Even an “off night” wasn’t enough to stop the Huskie boys soccer team as they pulled off a victory in a thriller against their crosstown rivals.

The Naperville North Huskies (13-0, 3-0) defeated the Naperville Central Redhawks (4-5-4, 2-1-1) by a final score of 1-0.

After a scoreless 79 minutes, junior defender Christian Romano threw in the ball and found junior forward Zach Smith, who put the ball in the back of the net with 37.1 seconds remaining. His goal pushed the Huskies to take the lead.

“The coaches kept telling me to run behind Colin [Iverson] — he’d go up for the ball and Central was putting a bunch of guys on him,” Smith said. “No one touched it, and I was able to flick it in.”

Up until that point, the game was dominated by both defenses, making it difficult for anyone to get a good shot on goal.

“Central’s always going to give us a good game, it could have gone either way,” head coach Jim Konrad said. “I’m proud of how hard the boys worked, and I thought we were much better in the second half. [We have] lots of growing still to do if we want to be as good as we hope to be.”

The game also saw another shutout for Tom Welch, who continues to add on to the shutout record he broke earlier this season.

“I knew [Central] was going to have some chances, but our defense did a phenomenal job tonight,” Welch said. “I didn’t have to do much; I might have touched the ball five or six times, and that’s all because of our backline.”

The Huskies remain undefeated, and with every win, the target on the defending state champions’ backs gets larger and larger. The team is currently ranked top 10 in various national rankings, and that record will be tested this weekend as the Huskies face the Cherry Creek Bruins to kick off the Go for the Goal Classic.