While his peers are dreaming of a varsity career at Naperville North, Andrew Menendez is playing like an upperclassman with the upperclassmen.
The only freshman on either roster got the only goal in a 1-0 home victory over Downers Grove South on Saturday.
Things did not look great for North when leading scorer Jake Fullerton left with a slight knee injury with 24:53 remaining.
But the 5-foot-4-inch, 115-pound Menendez took charge when he netted his seventh goal of the season. He went far side from the top right corner of the penalty box in the 62nd minute.
“Ben Johnson played me a great ball through. I saw the corner and decided to have a go at it and shoot it,” Menendez said of his first game-winning goal. “In the first half we weren’t really playing that good. We put it together in the second half and actually played as a team.”
Naperville North (15-2) goalkeeper Zach Szymel earned the shutout for the Huskies’ 14th consecutive victory. Beating last week’s top-ranked team moved the Huskies into the top spot.
Downers South (11-4-2) dropped its second straight game.
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SATURDAY’S BOYS SOCCER ROUNDUP
TEAM, SYNOPSIS
3 MORTON 1 6 Lyons 1
Non-conference
Morton (13-1-3) grabbed early lead on Nestor Hernandez’s goal 10 minutes into game, but Mark Zeman responded for Lyons (11-1-2) with tying goal. Lyons’ John Valenta had 6 saves.
5 BARRINGTON 4 Hoffman Estates 0
MSL West
David May had 2 goals to lead Barrington (14-3, 2-1). Frido Rektorli and Pat Hopkins added goals for Broncos. Tom Hagenberg had 2 saves.
9 Warren 3 U-HIGH (WIS.) 3
Non-conference
Warren (13-2-1) lost 3-1 halftime lead but was able to hold on for tie against Wisconsin’s No. 1-ranked team. “In the second half we absorbed a lot of their pressure,” Warren coach Jim McNamara said. Brian Bappert, Larry Kohn and Ian Sarachan scored for the Blue Devils.
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Home team in CAPS.
— Sumit Roy contributed.
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dsurico@tribune.com
