The weather forecast indicates history will repeat itself when Naperville North visits Metea Valley for a DuPage Valley Conference clash at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Rain is predicted, which is in keeping with recent meetings between the two teams.

“Every time we play at Metea we have gale-force winds for some reason,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “So we have to prepare for that.”

The winds are not projected to be that strong this time, which will be a relief to both teams. But Metea Valley will still face stiff head winds in trying to make history.

The host Mustangs (6-4-1, 0-1-1) have never beaten the perennially powerful and top-ranked Huskies (11-0-0, 2-0-0), who have won all 13 previous meetings, including two in the playoffs. But the previous two meetings and four of the last six have been decided by a single goal.

“We laugh, because we’ve always kind of dealt with crazy weather, and it’s usually when they come to us,” Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. “But even when we go to them, I feel like during the boys season, we have this weather where it stays nice for a month and then we get to this week when we play them, and all of a sudden it starts to get a little more fallish.

“The hope is that it’s nice weather so we have a great game. It’s always great to play them.”

Konrad has similar sentiments about competing against the Mustangs.

“It’s always been a great game,” Konrad said. “Josh does a fantastic job and his kids will be organized.

“We’ve lucked out a number of times there. The games are always close, and they’re typically one-goal games. That’s the great thing about our conference, is every game is a battle.

“It’s so good for the boys to have to go through those pressure environments to help us learn and grow.”

The Huskies have put consistent pressure on opponents, with their all-state strikers Noah Radeke and Jaxon Stokes both enjoying strong seasons. Radeke has 11 goals and six assists in 11 games, while Stokes has bagged eight goals to go with three assists in eight appearances.
No other team has quite as powerful of a 1-2 punch. But Konrad said the Huskies need to be more diversified.

“We’re still working on playing a little faster, trying to find combinations more quickly as opposed to expecting Noah or Jaxon to do something spectacular all the time and beat two or three guys by themselves,” Konrad said. 

“As we play tougher and tougher competition and teams get playoff ready, that will be harder. We will have to find some new ways to generate goals.”

Opponents have had a tough time scoring goals against North. All-state goalkeeper Jack Bouska has eight shutouts and has allowed only five goals. But three of them came last Tuesday in a 4-3 overtime win over Naperville Central, which found some holes and nearly pulled off an upset.

“Against Central we learned some lessons and hopefully we can correct some of those mistakes we made,” Konrad said. “We always get people’s best shot.

“I have no doubt Tuesday we’ll get a great game from Metea. They’ve got a couple dangerous kids and they’ll be organized defensively.”

The Mustangs are led offensively by Cole Hatfield, who has seven goals and three assists. Jake Anagyros has given them a nice boost in his first varsity season with five goals and one assist.

“Cole Hatfield has been on a tear lately scoring goals,” Robinson said. “He’s been playing really well and has already surpassed his goal total from last year.

“We’ve been a little inconsistent in how we’ve played, but he’s been a consistent kind of presence as far as his work rate and attitude. So that’s been awesome to see him come out of his shell a little bit from where he was last year to where he is this year.”

While the Huskies will be favored to win as usual, the Mustangs have a chance to write a different ending. An upset would be a huge confidence boost for the home team.

“My boys get up for every time we play them, but the reason why we get up for them every time is because they’re the best,” Robinson said. “So, it works both ways.

“They have such a tremendous program, and they’re doing what they do again., So I’m sure every game they get everybody’s best shot.

“The great thing for us is we have this ability to go into the game and just play the way we do. I think for us it’s just trying to play the best we can.”

With everyone expecting North to win, the Mustangs don’t have any pressure on their shoulders.

“Throughout this season, there hasn’t been a game where I’ve felt like the boys have gone into it thinking we’re not going to play the best type of soccer,” Robinson said. “So going into this game, I think we’re going to play a great brand of soccer, but we also know how good they are.

“There is some relief in that we can go and play and not worry about what people expect us to do or what we should do. I think that has weighed on us a little bit as a team at times.

“I think we have a little bit of freedom to play, because we are playing against them. Hopefully we can give them our best shot.”

Metea’s best just might be good enough. The Mustangs have been inconsistent but have shown Robinson enough flashes of brilliance to be optimistic.

“Every time we’ve played a high-end team, we’ve usually played really well,” Robinson said. “We’ve kind of been up and down, and hopefully we’ll be up on Tuesday. It will be pretty cool to go against them.”

With a victory, Naperville North will control its own destiny in the conference race and eliminate the Mustangs from contention. A Metea Valley win would make things really interesting.

“One of our big goals every year is to try to win a conference championship, so Tuesday will be a big step for either one of us,” Konrad said. “Whoever wins that game, it will put them in a good position going forward.”