Undermanned Benet rallies
for stunning tie with Naperville Central
Soph Kuelthau's 67th-minute goal pulls shorthanded host even
By Matt Le Cren
LISLE – Benet kept one streak alive and broke another in the most improbable way.
Despite playing without two starters and getting thoroughly dominated in the run of play, the Redwings twice rallied from a goal down and tied visiting Naperville Central 2-2 on Thursday.
Benet, which is ranked 19th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, was coming off a desultory 3-0 loss to St. Patrick on Saturday. The Redwings played without midfielders Danny Boyle and Peter Hepburn, and star midfielder Nico Picha was still running around on a sprained ankle.
So it wasn’t surprising that Benet coach Sean Wesley was grinning after getting a draw against no. 3 Naperville Central, which saw its seven-game win streak end.
“It was super,” Wesley said. “If you would have told me Nico would play injured and Peter and Danny wouldn’t be in the game and to go 2-2, it’s really good for us.
“It was Senior Night too and everybody got to play. That’s important.”
Picha scored the first goal for Benet and his great play led to the second, which was scored by sophomore reserve Jack Kuelthau.
The Redwings (10-3-1) have not lost back-to-back games since 2018.
“Nico turned it on today,” Wesley said. “He’s been trying to play through it, and today he obviously had a little extra motivation.”
The halftime festivities honoring Benet’s seniors lacked a little fizz considering the Redwings were completely outplayed in the first half and mustered only one shot. Even so, Naperville Central (16-3-1) led only 1-0 at the break. Nathan Kwon scored the only goal on a header off a Chase Adams corner kick three minutes in.
After being pushed back on their heels for the first 40 minutes, Benet’s defense got offensive when star center back Nick Roe raced up the field and worked a give-and-go with Picha to produce the tying goal.
Picha rewarded Roe’s long run with a touch pass toward the right wing, where Roe tracked it down and crossed to the top of the box. The Redhawks left Picha wide open, and he drilled the shot into the lower left corner with 36:37 remaining.
“I thought Roe going forward out of the back was just genius today,” Wesley said. “When was the last time you saw an attacking center back?
“It’s a 70-yard run that Roe makes that is so unselfish. And then Nico, being Nico, puts it right on him and then he keeps going and getting forward.
“I think that’s what we’ve been talking most the last couple weeks is being dangerous and getting into the box and when we have chances, taking chances. Nico obviously did great for us with that today.”
But Naperville Central regained the lead six minutes later. Joey LoDuca took a pass from Josh Weigel and calmly sent a left-footed shot from 25 yards skittering between the left post and the outstretched hand of diving Benet goalkeeper Evan Lucas.
It was one of the few offensive highlights for the Redhawks, who outshot the Redwings 19-5 but skied many open shots and saw another Kwon header strike the crossbar.
It left Naperville Central coach Troy Adams visibly frustrated.
“You can outplay anyone, but if you’re not disciplined and you don’t do the small things, you don’t win games,” Adams said. “That’s the end of the story.”
Adams had a laundry list of things he wasn’t pleased about.
“Deciding that we wanted to blast balls instead of finding the back of the net, deciding to hold the ball too long instead of finding an open teammate, not communicating who is marking who in the midfield and in the back, not putting a name on a pass,” Adams said. “We could go through the list forever, but it’s the small things that we don’t want to be disciplined enough on on a consistent basis. That’s probably a big piece of it.
“We’ll do it in spurts, but we will not do it on a consistent basis.”
The lack of consistency isn’t a new problem for the Redhawks.
“We’ve got to put 80 minutes in,” Adams said. “We can’t play 20 minutes brilliant; we’ve got to play 80 minutes all the way through.
“We’re not doing it right now. Even when we were in Iowa, as good as the results were (with a bracket championship), we didn’t put together 80 minutes.”
Benet, however, did manage to put together enough of an effort to find a final equalizer. It came from an unlikely source in Kuelthau, a defender who had scored only one previous varsity goal.
Once again it was Picha who caused trouble for the Naperville Central defense. He beat a defender into the right side of the box and ripped a shot toward the far post.
Redhawks goalkeeper Dylan Scott leaped and punched the ball up in the air, but nobody got a body on Kuelthau, who got under the ball and headed it under the crossbar with 13:35 remaining.
“I just saw Nico cutting across the box,” Kuelthau said. “He shot it, and the goalie punched it up. I had to backpedal, and then I just headed it in.”
Kuelthau scored his first varsity goal earlier this season in a rout of Joliet Catholic, but he hasn’t seen many minutes at forward.
“Because we have so many injuries, we had to mix up the lineup,” Wesley said. “That was him at the nine for the first time this year.
“He played center back for us last game, and then he gets a goal against Naperville Central. So yeah, pretty good job.”
Kuelthau doesn’t mind playing different positions. He’s comfortable anywhere on the field.
“For my club, I play center back,” Kuelthau said. “But last year I played up-top (for Benet), so I’m kind of used to playing a lot of positions.
“We were down 2-1 most of the game, so we were really determined to score. Toward the end of the game, I could tell we were starting to put our head down a little bit, and then the second goal boosted us.
“This boosts our confidence, for sure, going into the weekend.”
The Redwings next play Saturday when they travel to Niles to play East Suburban Catholic Conference front-runner Notre Dame. Benet can still win a share of the league title if they win their remaining two league games against the Dons and Saint Viator.
That would force a three-way tie with Notre Dame and St. Patrick. It’s why Picha, who earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, is not going to rest his sore ankle.
“I want to make a difference,” Picha said. “I want to win conference even if it’s just a three-way tie.
“I’m trying to do everything in my power to help us win as much as we can this year.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Austin Waite
D: Patrick Bohan
D: Patrick Berryman
D: Carter Bilik
D: Michael Cavalleri
M: Carter Adams
M: Eli Jarrell
M: Josh Weigel
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Nathan Kwon
F: Chase Adams
Benet
GK: Evan Lucas
D: Thomas Chmelik
D: Owen McGarry
D: Connor Serafin
M: Nico Picha
M: Charlie Auble
M: Jack Krueger
F: Colin McGuinn
F: Brayden Fagbemi
F: Kovas Jeleniauskas
F: Ryan Augustyn
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Nico Picha, sr., MF, Benet
Scoring summary
First half
NC: Nathan Kwon (Chase Adams) 36:50 remaining
Second half
Benet – Nico Picha (Nick Roe) 36:37 remaining
NC: Joey LoDuca (Josh Weigel) 30:30 remaining
Benet – Jack Kuelthau 13:35 remaining
for stunning tie with Naperville Central
Soph Kuelthau's 67th-minute goal pulls shorthanded host even
By Matt Le Cren
LISLE – Benet kept one streak alive and broke another in the most improbable way.
Despite playing without two starters and getting thoroughly dominated in the run of play, the Redwings twice rallied from a goal down and tied visiting Naperville Central 2-2 on Thursday.
Benet, which is ranked 19th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, was coming off a desultory 3-0 loss to St. Patrick on Saturday. The Redwings played without midfielders Danny Boyle and Peter Hepburn, and star midfielder Nico Picha was still running around on a sprained ankle.
So it wasn’t surprising that Benet coach Sean Wesley was grinning after getting a draw against no. 3 Naperville Central, which saw its seven-game win streak end.
“It was super,” Wesley said. “If you would have told me Nico would play injured and Peter and Danny wouldn’t be in the game and to go 2-2, it’s really good for us.
“It was Senior Night too and everybody got to play. That’s important.”
Picha scored the first goal for Benet and his great play led to the second, which was scored by sophomore reserve Jack Kuelthau.
The Redwings (10-3-1) have not lost back-to-back games since 2018.
“Nico turned it on today,” Wesley said. “He’s been trying to play through it, and today he obviously had a little extra motivation.”
The halftime festivities honoring Benet’s seniors lacked a little fizz considering the Redwings were completely outplayed in the first half and mustered only one shot. Even so, Naperville Central (16-3-1) led only 1-0 at the break. Nathan Kwon scored the only goal on a header off a Chase Adams corner kick three minutes in.
After being pushed back on their heels for the first 40 minutes, Benet’s defense got offensive when star center back Nick Roe raced up the field and worked a give-and-go with Picha to produce the tying goal.
Picha rewarded Roe’s long run with a touch pass toward the right wing, where Roe tracked it down and crossed to the top of the box. The Redhawks left Picha wide open, and he drilled the shot into the lower left corner with 36:37 remaining.
“I thought Roe going forward out of the back was just genius today,” Wesley said. “When was the last time you saw an attacking center back?
“It’s a 70-yard run that Roe makes that is so unselfish. And then Nico, being Nico, puts it right on him and then he keeps going and getting forward.
“I think that’s what we’ve been talking most the last couple weeks is being dangerous and getting into the box and when we have chances, taking chances. Nico obviously did great for us with that today.”
But Naperville Central regained the lead six minutes later. Joey LoDuca took a pass from Josh Weigel and calmly sent a left-footed shot from 25 yards skittering between the left post and the outstretched hand of diving Benet goalkeeper Evan Lucas.
It was one of the few offensive highlights for the Redhawks, who outshot the Redwings 19-5 but skied many open shots and saw another Kwon header strike the crossbar.
It left Naperville Central coach Troy Adams visibly frustrated.
“You can outplay anyone, but if you’re not disciplined and you don’t do the small things, you don’t win games,” Adams said. “That’s the end of the story.”
Adams had a laundry list of things he wasn’t pleased about.
“Deciding that we wanted to blast balls instead of finding the back of the net, deciding to hold the ball too long instead of finding an open teammate, not communicating who is marking who in the midfield and in the back, not putting a name on a pass,” Adams said. “We could go through the list forever, but it’s the small things that we don’t want to be disciplined enough on on a consistent basis. That’s probably a big piece of it.
“We’ll do it in spurts, but we will not do it on a consistent basis.”
The lack of consistency isn’t a new problem for the Redhawks.
“We’ve got to put 80 minutes in,” Adams said. “We can’t play 20 minutes brilliant; we’ve got to play 80 minutes all the way through.
“We’re not doing it right now. Even when we were in Iowa, as good as the results were (with a bracket championship), we didn’t put together 80 minutes.”
Benet, however, did manage to put together enough of an effort to find a final equalizer. It came from an unlikely source in Kuelthau, a defender who had scored only one previous varsity goal.
Once again it was Picha who caused trouble for the Naperville Central defense. He beat a defender into the right side of the box and ripped a shot toward the far post.
Redhawks goalkeeper Dylan Scott leaped and punched the ball up in the air, but nobody got a body on Kuelthau, who got under the ball and headed it under the crossbar with 13:35 remaining.
“I just saw Nico cutting across the box,” Kuelthau said. “He shot it, and the goalie punched it up. I had to backpedal, and then I just headed it in.”
Kuelthau scored his first varsity goal earlier this season in a rout of Joliet Catholic, but he hasn’t seen many minutes at forward.
“Because we have so many injuries, we had to mix up the lineup,” Wesley said. “That was him at the nine for the first time this year.
“He played center back for us last game, and then he gets a goal against Naperville Central. So yeah, pretty good job.”
Kuelthau doesn’t mind playing different positions. He’s comfortable anywhere on the field.
“For my club, I play center back,” Kuelthau said. “But last year I played up-top (for Benet), so I’m kind of used to playing a lot of positions.
“We were down 2-1 most of the game, so we were really determined to score. Toward the end of the game, I could tell we were starting to put our head down a little bit, and then the second goal boosted us.
“This boosts our confidence, for sure, going into the weekend.”
The Redwings next play Saturday when they travel to Niles to play East Suburban Catholic Conference front-runner Notre Dame. Benet can still win a share of the league title if they win their remaining two league games against the Dons and Saint Viator.
That would force a three-way tie with Notre Dame and St. Patrick. It’s why Picha, who earned the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match honor, is not going to rest his sore ankle.
“I want to make a difference,” Picha said. “I want to win conference even if it’s just a three-way tie.
“I’m trying to do everything in my power to help us win as much as we can this year.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Austin Waite
D: Patrick Bohan
D: Patrick Berryman
D: Carter Bilik
D: Michael Cavalleri
M: Carter Adams
M: Eli Jarrell
M: Josh Weigel
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Nathan Kwon
F: Chase Adams
Benet
GK: Evan Lucas
D: Thomas Chmelik
D: Owen McGarry
D: Connor Serafin
M: Nico Picha
M: Charlie Auble
M: Jack Krueger
F: Colin McGuinn
F: Brayden Fagbemi
F: Kovas Jeleniauskas
F: Ryan Augustyn
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Nico Picha, sr., MF, Benet
Scoring summary
First half
NC: Nathan Kwon (Chase Adams) 36:50 remaining
Second half
Benet – Nico Picha (Nick Roe) 36:37 remaining
NC: Joey LoDuca (Josh Weigel) 30:30 remaining
Benet – Jack Kuelthau 13:35 remaining