Naperville North senior midfielder Audrey Hartman was feeling tired.
80 minutes into the game, the 80-degree temperatures had an effect.
But with the Huskies' season on the brink and his football career in jeopardy of ending, Hartman knew he had to do something after blocking a clearing attempt at midfield.
“I knew there wasn't much time left in the game, and I knew I had to send the ball forward, and I knew it had to be a really good ball,” she said. “We needed to get one point behind the goal.
“I'm a senior. If I didn't win, I would have been eliminated. So I gave it my all and so did everyone else on the team.”
The serve that Hartmann sent into space would be called an ace in the tennis world. Sophomore forward Claire DeCook dives from the left side, gets to the ball just moments before Waubonsie Valley senior goaltender Lauren Bornhoff scores, and scores a 16-yard shot off the right post with 43 seconds left. It hit the net.
It was De Cook's 13th goal of the season. On Friday, the third-seeded Huskies emerged as winners with a thrilling 2-1 victory over the sixth-seeded Warriors, rallying to win the Class 3A East Aurora Regional Championship.
“It was a great ball from Audrey,” De Cook said. “I could see she was trying to open her hips and I could see she didn’t have any other runners.
“I was very close to the goalie. I used too much momentum and I damaged the post a little bit. So even if everyone was celebrating, you wouldn't know it, so I taped it just in case. .”
The truth is, nothing is certain in football, especially in the playoffs. Naperville North (13-5-4) defeated Waubonsie Valley 5-1 just 10 days earlier.
But the Warriors (10-8-2) took a 1-0 lead when Taylor Ahmadian scored off an assist from fellow senior forward Eleanor Oster with 34:51 left in the second half.
Naperville North led until senior forward Annie Chan tied it with 19:48 left on an assist from junior midfielder Isa Polavieja.
Overtime seemed inevitable, but Hartman and De Cook somehow summoned enough energy.
“It was a really great goal from Claire,” Naperville North coach Steve Gorets said. “We question her world. We ask more of her than is possibly possible. But with 40 seconds left in the game, she's exhausted but still keeps running. If not, we will go to overtime.
“That's the difference. To run, you have to stay calm until the end. I'm very happy for her.”
Hartman was pleased with DeCook's performance, but not surprised by her score.
“That’s just Claire,” Hartman said. “It was a great combination. I don't think we would be where we are today without the team effort.
“The great thing about our team is that everyone strives until the last seconds and never gives up. And if Claire hadn't made that run, we wouldn't have finished.”
Instead, the Huskies won their 13th straight regional title and advanced to the Plainfield North Regional semifinals, which will be played Wednesday between second-seeded Metea Valley and seventh-seeded Naperville Central at 6:30 p.m. They will face the winner of Saturday's game.
“It means a lot,” DuCuc said. “This is something we expect to win every year. We set a high standard, so naturally every year, no matter how good this team is, it's always going to be difficult because there's great competition. .
“We have to keep raising the bar because we know it’s not going to be easy from here.”
It's a standard fueled by relatively under-the-radar players like Hartmann, whose efforts in midfield often go unnoticed and unrewarded on the stat sheet. Her assist on De Cook's winning goal was her second of the season.
Hartman said she had several offers to play college soccer, but turned them down to study nursing at Indiana University. That's why she's savoring every moment of Naperville North's playoff run.
“I'm going to focus on my studies,” Hartman said. “So it's going to be a really tough goodbye. That's why I want to give it my all these last few games and win state.”
Matt Le Crenn is a freelance reporter.