Relaxed Patel leads Conant
to title win over Naperville Central
Junior puts in sudden-death PK for BodyArmor crown
By Bobby Narang
LA GRANGE — Conant junior forward Sai Patel preferred to take an understated approach to celebrating his game-winning shot on Sunday afternoon.
Naperville Central and Conant met for a memorable late Sunday afternoon championship battle in a BodyArmor bracket game at the Lyons Soccer Complex.
Eighty minutes wasn’t enough time to decide a winner. Regulation ended tied at 2-2 following a frenetic final 90 seconds that included a goal from each team.
In the shootout, five penalty kicks from each team still resulted in a tie.
After Naperville Central missed its sixth, Patel was the next person in line. A teammate playfully pushed him to get ready for the potential winning kick.
With a big crowd shouting various words of encouragement to players on both sides, Patel calmly steadied himself for one of the most important moments of his soccer career.
He confidently drilled a shot into the left side of the net to hand the Cougars a 4-3 shootout win and bracket title. Instead of running around and celebrating following his winning kick, Patel slowly walked toward a few of his teammates to cherish the stunning achievement.
For the Cougars, this was no ordinary victory. Sure, it was a nice to beat the no. 9 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Redhawks (9-3-0) have a long history of success in the state, while the Cougars are enjoying by far their best season since placing fourth in Class 3A in 2016.
Despite its gaudy 9-3-1 record, Conant was badly in need of a victory. After jumping from 15th to sixth in the poll after the Lyons win on Sept. 11, the Cougars lost three-straight Mid-Suburban League matches to Barrington, Elk Grove and Rolling Meadows.
“We definitely needed this,” Conant coach Jason Franco said. “Last Sunday we beat Lyons in a heck of a game, then we hit our conference schedule which is tough.
“We started to slide and realized maybe we’re not a solid team. But to come back today and beat a good Naperville Central team, to take the lead, then give it away at the end and then to win the penalty shootout, it was rollercoaster. But I’m glad it ended this way. We needed a boost in the positive direction. I thought we had a good run of it in the final 25 minutes.
“This could’ve been a beatdown in the wrong direction for us. To come out strong after playing on Saturday (the 2-0 loss to Rolling Meadows) and earn a win showed some of our championship mettle. Hopefully, we can roll this into next week.”
The play of the Redhawks and Cougars made sure fans wouldn’t regret paying the entry fee on a hot afternoon.
Each team scored a goal in the final two minutes. Conant’s A.J. Baran notched a tally in the 79th minute only to watch Chase Adams even up the score in the 80th minute to force the shootout.
Naperville Central scored the lone goal of the first half, when Josh Weigel flicked in a shot in the 32nd minute.
Conant tied the game at 1-1 off a rebound shot by Peter Nikolov, who was recently brought up to the varsity roster, in the 54th minute.
The Redhawks reached the championship round by defeating then second-ranked Oak Park and River Forest in a shootout, but they couldn’t replicate the same formula against Conant. Two of the Redhawks’ three losses have been via shootouts.
“Conant outworked us and played harder than we did,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “Anytime at the end of the day, when you have two good teams playing, the team that outworks the other usually wins. That was the case today. It doesn’t matter how talented and skilled you are.
“We’re not consistent with that. We can be better. We chose not to be today. We talk about things you have control over and things you don’t. You have control over your work-rate, control over your communication. Things we had control of, we didn’t do well today. Technical stuff happens, like bad passes and bad shots.
“But that work-rate and communication and effort and desire, that stuff you have control over, we just didn’t have enough control over that today.”
Baran shocked the large crowd by scoring his first goal of the season in the 79th minute to give the Cougars a 2-1 edge. The senior defender connected on a shot from 11 yards.
“It was a throw-in. I knew it was the last minute and went up and played it,” Baron said. “A teammate missed the ball, and it comes through. I just tried to hit it as hard as I could; it curled into the bottom corner.
“This win feels amazing. We’ve had bad form lately. Hopefully this brings us back up and we can keep the momentum going. We need to keep it up.”
Conant senior forward Peter Cirbo added: “We were doing really bad the last couple of days after a really big win over Lyons, but we seem to always come to play against better teams. We step up to their level.
“I think we can turn it around. We had some troubles last year and didn’t want to spiral again. This win might turn it around. We all had a passion to win against a really good team in a championship game.”
Just when it looked like the Cougars would put away the Redhawks in regulation, the unexpected happened. A quick transition led to a perfectly placed cross in front of Conant’s net, but a Naperville Central player whiffed on his shot attempt. As the ball rolled a few more feet, Adams smacked the ball into the net for the 80th-minute goal that tied the game.
In the first shootout round, Naperville Central and Conant each connected on three of five shot attempts.
Naperville Central goalie Austin Waite, who had five saves in regulation, saved the day with a stop of Conant’s fifth attempt to force sudden death.
Conant senior goalie Varun Mittal shrugged off the disappointment from allowing a goal in the final seconds of regulation with a stellar effort in the shootout. He set the stage for a Cougars victory with a save on Naperville Central’s sixth shooter to set up Patel’s heroics.
The Redhawks hit the crossbar twice in the shootout to spoil their chance for a comeback victory.
Their coach said his players must regroup for Tuesday’s big rivalry DuPage Valley Conference game at Naperville North (8-2-1) at 6:30 p.m. Both teams have won their first two league games.
“You play these games to discover what you need to do better,” Adams said. “We know there are components we need to be more consistent it with, like our work-rate.
"Today, we were very poor in our one-on-one defending, the ability to stay disciplined. But Monday we will regroup, and we need to clean up for Tuesday.
“There was definitely some resiliency we’ve gotten over the course of time, where we’ve given up a goal and being resilient and able to come back. You rather be out on the front foot of it, but it was good to see we fought until the end. That spirit is something that hopefully we help us in the future.”
Naperville Central junior captain and defender Patrick Berryman acknowledged that the Redhawks have to play a full 80 minutes Tuesday.
“It was another opportunity for us to see a good team that’s ranked high,” Berryman said. “(Conant) is a very good team and pushed and challenged us … to work our hardest today, which we didn’t today. That goal we scored in the 80th minute showed the heart of this team.
“We didn’t give up until the very end, didn’t let that last goal they scored put us down. We kept on going.
“We have a big game coming up against our rivals. We have to bring everything to that game. We didn’t bring everything today, so that’s a learning experience for us.
“We have to work hard on Tuesday and learn from this experience. We have a lot of potential. We just have to work on consistency, not only our level of play but our work-rate. Today it wasn’t there. When it’s there, we’re really good.”
Naperville Central senior defender Carter Bilik said Sunday’s defeat wasn’t all negative.
“We learned we have to work harder against these really big and good teams,” Bilik said. “We have to push harder and push through until the end. We can’t give up, like we let that second goal slip through.
“We have to put this game in the past, step up our work rate and play our usual game. Our biggest positive was getting that second goal and tying up after allowing a goal like 20 seconds earlier.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Austin Waite
D: Patrick Bohan
D Michael Cavalleri
D: Carter Bilik
D: Patrick Berryman
MF: Eli Jarrell
MF: Carter Adams
MF: Josh Weigel
MF: Nathan Kwon
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Chase Adams
Conant
GK: Varun Mittal
D: Luis Dominguez
D: Aarav Raina
D: A.J. Baran
D: Caden Ryan
MF: Carson Hagler
MF: Sai Patel
MF: Kanau Takahashi
MF: Peter Cirbo
F: Krystian Niziolek
F: Carson Belcher
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Sai Patel, jr., F, Conant
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville Central: Weigel (unassisted), 32’
Second half
Conant: Nikolov (Belcher), 54’
Conant: Baran (Oliver Wozny) 79’
Naperville Central: Chase Adams (Berryman), 80’
Shootout
Naperville Central: Jarrell (hit crossbar), Weigel (good), Berryman (hit crossbar), Chase Adams (good), Cavalleri (good), Carter Adams (saved).
Conant: Dominguez (good), Takahashi (saved), Cirbo (good), Belcher (good), Niziolek (saved), Patel (good).
to title win over Naperville Central
Junior puts in sudden-death PK for BodyArmor crown
By Bobby Narang
LA GRANGE — Conant junior forward Sai Patel preferred to take an understated approach to celebrating his game-winning shot on Sunday afternoon.
Naperville Central and Conant met for a memorable late Sunday afternoon championship battle in a BodyArmor bracket game at the Lyons Soccer Complex.
Eighty minutes wasn’t enough time to decide a winner. Regulation ended tied at 2-2 following a frenetic final 90 seconds that included a goal from each team.
In the shootout, five penalty kicks from each team still resulted in a tie.
After Naperville Central missed its sixth, Patel was the next person in line. A teammate playfully pushed him to get ready for the potential winning kick.
With a big crowd shouting various words of encouragement to players on both sides, Patel calmly steadied himself for one of the most important moments of his soccer career.
He confidently drilled a shot into the left side of the net to hand the Cougars a 4-3 shootout win and bracket title. Instead of running around and celebrating following his winning kick, Patel slowly walked toward a few of his teammates to cherish the stunning achievement.
For the Cougars, this was no ordinary victory. Sure, it was a nice to beat the no. 9 team in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25. The Redhawks (9-3-0) have a long history of success in the state, while the Cougars are enjoying by far their best season since placing fourth in Class 3A in 2016.
Despite its gaudy 9-3-1 record, Conant was badly in need of a victory. After jumping from 15th to sixth in the poll after the Lyons win on Sept. 11, the Cougars lost three-straight Mid-Suburban League matches to Barrington, Elk Grove and Rolling Meadows.
“We definitely needed this,” Conant coach Jason Franco said. “Last Sunday we beat Lyons in a heck of a game, then we hit our conference schedule which is tough.
“We started to slide and realized maybe we’re not a solid team. But to come back today and beat a good Naperville Central team, to take the lead, then give it away at the end and then to win the penalty shootout, it was rollercoaster. But I’m glad it ended this way. We needed a boost in the positive direction. I thought we had a good run of it in the final 25 minutes.
“This could’ve been a beatdown in the wrong direction for us. To come out strong after playing on Saturday (the 2-0 loss to Rolling Meadows) and earn a win showed some of our championship mettle. Hopefully, we can roll this into next week.”
The play of the Redhawks and Cougars made sure fans wouldn’t regret paying the entry fee on a hot afternoon.
Each team scored a goal in the final two minutes. Conant’s A.J. Baran notched a tally in the 79th minute only to watch Chase Adams even up the score in the 80th minute to force the shootout.
Naperville Central scored the lone goal of the first half, when Josh Weigel flicked in a shot in the 32nd minute.
Conant tied the game at 1-1 off a rebound shot by Peter Nikolov, who was recently brought up to the varsity roster, in the 54th minute.
The Redhawks reached the championship round by defeating then second-ranked Oak Park and River Forest in a shootout, but they couldn’t replicate the same formula against Conant. Two of the Redhawks’ three losses have been via shootouts.
“Conant outworked us and played harder than we did,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “Anytime at the end of the day, when you have two good teams playing, the team that outworks the other usually wins. That was the case today. It doesn’t matter how talented and skilled you are.
“We’re not consistent with that. We can be better. We chose not to be today. We talk about things you have control over and things you don’t. You have control over your work-rate, control over your communication. Things we had control of, we didn’t do well today. Technical stuff happens, like bad passes and bad shots.
“But that work-rate and communication and effort and desire, that stuff you have control over, we just didn’t have enough control over that today.”
Baran shocked the large crowd by scoring his first goal of the season in the 79th minute to give the Cougars a 2-1 edge. The senior defender connected on a shot from 11 yards.
“It was a throw-in. I knew it was the last minute and went up and played it,” Baron said. “A teammate missed the ball, and it comes through. I just tried to hit it as hard as I could; it curled into the bottom corner.
“This win feels amazing. We’ve had bad form lately. Hopefully this brings us back up and we can keep the momentum going. We need to keep it up.”
Conant senior forward Peter Cirbo added: “We were doing really bad the last couple of days after a really big win over Lyons, but we seem to always come to play against better teams. We step up to their level.
“I think we can turn it around. We had some troubles last year and didn’t want to spiral again. This win might turn it around. We all had a passion to win against a really good team in a championship game.”
Just when it looked like the Cougars would put away the Redhawks in regulation, the unexpected happened. A quick transition led to a perfectly placed cross in front of Conant’s net, but a Naperville Central player whiffed on his shot attempt. As the ball rolled a few more feet, Adams smacked the ball into the net for the 80th-minute goal that tied the game.
In the first shootout round, Naperville Central and Conant each connected on three of five shot attempts.
Naperville Central goalie Austin Waite, who had five saves in regulation, saved the day with a stop of Conant’s fifth attempt to force sudden death.
Conant senior goalie Varun Mittal shrugged off the disappointment from allowing a goal in the final seconds of regulation with a stellar effort in the shootout. He set the stage for a Cougars victory with a save on Naperville Central’s sixth shooter to set up Patel’s heroics.
The Redhawks hit the crossbar twice in the shootout to spoil their chance for a comeback victory.
Their coach said his players must regroup for Tuesday’s big rivalry DuPage Valley Conference game at Naperville North (8-2-1) at 6:30 p.m. Both teams have won their first two league games.
“You play these games to discover what you need to do better,” Adams said. “We know there are components we need to be more consistent it with, like our work-rate.
"Today, we were very poor in our one-on-one defending, the ability to stay disciplined. But Monday we will regroup, and we need to clean up for Tuesday.
“There was definitely some resiliency we’ve gotten over the course of time, where we’ve given up a goal and being resilient and able to come back. You rather be out on the front foot of it, but it was good to see we fought until the end. That spirit is something that hopefully we help us in the future.”
Naperville Central junior captain and defender Patrick Berryman acknowledged that the Redhawks have to play a full 80 minutes Tuesday.
“It was another opportunity for us to see a good team that’s ranked high,” Berryman said. “(Conant) is a very good team and pushed and challenged us … to work our hardest today, which we didn’t today. That goal we scored in the 80th minute showed the heart of this team.
“We didn’t give up until the very end, didn’t let that last goal they scored put us down. We kept on going.
“We have a big game coming up against our rivals. We have to bring everything to that game. We didn’t bring everything today, so that’s a learning experience for us.
“We have to work hard on Tuesday and learn from this experience. We have a lot of potential. We just have to work on consistency, not only our level of play but our work-rate. Today it wasn’t there. When it’s there, we’re really good.”
Naperville Central senior defender Carter Bilik said Sunday’s defeat wasn’t all negative.
“We learned we have to work harder against these really big and good teams,” Bilik said. “We have to push harder and push through until the end. We can’t give up, like we let that second goal slip through.
“We have to put this game in the past, step up our work rate and play our usual game. Our biggest positive was getting that second goal and tying up after allowing a goal like 20 seconds earlier.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK: Austin Waite
D: Patrick Bohan
D Michael Cavalleri
D: Carter Bilik
D: Patrick Berryman
MF: Eli Jarrell
MF: Carter Adams
MF: Josh Weigel
MF: Nathan Kwon
F: Joey LoDuca
F: Chase Adams
Conant
GK: Varun Mittal
D: Luis Dominguez
D: Aarav Raina
D: A.J. Baran
D: Caden Ryan
MF: Carson Hagler
MF: Sai Patel
MF: Kanau Takahashi
MF: Peter Cirbo
F: Krystian Niziolek
F: Carson Belcher
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Sai Patel, jr., F, Conant
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville Central: Weigel (unassisted), 32’
Second half
Conant: Nikolov (Belcher), 54’
Conant: Baran (Oliver Wozny) 79’
Naperville Central: Chase Adams (Berryman), 80’
Shootout
Naperville Central: Jarrell (hit crossbar), Weigel (good), Berryman (hit crossbar), Chase Adams (good), Cavalleri (good), Carter Adams (saved).
Conant: Dominguez (good), Takahashi (saved), Cirbo (good), Belcher (good), Niziolek (saved), Patel (good).