MAPLE PARK — Much like the rest of his Batavia teammates, junior Connor Verde was ready for a win.

Entering Thursday’s game against Kaneland, the Bulldogs had been held winless for 28 straight games, including 22 straight losses. Their last victory came on Sept. 28, 2023 with a 2-0 win over Wheaton Warrenville South.

So when the Knights erased their 2-0 advantage with goals in the 36th and 45th minute, the Bulldogs got a little nervous that their chance to get in the win column was slipping away.

But those nerves went away for Verde when a throw-in from 15 yards out in the 49th minute fell right at his feet.

“The ball bounced out and I just told my teammate to leave it,” Verde said. “And I just ripped it into the top of the box.”

Verde’s second goal of the game proved to be the difference maker, as the Bulldogs would go on to secure a 4-2 victory over the Knights to snap the winless streak.

“We played him a little deeper today, usually he plays as an offensive midfielder but we played him a little more back,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “He was picking up some balls back there, and he had two great strikes. He had momentum, and I’m sure he liked the grass a little bit too.”

Verde got Batavia (1-3) going from the starting whistle in the contest, with the junior corralling a ball in Kaneland territory and sinking one in the back of the net to make it 1-0 before a minute was off the scoreboard.

“We had a lot of confidence coming into this game compared to others,” Verde said. “It was really important to set that momentum, and then we used that momentum to keep us moving forward.”

Freshman Dylan Vilegas added to the first-half momentum in the 27th minute after lofting a ball from the far-left corner into the back of the net to make it 2-0.

But despite letting Kaneland tie it up shortly after, Gianfrancesco said he was proud of the team not caving under the pressure and powering through.

“That just comes with experience, knowing how to win,” Gianfrancesco said. “And these guys haven’t done that together. They don’t have that experience at the varsity level of knowing what it takes to win. They could have caved after giving those up, and they didn’t. They fought back and kept going, and it was nice to see.”

Senior Gabe Davis added an insurance goal in the 67th minute after sneaking past the defense and sinking the ball into the net. The four goals was the most the Bulldogs had scored in a game since a 5-1 victory over Jefferson back in 2022.

“I’m happy for all of them,” Gianfrancesco said. “It’s been a long time coming and they deserve it. They put in a lot of hard work to get this.”

Kaneland fought back with success from set pieces. Senior Abe Paulino put the Knights on the board with a goal off a free kick in the 36th minute, and junior Tyler Adams tied the game at 2-2 after getting his foot on a scrum after a corner kick.

“I thought it was great that we did fight back and didn’t quit,” Kaneland coach Scott Parillo said. “But by the end they just wore us down.

“This one stings a bit because we worked so hard to get ourselves back in the game to just give it up. But that’s high school sports for you, you never know what you’re going to get.”

The Knights’ 0-6 record is the longest opening stretch without a win that Parillo said he can remember in his 25 years of coaching, with the next closest being an 0-4-1 start to the 2022 season.

“It’s not from a lack of trying, some of the teams we’re facing have just been better than us,” Parillo said. “But I’d rather have a tough schedule than a weak one. We’ve just got to work through it. We can either fight or we can quit.”