Versatile Barger, Naperville North
right ship vs. Metea Valley
Huskies rebound after loss, clinch share of 8th-straight DVC title
By Dave Owen
NAPERVILLE -- Naperville North’s Alex Barger can do it all. And often when least expected.
After playing a mainly defensive role in the first half Tuesday against Metea Valley, Barger switched positions and struck for two goals from beyond the box in the first 17 minutes of the second half to seal the Huskies’ 4-2 win.
The Indiana commit then nearly capped his night with ultimate drama. With just five seconds left, he sent a low liner that clanged off the right post to narrowly miss a hat-trick.
“I can’t say enough about Alex,” said Huskies forward Keegan Flaherty, whose first half goal jumpstarted the squad’s offense. “He really just brings another level when he’s on the field. It’s so nice to have a teammate like that, who you love to play with and would hate to play against.”
Barger began the night showing his versatility, and ended it with a team-high seven goals this season and a big role in the Huskies (11-3-2, 4-0-0) clinching at least a share of their eighth-straight DuPage Valley Conference title.
“It was super exciting,” Barger said. “I’m playing in a fairly new position, the six role (defensive mid). I have a little more space to work with to distribute to my teammates and get some chances for myself.”
Barger’s increased defensive role was part of the soul searching of sorts that became necessary when the Huskies, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, fell 3-2 loss to honorable mention squad Plainfield Central at home on Saturday.
“Having those hiccups is good, because it forces you to adapt,” Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. “I sat on my patio Sunday and just rewrote lineups. What if I move guys around? We’ve changed formations twice this year already. I was just trying to figure out what would give us the best possible chance. In the biggest of games what will make us most effective?
“I think the way the boys played today made the changes look good.”
Another change of sorts Tuesday came from off the field, where the Naperville North marching band, cheerleaders and dance team were all part of the evening’s festivities.
But Metea Valley (7-5-1, 2-2-0 in the DVC), which ranks high on Chicagoland Soccer’s honorable mention list, proved to be party crashers for long stretches of Tuesday’s match, including early on.
After enduring two quality Huskies threats in the first 6:30 of play (including a Cam Radeke end line run and cross covered in the crease by diving Metea goalkeeper Oscar Mejia), the Mustangs answered in the next seven minutes with shots just wide by Bartosz Chmielewski and Colin Bastianoni.
Then 25:40 before halftime, Bastianoni dribbled in left and centered a pass to Riley McCann, whose low 18-yard liner one-hopped inside the left post for a 1-0 Metea lead.
“I was just open in the midfield,” McCann said. “Colin found me, and I hit it well.
“But when we go up, a lot of times we lose our lead because we don’t stay focused.”
Any dip in intensity against the likes of Naperville North often becomes a valley. And the rest of Tuesday’s first half was no exception.
“We knew coming in they (Metea) were able to score goals,” Konrad said, “and (Mustangs coach) Josh (Robinson) is one of the guys I really respect. They play a good style of soccer.
“It’s frustrating, because we had a couple of chances early and left them on the field. Then their kid hits a great shot on us, and they score. But we just kept coming.”
Naperville North generated a pair of corner kicks in the two minutes after McCann’s goal, the first was cleared by Metea Valley’s Julian Ordaz and the latter produced a Tyson Amoo-Mensah shot just wide of frame.
The next shot would be pinpoint.
With 22:46 until halftime, Flaherty won a ball on the right side just beyond the box and rocketed a low 25-yarder inside the right post to tie the game 1-1.
“I got the ball, was able to turn and then I just cut it on my left and hit it near post,” Flaherty said of his second goal of the fall of 2021.
With the perfect strike, the Huskies took less than three minutes to erase the 1-0 deficit – and never trailed again.
“It’s something we talked about before the game,” Flaherty said. “We’ve sort of felt throughout the year so far we haven’t done a great job of responding to adversity. One of the goals was, if we get scored on or it’s tied, keep your cool and respond to it. And that’s exactly what we did.”
The Huskies kept turning up the heat, producing a corner kick in the 31st minute and a Barger 30-yard free kick just over the net in the 36th minute.
Then just 2:09 before halftime, a Naperville North set piece would break the tie.
Jacob Ryu’s send from the right corner found Bryan Higgs in front. He nicely got a foot on the ball in midair and redirected it into the net for a 2-1 Huskies lead.
“That corner -- we gave them too many,” Robinson said. “And they’re so good and so clinical on set pieces.”
Said Konrad: “We were able to get the lead on the corner kick, and we haven’t been as good as we usually are on restarts this year. That was a nice goal by Bryan.
“It was good to get that one. Then in the second half I thought we came out and did a really good job of keeping the pressure going, managing the game.”
With Barger back in a more customary attacking role, the Huskies had almost constant possession in their offensive third for the first seven minutes of the second half.
That perseverance paid off when Barger lined a left side 22-yard shot into the upper right corner for a 3-1 lead.
After Ryan Konrad blocked a shot in the box by Metea Valley’s Ethan Danehl minutes later that denied any potential momentum swing, Barger essentially sealed the match with another goal from distance. This hit came from 25 yards to up the score to 4-1 Huskies.
“One (goal) I took down the left side and cut it onto my right, then just curled it past the keeper,” Barger said. “The second one was a shot outside the box that I put in the bottom corner.
“In quarantine (the summer and fall of 2020) I spent a lot of time on the ball. Obviously with time off away from the field and all my teammates I spent a lot of time by myself trying to get my finishing down.”
From strong 1-v-1 defensive plays in the first half to a near second half hat-trick, Barger flashed the variety of skills that have earned a Big Ten college future.
“We’ve been moving him around quite a bit,” Konrad said. “He plays up-top. We played him in the midfield some, the back some.
“Indiana recruited him to be a left back. But here he’s been able to play all over the field for us, depending on who we’re playing and what we need from that game.
“Defensively he was great in the first half. Then in the second half the ball found him, and he’s able to hit such a good ball. If you leave him free, he’s going to be dangerous. And he almost got a third (goal) off the post.”
To Metea Valley’s great credit, the Mustangs refused to let Barger’s second half show bury them.
Senior defender Joseph Fitzgerald’s nice 1-v-1 defense in the box on a Christian Kuncl attack with 20:25 to play was one spark. Then just over a minute later, forward Erick Mena nicely intercepted a botched clearing attempt and lofted a 28-yarder just under the crossbar to bring the Mustangs within 4-2.
“We have a good work ethic,” McCann said. “We fight even when we’re out of the game. It shows that we can come back in tough games even when we’re losing.”
His team’s battling attitude wasn’t lost on Robinson.
“I loved that we won the last 15 (minutes),” he said. “We played the way we wanted when we played the last 15. We just have to get a little bit of a gut check as far as our, like, fear of playing against good teams.
“It’s like we’re not worthy enough. And then at the end when we started to knock the ball around, I loved it. We’re going to take that and use that as our next step.
“But we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We’re a good team. We can’t let other good teams dictate what we do.”
Konrad noted that both second half goals came with Metea Valley’s standout Bastianoni out with injury.
“Him being banged up and not playing as much definitely helped us,” he said. “When he came back in the game it shifted a little bit. If he’s in the whole time, maybe it’s a different game. But fortunately, we found a way to win, and we have at least a share of the conference championship now.”
The Huskies threatened in the final two minutes with Owen Gaccione and Eion Galpin threats on scrambles in the box and Barger’s shot off the post. But before that, the Mustangs had a solid 17-minute stretch that also included a Mena 18-yard shot just wide with 11:50 left.
Despite his goal and the strong finish, Mena left with a bitter taste.
“I don’t think it ended up well in my thoughts,” Mena said, “because to be honest, we had them. This was our game to win. We gave them too much respect. We should have been hungrier.
“We honestly lost our focus sometimes. We would come into the game, get out and then come back in. It was just chaotic to be honest.”
A high-caliber opponent with elite players can create such chaos.
“Alex is great, and Cam (Radeke) is great,” Robinson said. “He’s my favorite player on that team, the way he plays the game and the way he controls it. While other guys are getting the accolades, he’s just doing the work.”
Radeke’s efforts hardly went unnoticed by his coach either.
“Cam Radeke has been so key for us this year,” Konrad said. “He’s committed to Wright State and he’s fantastic. And Jake Ryu got an assist tonight, and he was really good, grinding, doing what we asked and making things simple.
“We’re so athletic in the midfield with he and Tyson. All the time they just lock it down and do a good job. We still have to clean some things up defensively. We gave up a bad goal tonight, but that happens.”
To McCann, MeteaValley’s misfortunes over the late first and early second half came down to one big factor.
“We didn’t work back for the ball enough, he said, “and they (the Huskies) just controlled the whole midfield. That’s how they won.”
Patrick Horn and Reed Goss shared time at goalkeeper for Naperville North, with Goss playing the last 58 minutes.
While the Huskies travel to Iowa for a tournament that includes nationally ranked competition this weekend, Metea Valley faces its own challenge Saturday at Oswego East (12-1-1).
“In my opinion I want to push my teammates more,” Mena said. “I want us to lose that fear of giving teams too much respect, and play hungrier.”
Robinson heads into October very confident.
“We have phenomenal players,” he said. “They’re great kids, and they work so hard. We love this team. It’s been one of the most fun teams we’ve been able to coach.
“We just want them to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them. That’s it right now. It’s a tough thing to do. But we can’t let the aura (of Naperville North) beat us, because they’re going to be good enough as it is.
“But we’re OK,” Robinson added. “When we decided to play our way, we got better as the game went on.”
The Huskies’ “aura” can both intimidate and motivate opponents.
“We get everybody’s best shot,” Konrad said. “Coaches tell me ‘The locker room was electric today. Gguys are so excited to play you.’
“But we’re just another high school like everybody else. We’re not as big as some schools. But we have a great history here going back to the early 1980s. Hopefully the boys keep finding a way to make it happen.”
Coming off the downer of Saturday’s loss, Naperville North now has a share of the conference title locked up. And other big goals lie ahead.
“Saturday was a real tough day for us to be honest,” Flaherty said. “Coming in today, it’s obviously one of our biggest goals to win DVC.
“This was a huge game to bounce back for us, and now we go off to Iowa this weekend. It’s sort of an upwards trajectory hopefully.”
Said Barger: “In the end we’re just working our tails off to get the result we need, and it worked in our favor today.
“Whether it’s DVC or any other game, we want to play our best and put on a show. Saturday obviously wasn’t the best for us, but I’m glad we responded today.”
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Oscar Mejia
D Aiden Pufundt
D Julian Ordaz
D Joseph Fitzgerald
D Luka Strepacki
M Bartosz Chmielewski
M Riley McCann
M Ethan Danehl
M Henry Moreno
F Erick Mena
F Colin Bastianoni
Naperville North
GK Patrick Horn
D Cole Ritzmann
D Adam Zielke
D Ryan Konrad
D Alex Arredondo
M Alex Barger
M Tyson Amoo-Mensah
M Bryan Higg
M Jacob Ryu
F Cam Radeke
F Keegan Flaherty
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alex Barger, jr. MF, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
MV- Riley McCann (Colin Bastianoni), 15’
NN- Keegan Flaherty, 18’
NN- Bryan Higgs (Jacob Ryu), 38’
Second half
NN- Alex Barger, 47’
NN- Alex Barger, 57’
MV- Erick Mena, 61’
right ship vs. Metea Valley
Huskies rebound after loss, clinch share of 8th-straight DVC title
By Dave Owen
NAPERVILLE -- Naperville North’s Alex Barger can do it all. And often when least expected.
After playing a mainly defensive role in the first half Tuesday against Metea Valley, Barger switched positions and struck for two goals from beyond the box in the first 17 minutes of the second half to seal the Huskies’ 4-2 win.
The Indiana commit then nearly capped his night with ultimate drama. With just five seconds left, he sent a low liner that clanged off the right post to narrowly miss a hat-trick.
“I can’t say enough about Alex,” said Huskies forward Keegan Flaherty, whose first half goal jumpstarted the squad’s offense. “He really just brings another level when he’s on the field. It’s so nice to have a teammate like that, who you love to play with and would hate to play against.”
Barger began the night showing his versatility, and ended it with a team-high seven goals this season and a big role in the Huskies (11-3-2, 4-0-0) clinching at least a share of their eighth-straight DuPage Valley Conference title.
“It was super exciting,” Barger said. “I’m playing in a fairly new position, the six role (defensive mid). I have a little more space to work with to distribute to my teammates and get some chances for myself.”
Barger’s increased defensive role was part of the soul searching of sorts that became necessary when the Huskies, ranked sixth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, fell 3-2 loss to honorable mention squad Plainfield Central at home on Saturday.
“Having those hiccups is good, because it forces you to adapt,” Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. “I sat on my patio Sunday and just rewrote lineups. What if I move guys around? We’ve changed formations twice this year already. I was just trying to figure out what would give us the best possible chance. In the biggest of games what will make us most effective?
“I think the way the boys played today made the changes look good.”
Another change of sorts Tuesday came from off the field, where the Naperville North marching band, cheerleaders and dance team were all part of the evening’s festivities.
But Metea Valley (7-5-1, 2-2-0 in the DVC), which ranks high on Chicagoland Soccer’s honorable mention list, proved to be party crashers for long stretches of Tuesday’s match, including early on.
After enduring two quality Huskies threats in the first 6:30 of play (including a Cam Radeke end line run and cross covered in the crease by diving Metea goalkeeper Oscar Mejia), the Mustangs answered in the next seven minutes with shots just wide by Bartosz Chmielewski and Colin Bastianoni.
Then 25:40 before halftime, Bastianoni dribbled in left and centered a pass to Riley McCann, whose low 18-yard liner one-hopped inside the left post for a 1-0 Metea lead.
“I was just open in the midfield,” McCann said. “Colin found me, and I hit it well.
“But when we go up, a lot of times we lose our lead because we don’t stay focused.”
Any dip in intensity against the likes of Naperville North often becomes a valley. And the rest of Tuesday’s first half was no exception.
“We knew coming in they (Metea) were able to score goals,” Konrad said, “and (Mustangs coach) Josh (Robinson) is one of the guys I really respect. They play a good style of soccer.
“It’s frustrating, because we had a couple of chances early and left them on the field. Then their kid hits a great shot on us, and they score. But we just kept coming.”
Naperville North generated a pair of corner kicks in the two minutes after McCann’s goal, the first was cleared by Metea Valley’s Julian Ordaz and the latter produced a Tyson Amoo-Mensah shot just wide of frame.
The next shot would be pinpoint.
With 22:46 until halftime, Flaherty won a ball on the right side just beyond the box and rocketed a low 25-yarder inside the right post to tie the game 1-1.
“I got the ball, was able to turn and then I just cut it on my left and hit it near post,” Flaherty said of his second goal of the fall of 2021.
With the perfect strike, the Huskies took less than three minutes to erase the 1-0 deficit – and never trailed again.
“It’s something we talked about before the game,” Flaherty said. “We’ve sort of felt throughout the year so far we haven’t done a great job of responding to adversity. One of the goals was, if we get scored on or it’s tied, keep your cool and respond to it. And that’s exactly what we did.”
The Huskies kept turning up the heat, producing a corner kick in the 31st minute and a Barger 30-yard free kick just over the net in the 36th minute.
Then just 2:09 before halftime, a Naperville North set piece would break the tie.
Jacob Ryu’s send from the right corner found Bryan Higgs in front. He nicely got a foot on the ball in midair and redirected it into the net for a 2-1 Huskies lead.
“That corner -- we gave them too many,” Robinson said. “And they’re so good and so clinical on set pieces.”
Said Konrad: “We were able to get the lead on the corner kick, and we haven’t been as good as we usually are on restarts this year. That was a nice goal by Bryan.
“It was good to get that one. Then in the second half I thought we came out and did a really good job of keeping the pressure going, managing the game.”
With Barger back in a more customary attacking role, the Huskies had almost constant possession in their offensive third for the first seven minutes of the second half.
That perseverance paid off when Barger lined a left side 22-yard shot into the upper right corner for a 3-1 lead.
After Ryan Konrad blocked a shot in the box by Metea Valley’s Ethan Danehl minutes later that denied any potential momentum swing, Barger essentially sealed the match with another goal from distance. This hit came from 25 yards to up the score to 4-1 Huskies.
“One (goal) I took down the left side and cut it onto my right, then just curled it past the keeper,” Barger said. “The second one was a shot outside the box that I put in the bottom corner.
“In quarantine (the summer and fall of 2020) I spent a lot of time on the ball. Obviously with time off away from the field and all my teammates I spent a lot of time by myself trying to get my finishing down.”
From strong 1-v-1 defensive plays in the first half to a near second half hat-trick, Barger flashed the variety of skills that have earned a Big Ten college future.
“We’ve been moving him around quite a bit,” Konrad said. “He plays up-top. We played him in the midfield some, the back some.
“Indiana recruited him to be a left back. But here he’s been able to play all over the field for us, depending on who we’re playing and what we need from that game.
“Defensively he was great in the first half. Then in the second half the ball found him, and he’s able to hit such a good ball. If you leave him free, he’s going to be dangerous. And he almost got a third (goal) off the post.”
To Metea Valley’s great credit, the Mustangs refused to let Barger’s second half show bury them.
Senior defender Joseph Fitzgerald’s nice 1-v-1 defense in the box on a Christian Kuncl attack with 20:25 to play was one spark. Then just over a minute later, forward Erick Mena nicely intercepted a botched clearing attempt and lofted a 28-yarder just under the crossbar to bring the Mustangs within 4-2.
“We have a good work ethic,” McCann said. “We fight even when we’re out of the game. It shows that we can come back in tough games even when we’re losing.”
His team’s battling attitude wasn’t lost on Robinson.
“I loved that we won the last 15 (minutes),” he said. “We played the way we wanted when we played the last 15. We just have to get a little bit of a gut check as far as our, like, fear of playing against good teams.
“It’s like we’re not worthy enough. And then at the end when we started to knock the ball around, I loved it. We’re going to take that and use that as our next step.
“But we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We’re a good team. We can’t let other good teams dictate what we do.”
Konrad noted that both second half goals came with Metea Valley’s standout Bastianoni out with injury.
“Him being banged up and not playing as much definitely helped us,” he said. “When he came back in the game it shifted a little bit. If he’s in the whole time, maybe it’s a different game. But fortunately, we found a way to win, and we have at least a share of the conference championship now.”
The Huskies threatened in the final two minutes with Owen Gaccione and Eion Galpin threats on scrambles in the box and Barger’s shot off the post. But before that, the Mustangs had a solid 17-minute stretch that also included a Mena 18-yard shot just wide with 11:50 left.
Despite his goal and the strong finish, Mena left with a bitter taste.
“I don’t think it ended up well in my thoughts,” Mena said, “because to be honest, we had them. This was our game to win. We gave them too much respect. We should have been hungrier.
“We honestly lost our focus sometimes. We would come into the game, get out and then come back in. It was just chaotic to be honest.”
A high-caliber opponent with elite players can create such chaos.
“Alex is great, and Cam (Radeke) is great,” Robinson said. “He’s my favorite player on that team, the way he plays the game and the way he controls it. While other guys are getting the accolades, he’s just doing the work.”
Radeke’s efforts hardly went unnoticed by his coach either.
“Cam Radeke has been so key for us this year,” Konrad said. “He’s committed to Wright State and he’s fantastic. And Jake Ryu got an assist tonight, and he was really good, grinding, doing what we asked and making things simple.
“We’re so athletic in the midfield with he and Tyson. All the time they just lock it down and do a good job. We still have to clean some things up defensively. We gave up a bad goal tonight, but that happens.”
To McCann, MeteaValley’s misfortunes over the late first and early second half came down to one big factor.
“We didn’t work back for the ball enough, he said, “and they (the Huskies) just controlled the whole midfield. That’s how they won.”
Patrick Horn and Reed Goss shared time at goalkeeper for Naperville North, with Goss playing the last 58 minutes.
While the Huskies travel to Iowa for a tournament that includes nationally ranked competition this weekend, Metea Valley faces its own challenge Saturday at Oswego East (12-1-1).
“In my opinion I want to push my teammates more,” Mena said. “I want us to lose that fear of giving teams too much respect, and play hungrier.”
Robinson heads into October very confident.
“We have phenomenal players,” he said. “They’re great kids, and they work so hard. We love this team. It’s been one of the most fun teams we’ve been able to coach.
“We just want them to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them. That’s it right now. It’s a tough thing to do. But we can’t let the aura (of Naperville North) beat us, because they’re going to be good enough as it is.
“But we’re OK,” Robinson added. “When we decided to play our way, we got better as the game went on.”
The Huskies’ “aura” can both intimidate and motivate opponents.
“We get everybody’s best shot,” Konrad said. “Coaches tell me ‘The locker room was electric today. Gguys are so excited to play you.’
“But we’re just another high school like everybody else. We’re not as big as some schools. But we have a great history here going back to the early 1980s. Hopefully the boys keep finding a way to make it happen.”
Coming off the downer of Saturday’s loss, Naperville North now has a share of the conference title locked up. And other big goals lie ahead.
“Saturday was a real tough day for us to be honest,” Flaherty said. “Coming in today, it’s obviously one of our biggest goals to win DVC.
“This was a huge game to bounce back for us, and now we go off to Iowa this weekend. It’s sort of an upwards trajectory hopefully.”
Said Barger: “In the end we’re just working our tails off to get the result we need, and it worked in our favor today.
“Whether it’s DVC or any other game, we want to play our best and put on a show. Saturday obviously wasn’t the best for us, but I’m glad we responded today.”
Starting lineups
Metea Valley
GK Oscar Mejia
D Aiden Pufundt
D Julian Ordaz
D Joseph Fitzgerald
D Luka Strepacki
M Bartosz Chmielewski
M Riley McCann
M Ethan Danehl
M Henry Moreno
F Erick Mena
F Colin Bastianoni
Naperville North
GK Patrick Horn
D Cole Ritzmann
D Adam Zielke
D Ryan Konrad
D Alex Arredondo
M Alex Barger
M Tyson Amoo-Mensah
M Bryan Higg
M Jacob Ryu
F Cam Radeke
F Keegan Flaherty
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Alex Barger, jr. MF, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
MV- Riley McCann (Colin Bastianoni), 15’
NN- Keegan Flaherty, 18’
NN- Bryan Higgs (Jacob Ryu), 38’
Second half
NN- Alex Barger, 47’
NN- Alex Barger, 57’
MV- Erick Mena, 61’