Naperville North tops Plainfield North
in Best of the West heavyweight final
Huskies take 7th title in a row on 3-2 decision
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North rarely has been an underdog during the last decade.
Performances like the ones the Huskies turned in Saturday night in the Best of the West Tournament final are the reason why.
Senior forward Aidan McMahon tallied two goals, including the game-winner, and assisted on a third and senior goalkeeper Reed Goss made a string of spectacular saves to lead Naperville North to a thrilling 3-2 victory over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Plainfield North at Memorial Stadium.
It was the seventh-consecutive Best of the West championship for the Huskies, who are ranked 14th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. Plainfield North, No. 1 team in the rankings, was making its first appearance in the final.
“It was a fantastic game,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “Everybody was battling.
“You could tell so many of the kids were fighting through injuries and cramping and exhaustion after playing this morning. They had a tough game against (Naperville) Central, and we had a tough game against Benet.
“The game meant so much to the boys, because they’re all friends. Obviously, there are high stakes about winning a tournament, but really, you’re playing against your friends, which makes it all the more important.”
Adding another layer of intrigue and purpose to the match was the fact that 12 players – seven Tigers and five Huskies – were teammates on the Galaxy club team that finished second at the 17U USYS National Championships in July.
They included all six of Plainfield North’s attacking players, chief among them star striker Cooper Allen, as well as McMahon and Goss.
Allen, who scored both goals for the Tigers (5-1) and now has 12 in six games this season, and Goss figured prominently in the result and were the main protagonists in the game’s turning point.
It came when Allen, who had given the Tigers a 1-0 lead nine minutes earlier, was knocked to the ground in the box at the 18:51 mark of the first half.
Allen immediately went to the spot to take the ensuing penalty kick, while Goss stood tall between the pipes, waving his arms to make his 6-foot-2 frame appear larger.
Both players tried to outsmart the other.
“I was looking at his body shape, and I saw that he kind of opened up his hips, so I dove to where I went,” Goss said. “And even after knowing where he goes and how he attacks, you can’t stop him because he’s just so agile.”
Except this time Goss did. He lunged as far as he could to his right to stop Allen’s drive that was ticketed for just inside the left post.
“He knows where I want to put it, so it was tougher,” Allen said. “I tried to switch it up on him.
“I usually go to the right, but I’m like, ‘He knows where I’m going to try to go, so I’m going to try to put it to the other side.’ But he guessed right.”
There was still more than an hour to go at that point, but Goss’ stop was pivotal. The Tigers were dominating up until that point, but the missed opportunity to take a two-goal lead proved to be a bad omen for them, and the Huskies then turned the game into a free-for-all.
“It definitely did set a tone because at that point, it showed that we belong here and that if we fight, we can win this game,” Goss said. “And look what happened.
“We battled. They were the better team on paper, but they can’t outwork us. We proved that just play after play after play, and we got what we came here for.”
Oh, but it took a tremendous amount of work for the Huskies (5-2-0) to maintain their tournament hegemony. The match became a battle of back-and-forth counterpunches, one that Plainfield North coach Lukasz Majewski thought didn’t play to his team’s strengths.
“I definitely thought that we didn’t play our game as much as we would like,” Majewski said. “We like to possess more and attack through the middle. Today in the morning it was a completely different team out here.
“We try to move, try to find the isolations with Cooper and Paul (McCormick) and Timi (Usikalu). We have all the faith in them that they’ll be able to hold up the ball and take the defender on and do all that stuff.
“It became a little more of a kick ball game than I would like, but that’s OK. I wish the outcome was the other way around, but we have time to clean it up. It’s only the first two weeks.”
This game had enough highlights to last nearly an entire season, not merely two weeks.
Allen, McCormick and Usikalu created all sorts of havoc for Naperville North’s defense, but McMahon, Alex Barger and Jaxon Stokes did the same to Plainfield North’s backline.
The Indiana-bound Barger was at his dangerously creative best, a wizard with the ball at his feet and a visionary when looking for open teammates.
He got things started for the Huskies when he was dumped in the box with 5:16 to go in the first half. McMahon drilled the penalty kick past Plainfield North goalkeeper Peyton Meyers to tie the game.
Both goalies were terrific. Meyers made six saves, including a leaping effort to tip a Barger header into the crossbar at the 3:55 mark of the first half and a nice lunge to his left to parry a McMahon drive from the left wing around the left post with 1:40 left before intermission.
Meyers came up with big saves on McMahon and Ryan Konrad in the second half to keep the score level, but just as everyone was contemplating a possible overtime scenario, the floodgates opened.
McMahon drove the left wing into the box and centered the ball across the top of the box to Barger, who rolled a one-timer inside the right post from 15 yards to give the Huskies their first lead, 2-1, with 14:09 remaining in regulation.
At the other end, Goss had been busy, too, rejecting three quality chances by Allen and stopping a 30-yard liner from Jose Luis Rodrigues. He also got a bit lucky when a drive from Paul McCormick deflected off a defender, catching him out of position.
But the ball hit the crossbar and Goss, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, turned around and pounced on it.
“Obviously, saving the PK was huge and he made three really good saves in the second half and controlled a bunch of others,” Jim Konrad said. “But three spectacular saves, for sure.”
But Allen wasn’t done with Goss and the Huskies. He broke through with 8:27 to go, taking a long pass into the box and making a defender look silly before beating Goss with a 15-yard rocket to tie the game at 2-2.
“Cooper is such a special talent,” Jim Konrad said. “He’s one of the few kids that I’ve seen the last decade that single-handedly can change a game. He just gets it and goes.
“Obviously, I’ve had some special kids along the way, and Alex is one of those guys. But Cooper is one of those upper-echelon kids where every time he gets the ball, you hold your breath.”
The Plainfield North fans weren’t finished cheering when McMahon gave the Huskies’ fans something to scream about.
Just 21 seconds later, Stokes sprinted to the right endline and sent a brilliant cross rocketing through the crease. McMahon got to it a split second before a defender did and volleyed it home for the eventual game-winner.
“They score a goal, but our heads don’t go down,” McMahon said. “We keep going after it and (assistant coach Steve) Goletz and Konrad keep telling us to pound the ball forward.
“We just kept getting the balls in the wings and tried to go 1-v-1 at the defenders, which helped right after they scored.”
After that it was just a matter of protecting the lead for eight minutes. No big deal, right?
Wrong. The Tigers threw everything they could at Naperville North’s defense, which bent again but didn’t break.
Goss came up with one more huge save, this time on a 28-yard free kick from Williams with just over a minute to go.
Williams launched a terrific inswinger from the left wing that dipped just before it got to the crossbar. Goss somehow managed to punch it over the crossbar while being knocked into the net by a Plainfield North player. It was the seventh and final save of the game for Goss.
“I did get knocked into the goal, but I had my eyes on it and not the person, so I didn’t change anything up, and I got lucky,” Goss said. “I grew a little bit (lately), so that definitely made it a little bit easier.”
It’s never easy to play against friends and that was the case for the Tigers and Huskies, who have rarely met on the pitch. The only time they played recently was in the 2021 sectional semifinals, which the Huskies won.
“It was a little bittersweet,” McMahon said. “We’re friendly, but it’s always tough playing your teammates, because you know what they do, and they know what you do.
“You’ve got to be creative and do something different, but it was just a great game. They’re a great team, I think ranked first in the state right now.”
Even in defeat, Allen relished the competition.
“It was unbelievable to play,” Allen said. “I love these types of situations.
“Everybody knows everybody, so you’ve just got to outwork them – that’s the only way to win. It was just they put more in the back of the net than we did.”
While reaching the tournament final for the first time – which the Tigers did with an impressive 5-2 win over host and fifth=ranked Naperville Central – was a good stepping stone, the loss still stung a bit for Allen and his teammates. But he saw a silver lining.
“We needed to be humbled a little bit, because we knew we were mowing through teams,” Allen said. “So, we’re going to get back to practice and work on the stuff that we need to work on, and we’re going to bounce back.
“I know the potential that we have as a team, but it’s nice that we can develop and grow off that loss.”
Majewski tried to take it in stride.
“There’s not too many teams that go undefeated,” Majewski said. “Sometimes you need a little wakeup call.
“We kind of expected this – a heavyweight fight. Punch and counterpunch. It started out well, could have ended better.”
But it was 80 minutes of fun for the players and spectators.
“It was back-and-forth,” Majewski said. “The keepers made some fantastic saves both ways.
“They capitalized on some of their chances, and we kind of left a couple out there.”
Indeed, it was hard to keep track of all the big plays.
“Reed saving that PK early kept us in the game,” Jim Konrad said. “Aidan stepping up and taking the PK.
“We got our feet under us about 20 minutes into the game. They really took it to us and then the game kind of evened out.
“Both teams had plenty of chances. The game could have been 7-6 either way.”
The fun could be just beginning. Many expect another meeting in the playoffs, perhaps a sectional final.
“It feels good to win but we’re just starting to get going,” Jim Konrad said. “We’ve got a lot of things to improve on, but obviously I’m proud of us.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
GK: Peyton Meyers
D: Ryan Bechtel
D: Aidan Smith
D: Ryan Mauder
D: Mathew Hipolito
M: Brady Harwood
M: Justin Williams
M: Sean Elster
F: Timi Usikalu
F: Daniel Martinez
F: Cooper Allen
Naperville North
GK: Reed Goss
D: Alex Arredondo
D: Adam Zielke
M: Noah Radeke
M: Sam Hess
M: Owen Gaccione
M: Alex Barger
M: Caden Hill
F: Aidan McMahon
F: Hindo Allie
F: Jaxon Stokes
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Reed Goss, sr., GK, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
First half
Plainfield North – Cooper Allen 27:16 remaining
Naperville North – Aidan McMahon (PK) 5:16 remaining
Second half
Naperville North – Alex Barger (McMahon) 14:09 remaining
Plainfield North – Allen 8:27 remaining
Naperville North – McMahon (Jaxon Stokes) 8:06 remaining
in Best of the West heavyweight final
Huskies take 7th title in a row on 3-2 decision
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North rarely has been an underdog during the last decade.
Performances like the ones the Huskies turned in Saturday night in the Best of the West Tournament final are the reason why.
Senior forward Aidan McMahon tallied two goals, including the game-winner, and assisted on a third and senior goalkeeper Reed Goss made a string of spectacular saves to lead Naperville North to a thrilling 3-2 victory over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Plainfield North at Memorial Stadium.
It was the seventh-consecutive Best of the West championship for the Huskies, who are ranked 14th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. Plainfield North, No. 1 team in the rankings, was making its first appearance in the final.
“It was a fantastic game,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “Everybody was battling.
“You could tell so many of the kids were fighting through injuries and cramping and exhaustion after playing this morning. They had a tough game against (Naperville) Central, and we had a tough game against Benet.
“The game meant so much to the boys, because they’re all friends. Obviously, there are high stakes about winning a tournament, but really, you’re playing against your friends, which makes it all the more important.”
Adding another layer of intrigue and purpose to the match was the fact that 12 players – seven Tigers and five Huskies – were teammates on the Galaxy club team that finished second at the 17U USYS National Championships in July.
They included all six of Plainfield North’s attacking players, chief among them star striker Cooper Allen, as well as McMahon and Goss.
Allen, who scored both goals for the Tigers (5-1) and now has 12 in six games this season, and Goss figured prominently in the result and were the main protagonists in the game’s turning point.
It came when Allen, who had given the Tigers a 1-0 lead nine minutes earlier, was knocked to the ground in the box at the 18:51 mark of the first half.
Allen immediately went to the spot to take the ensuing penalty kick, while Goss stood tall between the pipes, waving his arms to make his 6-foot-2 frame appear larger.
Both players tried to outsmart the other.
“I was looking at his body shape, and I saw that he kind of opened up his hips, so I dove to where I went,” Goss said. “And even after knowing where he goes and how he attacks, you can’t stop him because he’s just so agile.”
Except this time Goss did. He lunged as far as he could to his right to stop Allen’s drive that was ticketed for just inside the left post.
“He knows where I want to put it, so it was tougher,” Allen said. “I tried to switch it up on him.
“I usually go to the right, but I’m like, ‘He knows where I’m going to try to go, so I’m going to try to put it to the other side.’ But he guessed right.”
There was still more than an hour to go at that point, but Goss’ stop was pivotal. The Tigers were dominating up until that point, but the missed opportunity to take a two-goal lead proved to be a bad omen for them, and the Huskies then turned the game into a free-for-all.
“It definitely did set a tone because at that point, it showed that we belong here and that if we fight, we can win this game,” Goss said. “And look what happened.
“We battled. They were the better team on paper, but they can’t outwork us. We proved that just play after play after play, and we got what we came here for.”
Oh, but it took a tremendous amount of work for the Huskies (5-2-0) to maintain their tournament hegemony. The match became a battle of back-and-forth counterpunches, one that Plainfield North coach Lukasz Majewski thought didn’t play to his team’s strengths.
“I definitely thought that we didn’t play our game as much as we would like,” Majewski said. “We like to possess more and attack through the middle. Today in the morning it was a completely different team out here.
“We try to move, try to find the isolations with Cooper and Paul (McCormick) and Timi (Usikalu). We have all the faith in them that they’ll be able to hold up the ball and take the defender on and do all that stuff.
“It became a little more of a kick ball game than I would like, but that’s OK. I wish the outcome was the other way around, but we have time to clean it up. It’s only the first two weeks.”
This game had enough highlights to last nearly an entire season, not merely two weeks.
Allen, McCormick and Usikalu created all sorts of havoc for Naperville North’s defense, but McMahon, Alex Barger and Jaxon Stokes did the same to Plainfield North’s backline.
The Indiana-bound Barger was at his dangerously creative best, a wizard with the ball at his feet and a visionary when looking for open teammates.
He got things started for the Huskies when he was dumped in the box with 5:16 to go in the first half. McMahon drilled the penalty kick past Plainfield North goalkeeper Peyton Meyers to tie the game.
Both goalies were terrific. Meyers made six saves, including a leaping effort to tip a Barger header into the crossbar at the 3:55 mark of the first half and a nice lunge to his left to parry a McMahon drive from the left wing around the left post with 1:40 left before intermission.
Meyers came up with big saves on McMahon and Ryan Konrad in the second half to keep the score level, but just as everyone was contemplating a possible overtime scenario, the floodgates opened.
McMahon drove the left wing into the box and centered the ball across the top of the box to Barger, who rolled a one-timer inside the right post from 15 yards to give the Huskies their first lead, 2-1, with 14:09 remaining in regulation.
At the other end, Goss had been busy, too, rejecting three quality chances by Allen and stopping a 30-yard liner from Jose Luis Rodrigues. He also got a bit lucky when a drive from Paul McCormick deflected off a defender, catching him out of position.
But the ball hit the crossbar and Goss, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, turned around and pounced on it.
“Obviously, saving the PK was huge and he made three really good saves in the second half and controlled a bunch of others,” Jim Konrad said. “But three spectacular saves, for sure.”
But Allen wasn’t done with Goss and the Huskies. He broke through with 8:27 to go, taking a long pass into the box and making a defender look silly before beating Goss with a 15-yard rocket to tie the game at 2-2.
“Cooper is such a special talent,” Jim Konrad said. “He’s one of the few kids that I’ve seen the last decade that single-handedly can change a game. He just gets it and goes.
“Obviously, I’ve had some special kids along the way, and Alex is one of those guys. But Cooper is one of those upper-echelon kids where every time he gets the ball, you hold your breath.”
The Plainfield North fans weren’t finished cheering when McMahon gave the Huskies’ fans something to scream about.
Just 21 seconds later, Stokes sprinted to the right endline and sent a brilliant cross rocketing through the crease. McMahon got to it a split second before a defender did and volleyed it home for the eventual game-winner.
“They score a goal, but our heads don’t go down,” McMahon said. “We keep going after it and (assistant coach Steve) Goletz and Konrad keep telling us to pound the ball forward.
“We just kept getting the balls in the wings and tried to go 1-v-1 at the defenders, which helped right after they scored.”
After that it was just a matter of protecting the lead for eight minutes. No big deal, right?
Wrong. The Tigers threw everything they could at Naperville North’s defense, which bent again but didn’t break.
Goss came up with one more huge save, this time on a 28-yard free kick from Williams with just over a minute to go.
Williams launched a terrific inswinger from the left wing that dipped just before it got to the crossbar. Goss somehow managed to punch it over the crossbar while being knocked into the net by a Plainfield North player. It was the seventh and final save of the game for Goss.
“I did get knocked into the goal, but I had my eyes on it and not the person, so I didn’t change anything up, and I got lucky,” Goss said. “I grew a little bit (lately), so that definitely made it a little bit easier.”
It’s never easy to play against friends and that was the case for the Tigers and Huskies, who have rarely met on the pitch. The only time they played recently was in the 2021 sectional semifinals, which the Huskies won.
“It was a little bittersweet,” McMahon said. “We’re friendly, but it’s always tough playing your teammates, because you know what they do, and they know what you do.
“You’ve got to be creative and do something different, but it was just a great game. They’re a great team, I think ranked first in the state right now.”
Even in defeat, Allen relished the competition.
“It was unbelievable to play,” Allen said. “I love these types of situations.
“Everybody knows everybody, so you’ve just got to outwork them – that’s the only way to win. It was just they put more in the back of the net than we did.”
While reaching the tournament final for the first time – which the Tigers did with an impressive 5-2 win over host and fifth=ranked Naperville Central – was a good stepping stone, the loss still stung a bit for Allen and his teammates. But he saw a silver lining.
“We needed to be humbled a little bit, because we knew we were mowing through teams,” Allen said. “So, we’re going to get back to practice and work on the stuff that we need to work on, and we’re going to bounce back.
“I know the potential that we have as a team, but it’s nice that we can develop and grow off that loss.”
Majewski tried to take it in stride.
“There’s not too many teams that go undefeated,” Majewski said. “Sometimes you need a little wakeup call.
“We kind of expected this – a heavyweight fight. Punch and counterpunch. It started out well, could have ended better.”
But it was 80 minutes of fun for the players and spectators.
“It was back-and-forth,” Majewski said. “The keepers made some fantastic saves both ways.
“They capitalized on some of their chances, and we kind of left a couple out there.”
Indeed, it was hard to keep track of all the big plays.
“Reed saving that PK early kept us in the game,” Jim Konrad said. “Aidan stepping up and taking the PK.
“We got our feet under us about 20 minutes into the game. They really took it to us and then the game kind of evened out.
“Both teams had plenty of chances. The game could have been 7-6 either way.”
The fun could be just beginning. Many expect another meeting in the playoffs, perhaps a sectional final.
“It feels good to win but we’re just starting to get going,” Jim Konrad said. “We’ve got a lot of things to improve on, but obviously I’m proud of us.”
Starting lineups
Plainfield North
GK: Peyton Meyers
D: Ryan Bechtel
D: Aidan Smith
D: Ryan Mauder
D: Mathew Hipolito
M: Brady Harwood
M: Justin Williams
M: Sean Elster
F: Timi Usikalu
F: Daniel Martinez
F: Cooper Allen
Naperville North
GK: Reed Goss
D: Alex Arredondo
D: Adam Zielke
M: Noah Radeke
M: Sam Hess
M: Owen Gaccione
M: Alex Barger
M: Caden Hill
F: Aidan McMahon
F: Hindo Allie
F: Jaxon Stokes
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Reed Goss, sr., GK, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
First half
Plainfield North – Cooper Allen 27:16 remaining
Naperville North – Aidan McMahon (PK) 5:16 remaining
Second half
Naperville North – Alex Barger (McMahon) 14:09 remaining
Plainfield North – Allen 8:27 remaining
Naperville North – McMahon (Jaxon Stokes) 8:06 remaining