O'Reilly, Central feel fine after win
over North in Naperville battle
Redhawks seize control of DVC lead with 2-1 win over Huskies
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville Central midfielder Sean O’Reilly has been dealing with a nagging groin injury since the summer.
The senior recently took two weeks off to rest and returned to action as a substitute in a Sunday loss to Conant.
O’Reilly played without discomfort Tuesday, but he was a royal pain for Naperville North.
He broke a scoreless tie with a great goal from a tough angle in the second half. Freshman phenom Chase Adams followed suit 28 seconds later and the Redhawks held off a late rally to edge the host Huskies 2-1 for sole possession of the DuPage Valley Conference lead.
The victory was a long time coming for the Redhawks (10-3, 3-0), who are ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. It snapped an eight-game losing streak against Naperville North that dated back to the 2017 season.
“I’m feeling 100 percent,” a happy O’Reilly said. “I let it rest and got it checked out, did what I had to do to get back out here, especially for this one, because I did not want to miss this one.”
O’Reilly, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, didn’t start but wound up playing nearly 50 minutes off the bench. The game featured a lot of exciting end-to-end action, but the few legitimate scoring chances mostly ended with shots being blocked by the respective defenses.
A low-scoring game was predicted by many, including Naperville North coach Jim Konrad, and everyone figured it would be decided by one goal. O’Reilly had a good feeling that the Redhawks would prevail.
“We were the team that was looking to score more, and we came out and we did that,"
O'Reilly said.
His goal came seemingly from out of nowhere. O’Reilly tracked down a loose ball deep in the left corner and didn’t look to be in a particularly threatening position. But he lofted a shot from just outside the 18 that snuck inside the right post from a severe angle, and the Redhawks had the lead at the 27:00-minute mark of the second half.
“It bounced around, and I just found it,” O’Reilly said. “I’ve been practicing on the left wing in practice, and I knew that when I’m on that side I can probably cut it in more. That’s what I did.
“I found the opportunity and felt comfortable there with letting one go, and it found the corner.”
The play validated the decision of Naperville Central coach Troy Adams to limit the minutes of O’Reilly, who is one of Central’s top playmakers.
“He had the injury in the summer, and it went away and then came back,” Troy Adams said. “We kind of had a two-week window where we thought we might lose a game or two, but we wanted to make sure we were ready for this one.”
O’Reilly’s spark off the bench proved crucial because the Redhawks had to go to battle without injured forward Nathan Kwon, their second-leading scorer. Troy Adams was delighted to see the goal.
“I thought we had been pressing well at that point,” he said. “You kind of felt there’s one out there, if we can do it.
“On Mondays we always do about 20 minutes of shooting. The shot that Sean hit is the one we worked on -- cutting in and not just unloading it. Can we bend it into that far corner?
“It’s nice to see when something you do in practice comes to fruition in games.”
If anyone can score from a tight space, it figured to be O’Reilly, whom Troy Adams said is proficient at doing the unpredictable.
“Sean has probably one of the best abilities to finish,” Troy Adams said. “He can hit off-center; he can hit off-balance. He kind of has a knack for being creative and seeing things other kids don’t, and he’s a great striker of the ball.
“In this case, he’s had two weeks off; he’s kind of working his way back in. Honestly, if you can get a kid like that closer to goal where he can get more chances, it’s not a bad thing.”
The goal energized the Redhawks, who wasted no time padding their lead. Their fans had barely settled into their seats before Chase Adams scored 28 seconds later from nearly the same spot, though under different circumstances.
Patrick Berryman won the ball in the back and fired a lead pass up the left wing to Adams. The freshman phenom raced past a defender and beat North goalkeeper Reed Goss with a wicked shot inside the far post.
Chase Adams said O’Reilly was his inspiration.
“It was a very gritty, very physical goal that Sean scored,” he noted. “Those are the types of goals that are going to win games.
“We saw that today it was the work-rate, trying to sprint and run and battle. It was probably the goal that all of us, especially our coach, really loved.”
And what about Adams’ goal?
“I saw that I was 1-on-1 with the defender, and I thought I could outrun him,” Chase Adams said. “I saw that, and then I just put it into the back post.”
It was a stunning turn of events. In the proverbial blink of an eye, the Redhawks had turned a scoreless run into a commanding lead.
How?
“It’s kind of weird,” Troy Adams said. “You can get them in bunches sometimes.
“We talked about three things – work-rate, discipline and communication. If we can do what we’re supposed to do – just do our job – we’d be in good shape.
“Those were the three points of emphasis, and I thought it was a good game.”
The Huskies (8-3-1, 2-1-0), who are ranked fifth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, made sure of the match had an exciting finish. They mounted a fine comeback which nearly sent the game to overtime.
Sophomore forward Jaxon Stokes – another player who wasn’t in the starting lineup and recently recovered from injury – pounced on a long throw-in from Alex Arredondo and got the Huskies on the board with his third goal of the season with 8:43 left.
“I was just thinking we’ve got to get another one,” said Stokes, who is now healthy after missing four games with a hip injury. “I was just happy that we scored one, and we’re closer to tying. I just wanted to get another one.”
Naperville North pressured relentlessly after that but was unable to get any shots through the defense.
“I thought as a team we played better after we scored,” Stokes said. “We had a good reaction, but we reacted too late.
“It’s disappointing, but we’ll get them next time.”
That’s what Jim Konrad is hoping for, and there is precedent for that. Central’s last win over the Huskies was a 1-0 decision at Naperville North on Sept. 9, 2017. The Huskies avenged that with a 1-0 win in the sectional final en route to their second of three-consecutive state championships.
“I’m super proud of the guys,” Jim Konrad said. “It was a great win for Central.
“They deserved to win today, for sure. Last time we lost to them we won the state championship, so hopefully we can tell the same story.”
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: Elliott Krause
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Chase Adams
Naperville North
GK: Reed Goss
D: Connor Hanrahan
D: Alex Arredondo
D: Adam Zielke
D: Ryan Konrad
M: Owen Gaccione
M: Caden Hill
M: Hindo Allie
F: Aidan McMahon
F: Alex Barger
F: Noah Radeke
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Sean O’Reilly, sr., MF, Naperville Central.
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Naperville Central – Sean O’Reilly 27:00 remaining
Naperville Central – Chase Adams (Patrick Berryman) 26:32 remaining
Naperville North – Jaxon Stokes (Alex Arredondo) 8:34 remaining
over North in Naperville battle
Redhawks seize control of DVC lead with 2-1 win over Huskies
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville Central midfielder Sean O’Reilly has been dealing with a nagging groin injury since the summer.
The senior recently took two weeks off to rest and returned to action as a substitute in a Sunday loss to Conant.
O’Reilly played without discomfort Tuesday, but he was a royal pain for Naperville North.
He broke a scoreless tie with a great goal from a tough angle in the second half. Freshman phenom Chase Adams followed suit 28 seconds later and the Redhawks held off a late rally to edge the host Huskies 2-1 for sole possession of the DuPage Valley Conference lead.
The victory was a long time coming for the Redhawks (10-3, 3-0), who are ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. It snapped an eight-game losing streak against Naperville North that dated back to the 2017 season.
“I’m feeling 100 percent,” a happy O’Reilly said. “I let it rest and got it checked out, did what I had to do to get back out here, especially for this one, because I did not want to miss this one.”
O’Reilly, the Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match, didn’t start but wound up playing nearly 50 minutes off the bench. The game featured a lot of exciting end-to-end action, but the few legitimate scoring chances mostly ended with shots being blocked by the respective defenses.
A low-scoring game was predicted by many, including Naperville North coach Jim Konrad, and everyone figured it would be decided by one goal. O’Reilly had a good feeling that the Redhawks would prevail.
“We were the team that was looking to score more, and we came out and we did that,"
O'Reilly said.
His goal came seemingly from out of nowhere. O’Reilly tracked down a loose ball deep in the left corner and didn’t look to be in a particularly threatening position. But he lofted a shot from just outside the 18 that snuck inside the right post from a severe angle, and the Redhawks had the lead at the 27:00-minute mark of the second half.
“It bounced around, and I just found it,” O’Reilly said. “I’ve been practicing on the left wing in practice, and I knew that when I’m on that side I can probably cut it in more. That’s what I did.
“I found the opportunity and felt comfortable there with letting one go, and it found the corner.”
The play validated the decision of Naperville Central coach Troy Adams to limit the minutes of O’Reilly, who is one of Central’s top playmakers.
“He had the injury in the summer, and it went away and then came back,” Troy Adams said. “We kind of had a two-week window where we thought we might lose a game or two, but we wanted to make sure we were ready for this one.”
O’Reilly’s spark off the bench proved crucial because the Redhawks had to go to battle without injured forward Nathan Kwon, their second-leading scorer. Troy Adams was delighted to see the goal.
“I thought we had been pressing well at that point,” he said. “You kind of felt there’s one out there, if we can do it.
“On Mondays we always do about 20 minutes of shooting. The shot that Sean hit is the one we worked on -- cutting in and not just unloading it. Can we bend it into that far corner?
“It’s nice to see when something you do in practice comes to fruition in games.”
If anyone can score from a tight space, it figured to be O’Reilly, whom Troy Adams said is proficient at doing the unpredictable.
“Sean has probably one of the best abilities to finish,” Troy Adams said. “He can hit off-center; he can hit off-balance. He kind of has a knack for being creative and seeing things other kids don’t, and he’s a great striker of the ball.
“In this case, he’s had two weeks off; he’s kind of working his way back in. Honestly, if you can get a kid like that closer to goal where he can get more chances, it’s not a bad thing.”
The goal energized the Redhawks, who wasted no time padding their lead. Their fans had barely settled into their seats before Chase Adams scored 28 seconds later from nearly the same spot, though under different circumstances.
Patrick Berryman won the ball in the back and fired a lead pass up the left wing to Adams. The freshman phenom raced past a defender and beat North goalkeeper Reed Goss with a wicked shot inside the far post.
Chase Adams said O’Reilly was his inspiration.
“It was a very gritty, very physical goal that Sean scored,” he noted. “Those are the types of goals that are going to win games.
“We saw that today it was the work-rate, trying to sprint and run and battle. It was probably the goal that all of us, especially our coach, really loved.”
And what about Adams’ goal?
“I saw that I was 1-on-1 with the defender, and I thought I could outrun him,” Chase Adams said. “I saw that, and then I just put it into the back post.”
It was a stunning turn of events. In the proverbial blink of an eye, the Redhawks had turned a scoreless run into a commanding lead.
How?
“It’s kind of weird,” Troy Adams said. “You can get them in bunches sometimes.
“We talked about three things – work-rate, discipline and communication. If we can do what we’re supposed to do – just do our job – we’d be in good shape.
“Those were the three points of emphasis, and I thought it was a good game.”
The Huskies (8-3-1, 2-1-0), who are ranked fifth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, made sure of the match had an exciting finish. They mounted a fine comeback which nearly sent the game to overtime.
Sophomore forward Jaxon Stokes – another player who wasn’t in the starting lineup and recently recovered from injury – pounced on a long throw-in from Alex Arredondo and got the Huskies on the board with his third goal of the season with 8:43 left.
“I was just thinking we’ve got to get another one,” said Stokes, who is now healthy after missing four games with a hip injury. “I was just happy that we scored one, and we’re closer to tying. I just wanted to get another one.”
Naperville North pressured relentlessly after that but was unable to get any shots through the defense.
“I thought as a team we played better after we scored,” Stokes said. “We had a good reaction, but we reacted too late.
“It’s disappointing, but we’ll get them next time.”
That’s what Jim Konrad is hoping for, and there is precedent for that. Central’s last win over the Huskies was a 1-0 decision at Naperville North on Sept. 9, 2017. The Huskies avenged that with a 1-0 win in the sectional final en route to their second of three-consecutive state championships.
“I’m super proud of the guys,” Jim Konrad said. “It was a great win for Central.
“They deserved to win today, for sure. Last time we lost to them we won the state championship, so hopefully we can tell the same story.”
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: Elliott Krause
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Chase Adams
Naperville North
GK: Reed Goss
D: Connor Hanrahan
D: Alex Arredondo
D: Adam Zielke
D: Ryan Konrad
M: Owen Gaccione
M: Caden Hill
M: Hindo Allie
F: Aidan McMahon
F: Alex Barger
F: Noah Radeke
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Sean O’Reilly, sr., MF, Naperville Central.
Scoring summary
First half
No scoring
Second half
Naperville Central – Sean O’Reilly 27:00 remaining
Naperville Central – Chase Adams (Patrick Berryman) 26:32 remaining
Naperville North – Jaxon Stokes (Alex Arredondo) 8:34 remaining