NAPERVILLE – Wednesday was a day for grinders on the golf course, and the St. Charles North boys had just enough of them to grind out a 163-170 victory against St. Charles East in a key Upstate Eight River league meet.

The conference dual between the two rivals was part of a quadrangular at a windy White Eagle Golf Club that also included Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley from the UEC Valley Division. The North Stars (8-2 overall, 4-1 UEC River) placed second behind Waubonsie, which finished at 159, and two strokes ahead of Neuqua, but only the North-East match counted in the River Division standings. The victory by the North Stars meant they continue to control their own destiny in the race to win the league title. They’ll need to defeat Batavia today at Bowes Creek if they want to maintain that status.

“It was a big night for us,” North coach Rob Prentiss said. “We’re playing two heavyweights here in the last week of the [regular] season with St. Charles East and Batavia [today]. We were hoping we could get by East and – I know it sounds cliché – but when we play East, we’re playing East. It doesn’t matter what they’ve had prior to today or what we’ve had prior to [Wednesday], our kids still get excited to play East.”