Kaneland crashes party
at Naperville Central's Senior Day
Knights score in 11th minute and hold off Redhawks for 1-0 win
By Dave Owen
NAPERVILLE – For all of the celebrations, signs, balloons and player honors, Senior Day games are often more stressful than successful for the hosts.
After Saturday, Naperville Central would certainly agree.
A counterattack goal in the 11th minute by Kaneland forward and 2018 Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater Tucker Jahns gave the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
From there, a combination of strong Kaneland defense and incredible bad luck for the Redhawks made that score stand up to the final zero on the clock.
“Our energy level today was much more than it’s been all season,” said Jahns, who has scored 60 goals over the last two seasons (29 so far this year). “It’s our Homecoming today so we were excited for Homecoming. But this (win) is just crazy.
“We just won our second conference (title) in school history, and that felt really good. And now coming in against a good enough to be state-winning team, a 3A school, to beat them is incredible. It feels so good.-
While Kaneland (14-6-0) celebrated, Naperville Central (9-5-4) saw a cloud of deja vu that has hung over an otherwise quality 2019.
“It’s a microcosm of the season,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “We give up way too many counterattack opportunities, and we can’t score. A lot of our losses have ended 1-0. The difference is, we still can’t be disciplined enough defensively to prevent counters.
“I think we’ve given up 20 goals (this fall), and I want to say half of them are simply on counters that we just are overaggressive on or don’t have a real good read on when to go in and tackle vs. when to give ground.
“And it’s getting late in the season for that to happen,” Adams added. “As a coach it’s frustrating, but there’s only so much you can do. Keep talking to them, keep trying to teach them through it and hope it sinks in at some point.”
Before and after that frustrating moment, the Redhawks had many quality chances.
The first came seven minutes in, when Dylan Kahn’s header off a Seth Lendzion pass was deflected wide. On the ensuing corner kick, Nico Couropmitree’s send was grabbed at the near post by Kaneland goalkeeper Maison Kerl.
But while possession and chances were heavily in the Redhawks’ favor all day, Kaneland made its opportunity pay off.
On a send from midfield, Jahns won a 50-50 ball 30 yards out, dashed in left on a breakaway and chipped a shot past charging goalkeeper Ethan Gentile and barely across the goal line ahead of a sliding clear attempt by defender Mateo Lopez.
“Most of our game is find the forwards’ feet right away,” said Jahns, who will play next year at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
“Me and Allen (Dominguez) are very deadly up-top. I knew their backline played up really high, so I knew once I had them beat and with the keeper coming out, I could just place it in the back right corner.”
Playing in what would be their seventh-straight game decided by one goal or less (two ties included), the Redhawks players had a familiar sense.
“It’s tough, because I’ve been part of a lot of games like this,” Naperville Central senior captain Rohan Bhargava said. “I thought we battled and worked hard, and it just wouldn’t seem to fall.
“We just had basically one defensive lapse that they scored on. I thought we dominated the whole game besides that and we just couldn’t find it (a goal).
“I thought we got unlucky today,” Bhargava added. “I thought we played really well. I really don’t know what else we could have done, besides maybe just a little bit extra.”
Looking at four years at Naperville Central instead of 80 minutes of unlucky nonconference soccer, Bhargava also wouldn’t change much.
“I really love this program,” Bhargava said, “especially on Senior Nights – it’s a pretty special day. It’s obviously not the result we wanted, but I’ve said many times, it’s a great program and a tremendous honor to represent this program.”
The Class of 2020 has been crucial to that program.
Bhargava, Gentile, Kahn, Owen Jarrell, Couropmitree, Mitch Becker, James Kim, Roman Krupka, Brandon Saper, Mikey Venardi, Will Morgan, Daniel Camino and Mitchell Johnson were on the varsity team, and Nathan Harmon, Juan Solis, Andrew Saylan, Kyle Gunter, Jake Kincaide and John Bonoris saw time at JV.
“We celebrated 19 seniors today,” Adams said, “and that’s right up there (among our highest number ever). The ability of the boys to want to play and have shown a desire for improvement speaks volumes. It shows the other kids how to do it and what to do. The 19 seniors we have are good examples of the kids we want to see in the program.”
Two state runnerup finishes in the past decade has Naperville Central in elite territory – a status which made Saturday’s result huge for Kaneland.
“A great win for us,” Knights coach Scott Parillo said. “We took advantage of them early. They underestimated us maybe, and it held up. I’m sure they knew about Tucker, but he was able to finish.
“We’ve only lost to one AA school in the state of Illinois. All the other (games) we’ve lost were to St. Charles East, St. Charles North, West Aurora, and Geneva beat us on a PK. We’ve been close with these teams, and this (win) is what we needed.”
Besides his goal, Jahns was central to Kaneland’s other two other scoring chances in the match.
In the 14th minute, his sideline rush and left-side 12-yard shot was denied on a diving catch by Gentile.
Then nine minutes into the second half, a Dominguez send sprung Jahns in on left wing. But second-half Redhawks goalkeeper Caden Redpath came out 10 yards to smother another Jahns’ shot.
Otherwise, it was a day dominated by Naperville Central chances.
The first half ended with headers just off frame by Seth Lendzion (a redirect of a Jarrell 16-yard sideline free kick in the 24th minute), Jarrell (off a Lopez 45-yard free kick in the 31st minute) and Lendzion again (38th minute off a Becker throw-in).
“I think that goal was about their only shot in the first half,” Bhargava said. “And we had I don’t know how many shots.”
And those Redhawks chances paled in comparison with what was to come.
After Redpath’s early second half save on Jahns, it was quickly all Redhawks with no Redhawks luck.
Krupka’s high 28-yard liner (27:45 left) and end line cross (26:00 left) were both grabbed by Kaneland goalkeeper Kerl.
“The second half we just had to play defensive and hold their front line back,” Jahns said.
The crazy bounces of soccer seldom makes that task easy. But what happened with 15:30 left exceeded all definitions of crazy.
A bad Kaneland pass in the defensive end was intercepted by Couropmitree, who sidestepped a charging Kerl at the top of the box and dribbled towards the open net.
But forced towards the corner by Kerl’s effort, Couropmitree momentarily lost control of the dribble, giving Kerl and the defense time to recover their positions and deny a shot.
“We made a couple of mistakes that could have cost us big time,” Parillo said. “That pass back (stolen) where he’s dribbling it in, and he trips over the ball. But those things happen, that’s soccer, especially high school soccer.”
Said Jahns: “Scariest moment all game. I’d say we got lucky three times in this game. They’re a very good team.”
The next major scare for Kaneland came with 9:45 to play.
Ben Tietjen’s initial shot try in the box was blocked by Kaneland’s Gavin Cano. Bhargava seized the rebound, but his 12-yard shot was denied by a sliding Kerl save.
Then with 2:30 to go, another matter of inches frustrated the Redhawks.
Off a Lendzion send from the sideline, Jarrell’s 6-yard header caromed off the crossbar and straight down, where Kerl’s catch denied any rebound bid.
One final less dramatic chance for the Redhawks came with 1:05 left. After Josh Weigel was fouled, Bhargava’s 27-yard free kick was grabbed by Kerl in a crowd near the right post.
In a sport with a history of unpredictable results, add another to the list.
“I don’t think there’s any game that can emulate all the things that can happen in a soccer game,” Adams said. “Football you can have funky things happen, but you can pinpoint them, like turnovers.
“In soccer, sometimes you can’t pinpoint them. It’s the great thing about the sport and the miserable thing about the sport. More than any sport, you can devise a plan where anybody can beat anybody.”
Kaneland couldn’t have planned on some of Saturday’s twists and turns, but now heads towards regionals on a major high point.
“We just had confidence coming into this game,” Jahns said. “We’re a very talkative team, we usually don’t just play.
“We can be hot-headed. But we stayed calm and decided to just play soccer for once.”
Saturday’s score aside, Adams has been impressed by the effort and improvement of several Redhawks.
“In the midfield Nico (Couropmitree) has done a really good job not only looking to distribute but just his work rate,” Adams said. “He played varsity since he was a freshman, and now he’s always at the top of the charts in distance covered, acceleration, all the different things we look at.
“And Benny Tietjen in the back, for a sophomore (first-year varsity player) that hasn’t played in the back much to make that adjustment. He’s really come a long way in two months.”
More than dwell on missed opportunities Saturday, Adams praised Kaneland and emphasized where his team can improve.
“We’ve had success, and it comes because we outwork the other team,” Adams said. “To be honest that wasn’t the case today.
“They (Kaneland) did a great job of winning balls in the air, winning 50-50s, and when you don’t have the ability to score multiple goals all the time, you have to outwork the other team.
“At the end of the day you have to get the job done. And we didn’t. (Kaneland) played very hard and got after it – credit to them for that.”
With higher stakes games to come, the Redhawks know the task at hand.
“In playoffs, if this happens we’re out,” Bhargava said. “I think we’re good, but I don’t think we’ve achieved our potential yet, which is a little disappointing.
“But if we just keep working hard, I think we have a legitimate shot to make a run in playoffs. It’s just not letting this get to us.”
Starting lineups
Kaneland
GK Maison Kerl
D Gavin Cano
D Braden Nigg
D Erick Barragan
D Tyler Chapman
M Connor Bottorff
M Garret Robinson
M Lucas Bass
M Evan Smith
F Tucker Jahns
F Allen Dominguez
Naperville Central
GK Ethan Gentile
D Mitch Becker
D Seth Lendzion
D Matteo Lopez
D Ben Tietjen
M Owen Jarrell
M Rohan Bhargava
M James Kim
M Nico Couropmitree
F Dylan Kahn
F Roman Krupka
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Tucker Jahns, sr. F, Kaneland
Scoring summary
First half
K- Tucker Jahns, 11’
Second half
No scoring
at Naperville Central's Senior Day
Knights score in 11th minute and hold off Redhawks for 1-0 win
By Dave Owen
NAPERVILLE – For all of the celebrations, signs, balloons and player honors, Senior Day games are often more stressful than successful for the hosts.
After Saturday, Naperville Central would certainly agree.
A counterattack goal in the 11th minute by Kaneland forward and 2018 Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater Tucker Jahns gave the Knights an early 1-0 lead.
From there, a combination of strong Kaneland defense and incredible bad luck for the Redhawks made that score stand up to the final zero on the clock.
“Our energy level today was much more than it’s been all season,” said Jahns, who has scored 60 goals over the last two seasons (29 so far this year). “It’s our Homecoming today so we were excited for Homecoming. But this (win) is just crazy.
“We just won our second conference (title) in school history, and that felt really good. And now coming in against a good enough to be state-winning team, a 3A school, to beat them is incredible. It feels so good.-
While Kaneland (14-6-0) celebrated, Naperville Central (9-5-4) saw a cloud of deja vu that has hung over an otherwise quality 2019.
“It’s a microcosm of the season,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “We give up way too many counterattack opportunities, and we can’t score. A lot of our losses have ended 1-0. The difference is, we still can’t be disciplined enough defensively to prevent counters.
“I think we’ve given up 20 goals (this fall), and I want to say half of them are simply on counters that we just are overaggressive on or don’t have a real good read on when to go in and tackle vs. when to give ground.
“And it’s getting late in the season for that to happen,” Adams added. “As a coach it’s frustrating, but there’s only so much you can do. Keep talking to them, keep trying to teach them through it and hope it sinks in at some point.”
Before and after that frustrating moment, the Redhawks had many quality chances.
The first came seven minutes in, when Dylan Kahn’s header off a Seth Lendzion pass was deflected wide. On the ensuing corner kick, Nico Couropmitree’s send was grabbed at the near post by Kaneland goalkeeper Maison Kerl.
But while possession and chances were heavily in the Redhawks’ favor all day, Kaneland made its opportunity pay off.
On a send from midfield, Jahns won a 50-50 ball 30 yards out, dashed in left on a breakaway and chipped a shot past charging goalkeeper Ethan Gentile and barely across the goal line ahead of a sliding clear attempt by defender Mateo Lopez.
“Most of our game is find the forwards’ feet right away,” said Jahns, who will play next year at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
“Me and Allen (Dominguez) are very deadly up-top. I knew their backline played up really high, so I knew once I had them beat and with the keeper coming out, I could just place it in the back right corner.”
Playing in what would be their seventh-straight game decided by one goal or less (two ties included), the Redhawks players had a familiar sense.
“It’s tough, because I’ve been part of a lot of games like this,” Naperville Central senior captain Rohan Bhargava said. “I thought we battled and worked hard, and it just wouldn’t seem to fall.
“We just had basically one defensive lapse that they scored on. I thought we dominated the whole game besides that and we just couldn’t find it (a goal).
“I thought we got unlucky today,” Bhargava added. “I thought we played really well. I really don’t know what else we could have done, besides maybe just a little bit extra.”
Looking at four years at Naperville Central instead of 80 minutes of unlucky nonconference soccer, Bhargava also wouldn’t change much.
“I really love this program,” Bhargava said, “especially on Senior Nights – it’s a pretty special day. It’s obviously not the result we wanted, but I’ve said many times, it’s a great program and a tremendous honor to represent this program.”
The Class of 2020 has been crucial to that program.
Bhargava, Gentile, Kahn, Owen Jarrell, Couropmitree, Mitch Becker, James Kim, Roman Krupka, Brandon Saper, Mikey Venardi, Will Morgan, Daniel Camino and Mitchell Johnson were on the varsity team, and Nathan Harmon, Juan Solis, Andrew Saylan, Kyle Gunter, Jake Kincaide and John Bonoris saw time at JV.
“We celebrated 19 seniors today,” Adams said, “and that’s right up there (among our highest number ever). The ability of the boys to want to play and have shown a desire for improvement speaks volumes. It shows the other kids how to do it and what to do. The 19 seniors we have are good examples of the kids we want to see in the program.”
Two state runnerup finishes in the past decade has Naperville Central in elite territory – a status which made Saturday’s result huge for Kaneland.
“A great win for us,” Knights coach Scott Parillo said. “We took advantage of them early. They underestimated us maybe, and it held up. I’m sure they knew about Tucker, but he was able to finish.
“We’ve only lost to one AA school in the state of Illinois. All the other (games) we’ve lost were to St. Charles East, St. Charles North, West Aurora, and Geneva beat us on a PK. We’ve been close with these teams, and this (win) is what we needed.”
Besides his goal, Jahns was central to Kaneland’s other two other scoring chances in the match.
In the 14th minute, his sideline rush and left-side 12-yard shot was denied on a diving catch by Gentile.
Then nine minutes into the second half, a Dominguez send sprung Jahns in on left wing. But second-half Redhawks goalkeeper Caden Redpath came out 10 yards to smother another Jahns’ shot.
Otherwise, it was a day dominated by Naperville Central chances.
The first half ended with headers just off frame by Seth Lendzion (a redirect of a Jarrell 16-yard sideline free kick in the 24th minute), Jarrell (off a Lopez 45-yard free kick in the 31st minute) and Lendzion again (38th minute off a Becker throw-in).
“I think that goal was about their only shot in the first half,” Bhargava said. “And we had I don’t know how many shots.”
And those Redhawks chances paled in comparison with what was to come.
After Redpath’s early second half save on Jahns, it was quickly all Redhawks with no Redhawks luck.
Krupka’s high 28-yard liner (27:45 left) and end line cross (26:00 left) were both grabbed by Kaneland goalkeeper Kerl.
“The second half we just had to play defensive and hold their front line back,” Jahns said.
The crazy bounces of soccer seldom makes that task easy. But what happened with 15:30 left exceeded all definitions of crazy.
A bad Kaneland pass in the defensive end was intercepted by Couropmitree, who sidestepped a charging Kerl at the top of the box and dribbled towards the open net.
But forced towards the corner by Kerl’s effort, Couropmitree momentarily lost control of the dribble, giving Kerl and the defense time to recover their positions and deny a shot.
“We made a couple of mistakes that could have cost us big time,” Parillo said. “That pass back (stolen) where he’s dribbling it in, and he trips over the ball. But those things happen, that’s soccer, especially high school soccer.”
Said Jahns: “Scariest moment all game. I’d say we got lucky three times in this game. They’re a very good team.”
The next major scare for Kaneland came with 9:45 to play.
Ben Tietjen’s initial shot try in the box was blocked by Kaneland’s Gavin Cano. Bhargava seized the rebound, but his 12-yard shot was denied by a sliding Kerl save.
Then with 2:30 to go, another matter of inches frustrated the Redhawks.
Off a Lendzion send from the sideline, Jarrell’s 6-yard header caromed off the crossbar and straight down, where Kerl’s catch denied any rebound bid.
One final less dramatic chance for the Redhawks came with 1:05 left. After Josh Weigel was fouled, Bhargava’s 27-yard free kick was grabbed by Kerl in a crowd near the right post.
In a sport with a history of unpredictable results, add another to the list.
“I don’t think there’s any game that can emulate all the things that can happen in a soccer game,” Adams said. “Football you can have funky things happen, but you can pinpoint them, like turnovers.
“In soccer, sometimes you can’t pinpoint them. It’s the great thing about the sport and the miserable thing about the sport. More than any sport, you can devise a plan where anybody can beat anybody.”
Kaneland couldn’t have planned on some of Saturday’s twists and turns, but now heads towards regionals on a major high point.
“We just had confidence coming into this game,” Jahns said. “We’re a very talkative team, we usually don’t just play.
“We can be hot-headed. But we stayed calm and decided to just play soccer for once.”
Saturday’s score aside, Adams has been impressed by the effort and improvement of several Redhawks.
“In the midfield Nico (Couropmitree) has done a really good job not only looking to distribute but just his work rate,” Adams said. “He played varsity since he was a freshman, and now he’s always at the top of the charts in distance covered, acceleration, all the different things we look at.
“And Benny Tietjen in the back, for a sophomore (first-year varsity player) that hasn’t played in the back much to make that adjustment. He’s really come a long way in two months.”
More than dwell on missed opportunities Saturday, Adams praised Kaneland and emphasized where his team can improve.
“We’ve had success, and it comes because we outwork the other team,” Adams said. “To be honest that wasn’t the case today.
“They (Kaneland) did a great job of winning balls in the air, winning 50-50s, and when you don’t have the ability to score multiple goals all the time, you have to outwork the other team.
“At the end of the day you have to get the job done. And we didn’t. (Kaneland) played very hard and got after it – credit to them for that.”
With higher stakes games to come, the Redhawks know the task at hand.
“In playoffs, if this happens we’re out,” Bhargava said. “I think we’re good, but I don’t think we’ve achieved our potential yet, which is a little disappointing.
“But if we just keep working hard, I think we have a legitimate shot to make a run in playoffs. It’s just not letting this get to us.”
Starting lineups
Kaneland
GK Maison Kerl
D Gavin Cano
D Braden Nigg
D Erick Barragan
D Tyler Chapman
M Connor Bottorff
M Garret Robinson
M Lucas Bass
M Evan Smith
F Tucker Jahns
F Allen Dominguez
Naperville Central
GK Ethan Gentile
D Mitch Becker
D Seth Lendzion
D Matteo Lopez
D Ben Tietjen
M Owen Jarrell
M Rohan Bhargava
M James Kim
M Nico Couropmitree
F Dylan Kahn
F Roman Krupka
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Tucker Jahns, sr. F, Kaneland
Scoring summary
First half
K- Tucker Jahns, 11’
Second half
No scoring