Sports
Downers Grove Boys Fall to Oak Park-River Forest on Links
Trojans showing signs of improvement with young golfers and few key returnees from last year.
The Downers Grove North boys golf team continued its rebuilding year on Monday, losing 172-157 to Oak Park-River Forest in West Suburban Silver play at the Oak Park Country Club.
The Trojans are treating this season as a work in progress after graduating four golfers who advanced to sectionals last fall.
On Monday, they didn't pick up a particularly stellar round from any of their eight golfers, with scores ranging from 42 to 50.
"The talent is there, but the skill set isn't there yet to get the same scores day in and day out," Downers Grove North coach Jeff Naruszewicz said. "Someone will shoot a 38 one day, but then the 43s and 44s aren't going to beat anybody."
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Even if the Trojans played better on Monday, they would've had a difficult time upending a Huskies team that posted three scores under 40. Oak Park's Joe McKune, who teed off in a later foursome because he was without his putter and needed his grandmother to deliver it, was the medalist with a 37, while Eric Cybulski and Alex Decorrevont both fired 38s.
The loss dropped Dowers North to 1-5 in conference play. Sophomore Tristan Burnham and junior Pat Lowry tied for the team-best scoring honors with 42s.
"I played all right, but I couldn't score today," Lowry said. "I was on and off and struggled with some iron shots."
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Burnham was enjoying a very nice round before faltering late with a double-bogey and a triple-bogey on two of the final three holes.
"I had a good score going there," Burnham said. "It's tough when you get a few bad breaks."
Seniors Alex Ratreike and Tom Murphy and junior Mark Harbauer each shot 44 to contribute to the Trojans' team total, while juniors Joe Acosta (46) and Peter Danchisin (47) and senior Chad Czyzewicz (50) also played.
"It's difficult to compete in this conference because you need to bring your best every time," Naruszewicz said. "We lost 9 of 12 guys (from last year), so right now were just trying to get our grouping down and get ready for the conference meet."
The Trojans, who last won on Sept. 2 against Proviso West, return to action on Tuesday against York, before facing crosstown rival Downers Grove South on Thursday.
"We're just going to keep going out there trying to do better," Burnham said. "The good thing is that we're still young."
