Big 2nd half propels Niles North past Loyola
Vikings win 16th of year, Ramblers rest a bit for league title match
By Michael Wojtychiw
GLENVIEW -- Niles North is making a name for itself.
A year after racking up 17 wins, its most since a 16-win campaign in 2018, the Vikings are having another impressive season. As the regular-season comes down the home stretch, they came into Saturday's nonconference tilt with Loyola with a 15-2-3 record, including wins over Glenbrook South and Rolling Meadows, as well as ties with New Trier and Vernon Hills.
A win over the Ramblers would help further cement their arrival to their North Shore brethren.
"Saturday morning games are always challenging, especially late in the season," Niles North manager Filip Cejovic said. "The last three years we've been getting better year by year. We have a strong senior class, and our sophomore and junior classes are there to support our seniors.
"The commitment by the players in the entire program has been stronger than in previous years. We had a fantastic summer, and that's led us to a successful fall season."
The Vikings good fortunes continued after three goals in the first 14 minutes of the second half led to a 3-1 win at Loyola's Munz Campus on Saturday morning.
"Our coach gave us a nice motivational speech at halftime and we figured out how they played as well," Niles North's Ismet Bojku said. "All of us have great chemistry, and that's what's made us such a solid team. We know how to communicate with each other, and it's not a one-man show."
The game didn't look promising for the Vikings early on, however. Loyola came out the aggressor, putting five shots on goal in the first 10 minutes.
Two saves by the Vikings' keeper kept the home team off the scoreboard until the Ramblers' Joey Vehovsky stepped up to take a penalty kick with 3 minutes, 56 seconds remaining.
The senior calmly stepped up and drilled it home to give the Ramblers a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
"For me, when I go up there, it's all about locking into the goal, nothing else matters," he said. "It's not the keeper, not the placement. I just go up there and know I'm going to score.
"It's not seeing anything in my mind. I know what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it and have no regrets. If I miss it, I miss it. Luckily I made it."
With a 1-0 lead at the half, the Ramblers' manager Dan Riskind substituted liberally when play restarted.
"Everything was kind of set like our (playoff) seeding, and we're playing for conference (Tuesday at St. Ignatius), so it was important for us to get guys who haven't played a lot some experience," Loyola manager Dan Riskind said. "It was good for our starters to be able to watch them too.
"That was our objective. It's a long season and we were working on some things."
Niles North came out of the break like a new team.
First, junior Anthony Sticlaru put away a ball just 2 minutes, 16 seconds into the half. Nearly six-and-a-half minutes later, Bojku, who earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match recognition, dished out his first assist when he led Quinn Graham to goal to give the Vikings a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"I think in the first half, we were expecting things to go our way,” Cejovic said. “But in the second half, we did the work to make those things happen."
Loyola's best chance early in the half came when Cooper Ahlfors lined up for a free kick right outside of the box with about 27 minutes remaining.
Despite the crowd's pleas for another penalty kick, Ahlfors took a soldi try that forced the Vikings' keeper to make his first save since midway through the first half.
Niles North scored its third and final goal soon after when Bojku fed Daniel Siwiec for a finish.
"For my position, I think it's my job to feed the ball to the guys making the plays," Bojku said. "And if they're not open, then it's on me to shoot it."
After a slow start to the season, in part due to playing in the tough Northside College Showcase and Streamwood Fall Classic tournaments, the Ramblers have been playing well, especially in conference play.
In the final match of the conference season Tuesday, Loyola must win or tie the game to become league champs. The Ramblers currently sit at 3-1-1 and are tied with St. Laurence at 10 points. The Wolfpack sit two points back with a 2-1-2 record and a win over the Ramblers would give St. Ignatius the conference crown.
A conference win would likely easy some unfavorable early season memories.
"As a team captain, I was a little frustrated with how our nonconference went," Vehovsky said. "We played some of the top teams in the state and thought we could have gotten results in those games. It just didn't go our way.
"But I knew when conference came around, we should be the favorites. We have the most skill, … talented coaches and a good group of players.
"I told the guys there's no reason we shouldn’t win this conference, and we need to go out there and redeem ourselves from our nonconference slate. We've been doing that pretty well. We're in position to win the conference Tuesday, and that's been the goal."
Both teams will compete in the playoffs in the Glenbrook South Sectional. Niles North has the fourth seed. Loyola sits in the eleventh slot.
Niles North hosts a regional. To advance it would need to defeat Maine East, and then Taft and St. Patrick. Maine East is one of only two teams to have defeated Niles North this season.
"We have the practice every day like it's our last practice," Cejovic said. "And we have to appreciate every second we have together and not take anything for granted. We cannot expect anything just because we've had a good season. We have to work for everything."
While Loyola didn't earn the seed they had come into the season hoping to get, the team knows what it has to do to make a deep postseason run, thanks to its experienced squad.
"We have to score," Riskind said. "In our last three games, we've scored two goals. We need to score. If we can score two, that should bode well for us."
"I think we just have to go out there and play with our identity," Vehovsky said. "We can't go out and play, reacting to every other team. We're going to give 100 percent effort and we can't adhere to the other things. We have to know who we are as a team, go out there and play our game.
"If we do that, it's going to be hard for teams to stop us."
Starting lineups
Niles North
GK: Colin Schnabel
D: Vasilis Callas
D: Johan Lazo
D: Daniel Sticlaru
MF: Emir Heto
MF: Kyle Pham
MF: Omar Cehic
MF: Ismet Bojku
MF: Daniel Siwiec
F: Anthony Sticlaru
F: Quinn Graham
Loyola
GK: Jason Brunger
D: Daniel Birmingham
D: Daniel Ryczek
D: Andrew Newton
D: Clinton Birchard
MF: Luke Ojala
MF: William Drekhoff
MF: Olivier Szorc
MF: Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF: Townes Robertson
F: Joseph Vehovsky
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Ismet Bojku, jr., MF, Niles North
Scoring summary
First half
Loyola - Joseph Vehovsky (PK), 37th minute
Second half
NN: Anthony Sticlaru, 44th minute
NN: Quinn Graham (Ismet Bojku), 50th minute
NN: Daniel Siwiec (Ismet Bojku), 55th minute
Vikings win 16th of year, Ramblers rest a bit for league title match
By Michael Wojtychiw
GLENVIEW -- Niles North is making a name for itself.
A year after racking up 17 wins, its most since a 16-win campaign in 2018, the Vikings are having another impressive season. As the regular-season comes down the home stretch, they came into Saturday's nonconference tilt with Loyola with a 15-2-3 record, including wins over Glenbrook South and Rolling Meadows, as well as ties with New Trier and Vernon Hills.
A win over the Ramblers would help further cement their arrival to their North Shore brethren.
"Saturday morning games are always challenging, especially late in the season," Niles North manager Filip Cejovic said. "The last three years we've been getting better year by year. We have a strong senior class, and our sophomore and junior classes are there to support our seniors.
"The commitment by the players in the entire program has been stronger than in previous years. We had a fantastic summer, and that's led us to a successful fall season."
The Vikings good fortunes continued after three goals in the first 14 minutes of the second half led to a 3-1 win at Loyola's Munz Campus on Saturday morning.
"Our coach gave us a nice motivational speech at halftime and we figured out how they played as well," Niles North's Ismet Bojku said. "All of us have great chemistry, and that's what's made us such a solid team. We know how to communicate with each other, and it's not a one-man show."
The game didn't look promising for the Vikings early on, however. Loyola came out the aggressor, putting five shots on goal in the first 10 minutes.
Two saves by the Vikings' keeper kept the home team off the scoreboard until the Ramblers' Joey Vehovsky stepped up to take a penalty kick with 3 minutes, 56 seconds remaining.
The senior calmly stepped up and drilled it home to give the Ramblers a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
"For me, when I go up there, it's all about locking into the goal, nothing else matters," he said. "It's not the keeper, not the placement. I just go up there and know I'm going to score.
"It's not seeing anything in my mind. I know what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it and have no regrets. If I miss it, I miss it. Luckily I made it."
With a 1-0 lead at the half, the Ramblers' manager Dan Riskind substituted liberally when play restarted.
"Everything was kind of set like our (playoff) seeding, and we're playing for conference (Tuesday at St. Ignatius), so it was important for us to get guys who haven't played a lot some experience," Loyola manager Dan Riskind said. "It was good for our starters to be able to watch them too.
"That was our objective. It's a long season and we were working on some things."
Niles North came out of the break like a new team.
First, junior Anthony Sticlaru put away a ball just 2 minutes, 16 seconds into the half. Nearly six-and-a-half minutes later, Bojku, who earned Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match recognition, dished out his first assist when he led Quinn Graham to goal to give the Vikings a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"I think in the first half, we were expecting things to go our way,” Cejovic said. “But in the second half, we did the work to make those things happen."
Loyola's best chance early in the half came when Cooper Ahlfors lined up for a free kick right outside of the box with about 27 minutes remaining.
Despite the crowd's pleas for another penalty kick, Ahlfors took a soldi try that forced the Vikings' keeper to make his first save since midway through the first half.
Niles North scored its third and final goal soon after when Bojku fed Daniel Siwiec for a finish.
"For my position, I think it's my job to feed the ball to the guys making the plays," Bojku said. "And if they're not open, then it's on me to shoot it."
After a slow start to the season, in part due to playing in the tough Northside College Showcase and Streamwood Fall Classic tournaments, the Ramblers have been playing well, especially in conference play.
In the final match of the conference season Tuesday, Loyola must win or tie the game to become league champs. The Ramblers currently sit at 3-1-1 and are tied with St. Laurence at 10 points. The Wolfpack sit two points back with a 2-1-2 record and a win over the Ramblers would give St. Ignatius the conference crown.
A conference win would likely easy some unfavorable early season memories.
"As a team captain, I was a little frustrated with how our nonconference went," Vehovsky said. "We played some of the top teams in the state and thought we could have gotten results in those games. It just didn't go our way.
"But I knew when conference came around, we should be the favorites. We have the most skill, … talented coaches and a good group of players.
"I told the guys there's no reason we shouldn’t win this conference, and we need to go out there and redeem ourselves from our nonconference slate. We've been doing that pretty well. We're in position to win the conference Tuesday, and that's been the goal."
Both teams will compete in the playoffs in the Glenbrook South Sectional. Niles North has the fourth seed. Loyola sits in the eleventh slot.
Niles North hosts a regional. To advance it would need to defeat Maine East, and then Taft and St. Patrick. Maine East is one of only two teams to have defeated Niles North this season.
"We have the practice every day like it's our last practice," Cejovic said. "And we have to appreciate every second we have together and not take anything for granted. We cannot expect anything just because we've had a good season. We have to work for everything."
While Loyola didn't earn the seed they had come into the season hoping to get, the team knows what it has to do to make a deep postseason run, thanks to its experienced squad.
"We have to score," Riskind said. "In our last three games, we've scored two goals. We need to score. If we can score two, that should bode well for us."
"I think we just have to go out there and play with our identity," Vehovsky said. "We can't go out and play, reacting to every other team. We're going to give 100 percent effort and we can't adhere to the other things. We have to know who we are as a team, go out there and play our game.
"If we do that, it's going to be hard for teams to stop us."
Starting lineups
Niles North
GK: Colin Schnabel
D: Vasilis Callas
D: Johan Lazo
D: Daniel Sticlaru
MF: Emir Heto
MF: Kyle Pham
MF: Omar Cehic
MF: Ismet Bojku
MF: Daniel Siwiec
F: Anthony Sticlaru
F: Quinn Graham
Loyola
GK: Jason Brunger
D: Daniel Birmingham
D: Daniel Ryczek
D: Andrew Newton
D: Clinton Birchard
MF: Luke Ojala
MF: William Drekhoff
MF: Olivier Szorc
MF: Guillermo Echevarria-Robinson
MF: Townes Robertson
F: Joseph Vehovsky
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match:
Ismet Bojku, jr., MF, Niles North
Scoring summary
First half
Loyola - Joseph Vehovsky (PK), 37th minute
Second half
NN: Anthony Sticlaru, 44th minute
NN: Quinn Graham (Ismet Bojku), 50th minute
NN: Daniel Siwiec (Ismet Bojku), 55th minute