Tenacious 'D'

The Huskies, lined in formation and finished the halftime break with jumping jacks, bounded to a two-goal lead at the start of the third quarter and finished with a 7-6 victory on Thursday night.

Tenacity wasn't just a bonus for North (11-0) it was a necessity against a tight, tempo-controlling Central (5-6) defense.

"We didn't hit the panic button," North coach Jay Havenaar said. "We knew Central would be a tough opponent and we couldn't take anything for granted."

For every lead the Huskies took, Central answered back.

Even as Sean Canty opened the third with a solo shot from the outside and Alex Giovaninni, who finished with three goals, scored on an assist from Chris Moore to give North a 4-3 lead at the start of the third, Central's Alex Gistis answered back to keep things tied.

The third would see the final scoring drives for either side, as North's Dan Coulter answered Gistis with a goal, only to see Central's Andrew Coakley even things up with a short shot at 1:47. Joe Krentz scored from the corner to give the Huskies an invaluable 6-5 lead going into the fourth.

"We ended up just winning it in the fourth quarter," Havenaar said. "We ended up maintaining groundballs in the fourth quarter and getting possession."

North finished with 26 groundballs, eleven of which came in the fourth and played a critical role in the close game.

Even after Central's Matt Lucchinni scored to tie it 6-6, it was the critical groundball possessions that allowed Giovaninni's game-winning goal midway through the fourth to hold up.

Central grabbed just two groundballs in the fourth and finished with 12 for the game.

Though the Redhawks were slightly outhustled in the second half, they won 10 faceoffs against North and held the Huskies to single-digit scoring, no small feat for a team that had scored 48 goals against five opponents in the Sticks and Stones tournament in West Chicago last weekend.

It looked as though the Huskies would have a similar ride when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Matt Kerr and Giovaninni in the first quarter, but Central called a quick timeout and answered back when Alex Gistis, who led Central with three goals, fired one in at 7:26 and Evan Peters quickly followed to close the scoring in the first quarter. From then on, it appeared the Redhawks had found a comfort zone.

"The thing that I saw that concerned me a little bit," Central coach Dave Bassett said, "was the defense we have been trying to put in for the last two games didn't click quite as well and that's why they got those two goals. After that, everything kind of tightened up and I was really confident."

Emerging from the sidelines, Central executed a rapid passing drive that forced goalie Tony Puccio out of coverage numerous times until Peters fired a shot from the corner with 50 seconds left to give Central a 3-2 lead.

Puccio finished with 14 saves, while Central's Sean Warrick had 11.

Contact Dustin Michael Harris at dharris@scn1.com or (630) 416-5287.