On Thursday, Naperville North’s girls’ soccer team competed in one of its final two conference games this season and kept their chances at the DVC title alive.

The Naperville North Huskies (13-3-1) defeated the Waubonsie Valley Warriors (10-4-2) by a score of 2-1.

The Huskies went into halftime down 1-0, despite playing what head coach Steve Goletz described as “the best half [game] of soccer they’ve played.”

“I really think it was, and we were still down 1-0. A couple non-calls really swung the momentum a little bit, but the big takeaway for me was the response in the second half,” Goletz said. “They could have hung their head and felt sorry for themselves, but I told them to keep doing what they’re doing because our attack was very good.”

Sophomore forward Hannah Martin definitely got that message at halftime, as she scored back-to-back goals within six minutes to give the Huskies the lead.

“At halftime, we just kept our heads up and told ourselves to keep moving,” Martin said. “In the second half, I happened to be at the right spot at the right time and I was able to put it in tonight.”

With just under three minutes remaining and the Huskies clinging to a 2-1 lead, the Warriors had multiple opportunities to tie the game before overshooting an open net equalizer that secured the win for Naperville North.

“We made a mistake or two, got punished for it. We got lucky that they missed that shot at the end, and those are lessons that we need to take away [from this game] because we can’t do those things in the playoffs,” Goletz said.

The Huskies have had their eyes on the conference championship, and the team only needs one more conference win to claim the DVC championship.

“It’ll be a tough game against Wheaton Warrenville-South, they’re a really good team. I think we have a lot of motivation right now and a lot of energy going into it, especially with how we’ve been playing lately,” Martin said.

Before they can compete for the conference title, the Huskies have one more non-conference game, a home game this Saturday against Downers Grove South (9-4-3) at noon.