On Tuesday, March 8, the Naperville North varsity girls soccer team faced the DeKalb Barbs in the DVC home opener and secured a dominating win.
The Huskies (3-1-1) beat the Barbs (1-7) by a score of 7-0.
The Huskies started off the first half by pushing the pace on offense and applying a lot of pressure with quick steals. Senior midfielder Kelly Wilson (12) got the scoring started for the Huskies with a quick goal to make the score 1-0 with 37:14 left in the first half. Junior forward Claire Decook (22) quickly followed up on Wilson’s success with two quick goals of her own at 33:26 and 30:54, expanding the Huskies’ lead to 3-0. The Huskies kept making it tough on the Barbs to get any offense going. Sophomore defender Lauren Pera (8) kept adding to the Huskies’ score with a goal of her own, making the score 4-0 with 27:45 left. The Huskies kept applying the offensive pressure with yet another goal by Sophomore midfielder Kennedy Bertsch (19) to make the score 5-0 Huskies with 24:58 left. Soon after, the Huskies started to loosen up on offense a little bit. They made many substitutions, giving multiple players a chance to score a goal. Near the end of first half, the Huskies added on another two goals with Wilson scoring with 5:21 left and senior midfield/forward Tatum Barnes scoring with 3:19 left, making the score 7-0. The Huskies would go into halftime with a huge 7-0 lead. Decook explained the offensive game plan going into this matchup.
“There was emphasis on first touch this game, and also just playing to a high level,” Decook said.
In the second half, the total amount of time was cut down by half to 20 minutes because of the lead the Huskies had created in the first half. The Huskies then tried to keep possession by passing the ball around for the entire second half. The Huskies kept the defense strong and didn’t let the Barbs get any shots on goal. The Huskies got some final passes in before the end of the game.The game resulted in the Huskies winning in a blowout fashion with a score of 7-0. Sophomore defender Kiera McMahon (9) talks about the defensive game plan in the second half.
“It’s always kind of just making sure we have a cover and winning the 50/50 battles,” McMahon said.
The Huskies demonstrated a lot of tough and aggressive play on the field. Head Coach Steven Goletz reflected on how he thought the team played and how everyone played a big role in the team’s success.
“We had to come out and play hard in the first 20 minutes to try and set the tone of the game … they did a good job of coming out and showing what we know they can do on the field,” Goletz said.
The Huskies’ next regular season match is on Saturday, April 12 on the road against Evanston High School at 11 a.m.
