetings and have the better high-end talent, but that doesn't always mean much.
The Redhawks' last win over Naperville North came in 2012, when they handed the eventual state champion Huskies their only loss of the season. The Redhawks won on penalty kicks in the Naperville Invitational title game.
With all that's at stake, both sides are in the midst of a two-week stretch of tough competition. The stage is set for a real potboiler.
"You play two tough games this weekend and then you play Central on Tuesday and hope you're playing in the winner's bracket [of the invite next weekend]," Goletz said. "But that's kind of a modified state tournament run where you know you're going to be playing a good team every day.
"That's the sectional we have here, so I think that's the way we'll approach it, that you've got to win and move on to the next one and have a day of rest and recovering and be ready to go again."
Needless to say, everyone will be ready.
"All week we've been (preparing), and it's definitely hard to focus on the games before that because we're just so pumped on playing that game," Naperville Central senior midfielder Meredith Tunney said. "We know they're always a good team every year."
While the Huskies aren't quite on a par with their 2012 and 2013 state title squads, they are still loaded and have one of the state's premier players in senior striker Abbie Boswell.
Boswell is having a terrific season with eight goals and three assists and now has 65 career goals. She bagged two goals and an assist in North's signature 3-0 demolition of host Waubonsie Valley on April 17.
But if there is a team that can hold Boswell, it may be the Redhawks, who specialize in defense. They have posted six shutouts, with the back line led by Caitlin Reice, Kayla Rowan, Taylor Stenmark and Amanda Murphy keeping the team in every game. (Three of Central's losses have been by one goal and the other was by two goals to undefeated St. Charles East.)
But Boswell is not the only player the Redhawks have to worry about. She did not score against Lyons or Oswego last weekend, but the Huskies won both games handily.
Juniors Maggie Krecji and Alexis Dandridge have each scored four goals, with much of that production coming lately. Dandridge has scored in each of the past three games, while Krecji has a five-game point streak, including three goals.
As if that isn't enough, there is Krecji's history. She scored twice in the Huskies' 3-0 win over the Redhawks last year, the first two-goal outing of her career.
"She's been so good this year," Goletz said. "Talk about a jump from a sophomore to a junior.
"She's been so phenomenal for us out wide and just generated so many scoring chances for us. A great kid, a hardworking kid and [I am] super happy that she kind of waited her turn last year, got spot minutes and did what she could with it. Then this year obviously she's had a real breakout season."
But Krecji knows better than to be overconfident.
"Usually when we play Central, no matter who has the better record, it's always even," Krecji said. "I just think that we have such good chemistry as a team, so I know that if we work together and stay on topic before the game and have a really good warmup (we will do well)."
If there is one reason to favor the Huskies, it would be their defense, which has been even better than Central's. North has given up just two goals, with goalie Fiona Baenziger racking up seven shutouts behind a young but talented back line of senior Jen Fortman and sophomores Morgan Krause, Ashley Santos and Emily Wilhelm.
"We just need to continue to find ways to score goals," Watson said. "We can't go through a stretch like we just did where you play three games and you score one goal.
"We're going to have to create sustained opportunities in their end and make them defend more than they are used to. The other piece is when we have restart opportunities, we have to be dangerous."
The Redhawks do have some dangerous players. Tunney and Kirsten Dorgan lead the team with five goals each. Meridith Hannan has four goals and three assists and Alison Kincaide has three goals and four assists. Stenmark has five assists out of the back.
"We are doing this new formation where we moved our forwards out wide, so now we have three attacking in the mid. I think that's helping a lot," said Tunney, who scored in wins over Downers Grove South and Palatine last weekend. "We'll have more in the attack. We're already strong at defense so all we need is that finishing touch."
Ultimately, though, the game could be decided by intangibles.
"I think it comes down to who wants it more," Dandridge said. "Like last year we came in and we wanted it more because we wanted to win DVC, and that was the first big step to it. We were hyped up on game day, and we wanted to win."
The team that doesn't win Tuesday may not have to wait long to avenge the defeat. The teams could meet again Saturday in the Naperville Invitational title game and later at the Metea Valley Sectional.