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Belvidere North and its senior scoring machine Cortlyn Hefty pulled away for a 3-1 win over Hononegah on Thursday night, giving the Blue Thunder the nod as probably the only team that could still catch Boylan for the NIC-10 title.

The Titans are gunning for their 10th conference title in the past 12 seasons, and Boylan was 10-3-2 over and 5-0 in the NIC-10 headed into Thursday's game against Harlem.

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"The most important things are staying healthy right now, and making sure we're playing well for postseason," Belvidere North head coach Jeremy Naff said. "But if we keep taking care of business, and something happens to put us back in the (NIC-10) race, that would be nice, too."

Hefty scored her 52nd goal of the season, tied for tops in the state, sparking Belvidere North (16-1, 6-1 NIC-10) to a 3-0 lead, and control over Hononegah (6-7, 5-2 NIC-10) most of the way. Haylee Gallas and Keyla Suarez scored for North before Hononegah could rally late ôôֱ²¥” just a little bit.

North's lone loss of the season was a 3-2 setback to Boylan on April 11. And the Blue Thunder have been dominant ever since. They have now won 10 in a row and have outscored their opponents 58-5 in that stretch.

"This was a good win against a good team," Naff said Thursday night. "And we're playing well right now. Let's see if we can keep it going."

The Blue Thunder host Harlem next Tuesday and Guilford next Thursday to close out the regular season. Boylan is at Guilford on Tuesday, hosts Freeport on Thursday and then is at Belvidere on Friday.

Jay Taftôôֱ²¥is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him atôôֱ²¥jtaft@rrstar.comôôֱ²¥and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, atôôֱ²¥.ôôֱ²¥Sign upôôֱ²¥for the Rockford High School ôôֱ²¥ Newsletter .ôôֱ²¥Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.