Huskies' Memorable Season

Each spring when the soccer season begins, no one knows how it will end.

That uncertainty drives coaches to push players. That uncertainty pushes players through the pain of fitness. And as teams work their way through a twenty-some-game season, that uncertainty pushes players to commit themselves to the success of the team.

Naperville North players during the National Anthem before the Huskies play Edwardsville, March 28, 2025, Naperville, Illinois. | Allen Cunningham FiveStarFrames.com

The commitment players make to the team isn't easy to honor, it's always changing, and it carries with it some challenging responsibility. To watch any of the Huskies' games this season was to see a team playing for the joy of the commitment they made to one another.

North's 2025 schedule was----BRUTAL.

Teams rise and fall from year to year, but it seemed like every team the orange and blue faced fielded a strong team this year. Opening on the road against Barrington, the eventual 3rd place team in 3A; hosting Edwardsville, the only team to beat 3A champion O'Fallon; playing defending 3A state champion New Trier; playing two-loss Central, Neuqua (twice), Metea, Lincoln-Way East, Oswego, and two-loss Wheaton-Warrenville South; that's a gauntlet that could grind a great team into dust. But the Huskies maintained their focus and kept pulling together as a team to face the next challenge.

By the time North arrived in Streamwood to face one-loss Wheaton-Warrenville South in the Super-Sectional, the Huskies were playing like battle-tested veterans. Going into the break at half down one didn't faze them at all.

The Huskies demonstrated their confidence by coming out in the second half and quickly evening the score on a goal by Isa Polavieja. North had more opportunities over the last forty minutes and the two overtimes, but the game ended up going to a shootout.

In this photographer's humble opinion, there is no steel-making blast furnace more intense than a high school soccer shootout. One hundred minutes of soccer and nine shots brought the game down to one goalie and one shooter. Michelle Ruan picked up the ball, stepped over to the spot, precisely placed the ball, backed up exactly five steps, took a deep breath and then buried her shot in the upper right corner. Her presence, her poise, simply incredible.

Naperville North's Michelle Ruan scores on the fifth shot of a shoot-out giving the Huskies a class 3A Super-Sectional victory over Wheaton-Warrenville South, June 3, 2025, Streamwood, Illinois.

In the first of the class 3A semi-final matches at North Central College in Naperville, the Huskies lined up against a Lane Tech team which had beaten Neuqua and New Trier (twice). Coach Steve Goletz's team came out ready to play.

From goal to goal the Huskies played strong soccer. Keeper Olivia Ochsner did not see many threats in the first half, but she was on her game and moved the ball up field whenever the ball came into the area. Defender Lucy Fitzgerald anchored the backline and intimidated any Commanders who tried getting past her.

Lily Radek played smart, strong defense and was able to join the offensive attack on several occasions. Emily Buescher moved all over the field denying the Commanders' attack and serving balls to the Huskie front line. Lauren Pera was quick to the ball and allowed almost no Lane movement on the outside.

In the middle of the field, Kennedy Bertsch floated up and back wining balls out of the air and frustrating the Lane offense. Addison Sitzmann seemed to turn any ball that came close to her into an attacking play for the Huskies. Alexa Surdyk did the gritty work of slowing down the Champions' midfield. And it might sound like hyperbole, but Isa Polavieja seemed to be everywhere.

At the offensive end of the field, the Huskies consistently pressed the Commanders' defense. There were too many corner kicks to keep track of and several quality scoring opportunities. Claire DeCook and Brooke Welch rarely stayed in one place long. The smart, always hard-working DeCook scored both goals on the way to a 2-1 victory.

Saturday night's championship game is hard to think about and even harder to write about. Of the thousands of photographs I made during the game, this is the only one I want to share. As an outsider looking in, I don't know that I have ever seen a group of athletes more committed to one another, an absolutely amazing group of people.