Naperville North doubles its pleasure against Naperville Central
Senior Radeke provides offense in big 2-0 DuPage Valley win
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North forward Cam Radeke scored one goal in the Huskies’ 2-1 win over Naperville Central in the Best of the West Tournament title game on Sept. 4 at Memorial Stadium.
Seventeen days later, and on the same field, the crosstown rivals met again, this time in their annual DuPage Valley Conference match.
This time Radeke found the back of the net twice, and the result was a 2-0 victory that put the Huskies (9-2-2, 3-0-0) in the driver’s seat of the league race with two games remaining. Every other league team has at least one loss.
The Wright State-bound Radeke leads the Huskies, who ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, with six goals. Half have come against the 13th-ranked Redhawks (9-5-0, 2-1-0), who have gone five years without beating North.
“I thought Cam was fantastic,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “He was dangerous and the other forwards did a good job of filling in and applying pressure and tracking runners.”
Just like he did in the first meeting, Radeke opened the scoring, burying a rebound of his own shot with 27:46 left in the first half.
Indiana commit Alex Barger started the play from along the left sideline near midfield, lofting a perfect ball over the backline that Radeke ran onto as he got behind the defender.
Naperville Central goalkeeper Dean Scott came out to block the initial shot, but Radeke alertly beat him to the rebound and scored into an the empty net.
“That was a really good ball,” Radeke said. “Once I saw (Barger) look down at the ball and just cock his foot back, I just knew that he was going to play that to me.
“I just tried to get on the end of it, got a good touch and ended up finishing it. (Scott) made a really good save at the beginning and I just recovered the ball back in, put it far right.”
Unlike the first game against the Redhawks, Radeke also finished the scoring. He converted a penalty kick at the 8:46 mark of the second half to put the game out of reach.
Goalkeeper Patrick Horn made three saves to record Naperville North’s eighth shutout.
“It’s always great to beat Central,” Horn said. “We beat them the first time, and they knew what was coming, so we went out there and did our thing. We got it done.”
Though Naperville Central had more of the offensive pressure in the second half, they couldn’t break through. Horn credited defenders Cole Ritzmann, Adam Zielke, Ryan Konrad and Alex Arredondo with keeping him unscathed.
“I didn’t have to do much,” Horn said. “The back guys just blocked everything, so I was really happy with that.
“They just kind of took the hit. They did everything they could do. I love it.”
Coach Konrad, on the other hand, was not pleased with the overall performance. He noted that Naperville Central missed three wide-open chances and the Huskies, aside from Radeke, failed to finish, too.
“Both teams left a lot of goals on the field today,” he said. “That game could have been 4-3 either way.
“Central put us under a ton of pressure. We really struggled in the midfield with tracking runners and marking. I’m super disappointed with the way we played in the midfield.
“The backline battled, but they were on their heels. They were focused on doing simple things like clearing balls. We have a ton to work on.”
Radeke agreed.
“I think everyone felt that (Naperville Central) easily could have scored a couple of goals,” Radeke said. “They missed a few right off the ground.
“It definitely feels like they maybe should have won this game. We just need to play better all around.”
But there’s one area of the field that needs particular improvement.
“We’ve just got to get a little more disciplined and have a tougher mindset in the midfield,” Konrad said. “We want to be competing at that Top 10 level.
“I know that we’re winning games, but we got some breaks tonight. They missed a couple sitters, and we left some that could have cost us. We’re fortunate to win.
“Obviously, it was a great result, but it was not our best effort and so we’ve got to get better to wrap up DVC.”
Naperville Central sophomore defender Patrick Bohan said the Redhawks also have to be better.
“I think we played an overall pretty good game,” Bohan said. “We just need to work on finishing our shots.
“We had a lot of really good opportunities, but we just couldn’t finish. We’ve got to keep working on it, and hopefully we get to play them again in the playoffs.”
There are still 3-and-a-half weeks before the playoffs arrive, and Naperville Central coach Troy Adams knows all about how fickle the game can me. It has been feast or famine for his club’s offense, which after scoring 19 goals in its previous three outings was shut out for the third time in six games and fourth time overall.
“We had opportunities,” Adams said. “Sports comes down to capitalizing on opportunities. We did (have them), but unfortunately we weren’t able to put them in.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, you’ve got to be able to finish chances when they’re presented. We didn’t, and they did.”
Naperville North converted on a long ball for its first goal rather than a build-up.
“We have to learn how to deal with balls that are not necessarily built from the back, that are kind of launched at us and being able to deal with the physicality of their forwards,” Adams said. “They did a good job of executing that game plan that they have, and we need to keep improving on being able to deal with that.
“I don’t think we played poorly. We just didn’t quite execute the way we need to.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Patrick Horn
D Cole Ritzmann
D Adam Zielke
D Ryan Konrad
D Alex Arredondo
M Tyson Amoo-Mensah
M Jacob Ryu
M Bryan Higgs
F Cam Radeke
F Alex Barger
F Keegan Flaherty
Naperville Central
GK Dean Scott
D Mateo Lopez
D Patrick Berryman
D Patrick Bohan
M Carter Adams
M Josh Weigel
M Sean O’Reilly
M Matt Driessens
M Johnny Kim
F Benjmain Tietjen
F Nathan Kwon
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Cam Radeke, sr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Cam Radeke 27:26 remaining
Second half
Naperville North – Radeke (PK) 8:46 remaining
Senior Radeke provides offense in big 2-0 DuPage Valley win
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North forward Cam Radeke scored one goal in the Huskies’ 2-1 win over Naperville Central in the Best of the West Tournament title game on Sept. 4 at Memorial Stadium.
Seventeen days later, and on the same field, the crosstown rivals met again, this time in their annual DuPage Valley Conference match.
This time Radeke found the back of the net twice, and the result was a 2-0 victory that put the Huskies (9-2-2, 3-0-0) in the driver’s seat of the league race with two games remaining. Every other league team has at least one loss.
The Wright State-bound Radeke leads the Huskies, who ranked fourth in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, with six goals. Half have come against the 13th-ranked Redhawks (9-5-0, 2-1-0), who have gone five years without beating North.
“I thought Cam was fantastic,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “He was dangerous and the other forwards did a good job of filling in and applying pressure and tracking runners.”
Just like he did in the first meeting, Radeke opened the scoring, burying a rebound of his own shot with 27:46 left in the first half.
Indiana commit Alex Barger started the play from along the left sideline near midfield, lofting a perfect ball over the backline that Radeke ran onto as he got behind the defender.
Naperville Central goalkeeper Dean Scott came out to block the initial shot, but Radeke alertly beat him to the rebound and scored into an the empty net.
“That was a really good ball,” Radeke said. “Once I saw (Barger) look down at the ball and just cock his foot back, I just knew that he was going to play that to me.
“I just tried to get on the end of it, got a good touch and ended up finishing it. (Scott) made a really good save at the beginning and I just recovered the ball back in, put it far right.”
Unlike the first game against the Redhawks, Radeke also finished the scoring. He converted a penalty kick at the 8:46 mark of the second half to put the game out of reach.
Goalkeeper Patrick Horn made three saves to record Naperville North’s eighth shutout.
“It’s always great to beat Central,” Horn said. “We beat them the first time, and they knew what was coming, so we went out there and did our thing. We got it done.”
Though Naperville Central had more of the offensive pressure in the second half, they couldn’t break through. Horn credited defenders Cole Ritzmann, Adam Zielke, Ryan Konrad and Alex Arredondo with keeping him unscathed.
“I didn’t have to do much,” Horn said. “The back guys just blocked everything, so I was really happy with that.
“They just kind of took the hit. They did everything they could do. I love it.”
Coach Konrad, on the other hand, was not pleased with the overall performance. He noted that Naperville Central missed three wide-open chances and the Huskies, aside from Radeke, failed to finish, too.
“Both teams left a lot of goals on the field today,” he said. “That game could have been 4-3 either way.
“Central put us under a ton of pressure. We really struggled in the midfield with tracking runners and marking. I’m super disappointed with the way we played in the midfield.
“The backline battled, but they were on their heels. They were focused on doing simple things like clearing balls. We have a ton to work on.”
Radeke agreed.
“I think everyone felt that (Naperville Central) easily could have scored a couple of goals,” Radeke said. “They missed a few right off the ground.
“It definitely feels like they maybe should have won this game. We just need to play better all around.”
But there’s one area of the field that needs particular improvement.
“We’ve just got to get a little more disciplined and have a tougher mindset in the midfield,” Konrad said. “We want to be competing at that Top 10 level.
“I know that we’re winning games, but we got some breaks tonight. They missed a couple sitters, and we left some that could have cost us. We’re fortunate to win.
“Obviously, it was a great result, but it was not our best effort and so we’ve got to get better to wrap up DVC.”
Naperville Central sophomore defender Patrick Bohan said the Redhawks also have to be better.
“I think we played an overall pretty good game,” Bohan said. “We just need to work on finishing our shots.
“We had a lot of really good opportunities, but we just couldn’t finish. We’ve got to keep working on it, and hopefully we get to play them again in the playoffs.”
There are still 3-and-a-half weeks before the playoffs arrive, and Naperville Central coach Troy Adams knows all about how fickle the game can me. It has been feast or famine for his club’s offense, which after scoring 19 goals in its previous three outings was shut out for the third time in six games and fourth time overall.
“We had opportunities,” Adams said. “Sports comes down to capitalizing on opportunities. We did (have them), but unfortunately we weren’t able to put them in.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what sport it is, you’ve got to be able to finish chances when they’re presented. We didn’t, and they did.”
Naperville North converted on a long ball for its first goal rather than a build-up.
“We have to learn how to deal with balls that are not necessarily built from the back, that are kind of launched at us and being able to deal with the physicality of their forwards,” Adams said. “They did a good job of executing that game plan that they have, and we need to keep improving on being able to deal with that.
“I don’t think we played poorly. We just didn’t quite execute the way we need to.”
Starting lineups
Naperville North
GK Patrick Horn
D Cole Ritzmann
D Adam Zielke
D Ryan Konrad
D Alex Arredondo
M Tyson Amoo-Mensah
M Jacob Ryu
M Bryan Higgs
F Cam Radeke
F Alex Barger
F Keegan Flaherty
Naperville Central
GK Dean Scott
D Mateo Lopez
D Patrick Berryman
D Patrick Bohan
M Carter Adams
M Josh Weigel
M Sean O’Reilly
M Matt Driessens
M Johnny Kim
F Benjmain Tietjen
F Nathan Kwon
Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match: Cam Radeke, sr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Cam Radeke 27:26 remaining
Second half
Naperville North – Radeke (PK) 8:46 remaining