Neuqua Valley can't slow Naperville North
4-1 win puts Huskies back in sectional final; Naperville C. is next
By Matt Le Cren
PLAINFIELD -- If you’re a Naperville North fan, you could say you were in seventh heaven Tuesday evening.
If you rooted for Neuqua Valley, well, you found yourself in set piece purgatory.
Both are common places to be.
Naperville North advanced to its seventh-consecutive sectional championship game when it beat Neuqua Valley 4-1 at the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional semifinals. The top-seeded Huskies (20-5-2) did it by scoring on three corner kicks, a scenario that is all too familiar for North opponents.
Naperville North scored on its first two shots, which came exactly 60 seconds apart early in the first half. Both were off of Alex Barger corner kicks.
The first came in the fifth minute when senior Keegan Flaherty intercepted a clearance and fired a shot from the top of the box that ricocheted off a defender and into the net.
Junior Ryan Konrad then made it 2-0 when he headed home Barger’s serve from the far post.
“You cannot turn it off on set pieces,” Neuqua Valley coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. “This is all we talked about – defending set pieces.
“Listen, have you not seen what they can do on set pieces? We’re not paying attention to the ball.
“It was a very slow start. You can’t go down 2-0 against Naperville, and think it’s going to be a walk in the park. Can you come back? Yes, but it’s going to be very difficult.”
Still, the 13th-seeded Wildcats (9-10-1) tried their best to continue their Cinderella tournament run, which saw them upset fourth-seed West Aurora and no. 5-seed Plainfield East to win their first regional title since 2016.
Senior Ved Asur got Neuqua Valley on the board with 36:49 left in the second half. Star forward Jack Georgi dribbled into the right side of the box and launched a shot that was blocked in front of the near post. Sanath Dachepalli kicked it free in the crease, and Asur pounced to cut the gap to 2-1.
“We didn’t play that great in the first half,” Naperville North forward Cam Radeke said. “They came out at us really hard.
“Once they got that goal in the second half, we kind of got nervous. But we ended up shutting them down again, so it was good.”
The Wright State-bound Radeke was a big reason why. He capped the scoring with 9:43 to go when he took a pass from Jacob Ryu at midfield, raced 1-on-1 with a defender up the field and beat Neuqua goalkeeper Nick Varrone was a 20-yard rocket inside the far post.
It was Radeke’s team-high 16th goal of the season.
“Up until that point I wasn’t really playing the best,” Radeke said. “To get that took a weight off my shoulders and really secured the game.”
Radeke also had a role in Tyson Amoo-Mensah’s game-changing goal, which came six minutes after Asur’s goal and restored North’s two-goal cushion.
Once again, it came off a Barger corner kick. Varrone did his best to keep the ball out of the net, knocking a header into the right post, then scrambling across the goal to make a kick save on Radeke.
Varrone’s second stop deflected Radeke’s shot into the left post, from whence the ball caromed into the crease. No Neuqua defenders were present, but Amoo-Mensah was and the DePaul recruit buried the sitter for his third goal of the season.
“We scored the goal; we had the momentum, and we gave up another easy one,” Gonzalez lamented. “Nick did his part, but we were standing around.
“What happened? Untouched. We had too many of those goals throughout the season. When you have that, you’re not going to give yourself an opportunity to win when you have so many unchallenged balls.”
Amoo-Mensah plays mostly defensive midfield, so he usually doesn’t get many opportunities to score.
“All I did, I made the run that I was supposed to make and then as soon as it came across, I just slotted it in,” Amoo-Mensah said. “The whole team, we work collectively.
“My role on the team is mostly defensive, but I’m glad to get one in to help the team win.”
So were his teammates.
“It was really nice,” Radeke said. “The ball just came over in a lane, and I don’t know what I did.
“I just kind of hit it back in and saw Tyson finish. He really deserves that goal, so I’m glad he scored that.
“Because often in the stats you don’t really see it, like how much work he puts in. He puts a lot of work into defending, and he’s just all over the field.”
Naperville North coach Jim Konrad was glad to see all three of his Division I commits score points, especially Amoo-Mensah and Radeke finding the back of the net in the second half.
“Obviously, I’m happy for any of the guys when they score,” Jim Konrad said. “I was also glad for Cam to get one at the end, because he was a little frustrated.
“The center back did a good job on him today. When you’re a goal-scorer, you need goals.
“Tyson is a guy that just likes to get in the middle and get dirty and grind. If he scores, I’m happy for him, but he gets his energy from just defending and running and battling.”
Amoo-Mensah committed to DePaul on Oct. 17, a move that has special meaning for Jim Konrad. The Blue Demons are coached by Mark Plotkin, who played for Konrad.
“Mark is a wonderful guy, so I’m thrilled that I finally have a guy playing at DePaul under Plotkin,” Jim Konrad said. “I think it will be a good fit for Tyson.”
The sectional final Saturday will be the third for Amoo-Mensah -- there was no postseason played during last spring’s pandemic-shortened season -- and he knows what to expect.
Tuesday’s effort, while good, will not be enough against rival Naperville Central if the Huskies want to win their fifth-straight sectional crown.
“Give respect to Neuqua,” Amoo-Mensah said. “They played a great game.
“We worked really hard, but we could have played a lot better on the technical side. There’s still a lot of things that we need to work on going into the next game to get the result that we want.”
North’s opponent will be a familiar one. The cross-town third improved to 15-7-1 after it edged second-seeded Oswego East 3-2 in the other semifinal.
The Huskies beat the Redhawks twice in the regular-season: 2-1 in the Best of the West Tournament final on Sept. 4; and 2-0 in DuPage Valley Conference victory that helped boost them to an eighth-straight league title on Sept. 21.
The Redhawks haven’t beaten the Huskies since 2016, but they were also the last team to defeat North in a sectional final. That came on a 1-0 decision in 2015.
“I wouldn’t say this was our best game,” Jim Konrad said. “We were fortunate to get those goals early.
“We’re going to have to be better to compete on Saturday. We have to work on some stuff defensively and be ready to go on Saturday.”
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 Keegan Flaherty
F Alex Barger
Neuqua Valley
GK Nick Varrone
D Derek Sisbarro
D Tomas Puente
D Vishnu Dachepalli
D Justin Senese
M Harshit Gupta
M Sanath Dachepalli
M Akul Dachepalli
F Jack Georgi
F Ved Asur
F John Pochyly
Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Game – Tyson Amoo-Mensah, sr., M, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Keegan Flaherty 35:46 remaining
Naperville North – Ryan Konrad (Alex Barger) 34:46 remaining
Second half
Neuqua Valley – Ved Asur (Sanath Dachepalli) 36:49 remaining
Naperville North – Tyson Amoo-Mensah 30:54 remaining
Naperville North – Cam Radeke (Jacob Ryu) 9:43 remaining
4-1 win puts Huskies back in sectional final; Naperville C. is next
By Matt Le Cren
PLAINFIELD -- If you’re a Naperville North fan, you could say you were in seventh heaven Tuesday evening.
If you rooted for Neuqua Valley, well, you found yourself in set piece purgatory.
Both are common places to be.
Naperville North advanced to its seventh-consecutive sectional championship game when it beat Neuqua Valley 4-1 at the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional semifinals. The top-seeded Huskies (20-5-2) did it by scoring on three corner kicks, a scenario that is all too familiar for North opponents.
Naperville North scored on its first two shots, which came exactly 60 seconds apart early in the first half. Both were off of Alex Barger corner kicks.
The first came in the fifth minute when senior Keegan Flaherty intercepted a clearance and fired a shot from the top of the box that ricocheted off a defender and into the net.
Junior Ryan Konrad then made it 2-0 when he headed home Barger’s serve from the far post.
“You cannot turn it off on set pieces,” Neuqua Valley coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. “This is all we talked about – defending set pieces.
“Listen, have you not seen what they can do on set pieces? We’re not paying attention to the ball.
“It was a very slow start. You can’t go down 2-0 against Naperville, and think it’s going to be a walk in the park. Can you come back? Yes, but it’s going to be very difficult.”
Still, the 13th-seeded Wildcats (9-10-1) tried their best to continue their Cinderella tournament run, which saw them upset fourth-seed West Aurora and no. 5-seed Plainfield East to win their first regional title since 2016.
Senior Ved Asur got Neuqua Valley on the board with 36:49 left in the second half. Star forward Jack Georgi dribbled into the right side of the box and launched a shot that was blocked in front of the near post. Sanath Dachepalli kicked it free in the crease, and Asur pounced to cut the gap to 2-1.
“We didn’t play that great in the first half,” Naperville North forward Cam Radeke said. “They came out at us really hard.
“Once they got that goal in the second half, we kind of got nervous. But we ended up shutting them down again, so it was good.”
The Wright State-bound Radeke was a big reason why. He capped the scoring with 9:43 to go when he took a pass from Jacob Ryu at midfield, raced 1-on-1 with a defender up the field and beat Neuqua goalkeeper Nick Varrone was a 20-yard rocket inside the far post.
It was Radeke’s team-high 16th goal of the season.
“Up until that point I wasn’t really playing the best,” Radeke said. “To get that took a weight off my shoulders and really secured the game.”
Radeke also had a role in Tyson Amoo-Mensah’s game-changing goal, which came six minutes after Asur’s goal and restored North’s two-goal cushion.
Once again, it came off a Barger corner kick. Varrone did his best to keep the ball out of the net, knocking a header into the right post, then scrambling across the goal to make a kick save on Radeke.
Varrone’s second stop deflected Radeke’s shot into the left post, from whence the ball caromed into the crease. No Neuqua defenders were present, but Amoo-Mensah was and the DePaul recruit buried the sitter for his third goal of the season.
“We scored the goal; we had the momentum, and we gave up another easy one,” Gonzalez lamented. “Nick did his part, but we were standing around.
“What happened? Untouched. We had too many of those goals throughout the season. When you have that, you’re not going to give yourself an opportunity to win when you have so many unchallenged balls.”
Amoo-Mensah plays mostly defensive midfield, so he usually doesn’t get many opportunities to score.
“All I did, I made the run that I was supposed to make and then as soon as it came across, I just slotted it in,” Amoo-Mensah said. “The whole team, we work collectively.
“My role on the team is mostly defensive, but I’m glad to get one in to help the team win.”
So were his teammates.
“It was really nice,” Radeke said. “The ball just came over in a lane, and I don’t know what I did.
“I just kind of hit it back in and saw Tyson finish. He really deserves that goal, so I’m glad he scored that.
“Because often in the stats you don’t really see it, like how much work he puts in. He puts a lot of work into defending, and he’s just all over the field.”
Naperville North coach Jim Konrad was glad to see all three of his Division I commits score points, especially Amoo-Mensah and Radeke finding the back of the net in the second half.
“Obviously, I’m happy for any of the guys when they score,” Jim Konrad said. “I was also glad for Cam to get one at the end, because he was a little frustrated.
“The center back did a good job on him today. When you’re a goal-scorer, you need goals.
“Tyson is a guy that just likes to get in the middle and get dirty and grind. If he scores, I’m happy for him, but he gets his energy from just defending and running and battling.”
Amoo-Mensah committed to DePaul on Oct. 17, a move that has special meaning for Jim Konrad. The Blue Demons are coached by Mark Plotkin, who played for Konrad.
“Mark is a wonderful guy, so I’m thrilled that I finally have a guy playing at DePaul under Plotkin,” Jim Konrad said. “I think it will be a good fit for Tyson.”
The sectional final Saturday will be the third for Amoo-Mensah -- there was no postseason played during last spring’s pandemic-shortened season -- and he knows what to expect.
Tuesday’s effort, while good, will not be enough against rival Naperville Central if the Huskies want to win their fifth-straight sectional crown.
“Give respect to Neuqua,” Amoo-Mensah said. “They played a great game.
“We worked really hard, but we could have played a lot better on the technical side. There’s still a lot of things that we need to work on going into the next game to get the result that we want.”
North’s opponent will be a familiar one. The cross-town third improved to 15-7-1 after it edged second-seeded Oswego East 3-2 in the other semifinal.
The Huskies beat the Redhawks twice in the regular-season: 2-1 in the Best of the West Tournament final on Sept. 4; and 2-0 in DuPage Valley Conference victory that helped boost them to an eighth-straight league title on Sept. 21.
The Redhawks haven’t beaten the Huskies since 2016, but they were also the last team to defeat North in a sectional final. That came on a 1-0 decision in 2015.
“I wouldn’t say this was our best game,” Jim Konrad said. “We were fortunate to get those goals early.
“We’re going to have to be better to compete on Saturday. We have to work on some stuff defensively and be ready to go on Saturday.”
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 Keegan Flaherty
F Alex Barger
Neuqua Valley
GK Nick Varrone
D Derek Sisbarro
D Tomas Puente
D Vishnu Dachepalli
D Justin Senese
M Harshit Gupta
M Sanath Dachepalli
M Akul Dachepalli
F Jack Georgi
F Ved Asur
F John Pochyly
Chicagoland Soccer Player of the Game – Tyson Amoo-Mensah, sr., M, Naperville North.
Scoring summary
First half
Naperville North – Keegan Flaherty 35:46 remaining
Naperville North – Ryan Konrad (Alex Barger) 34:46 remaining
Second half
Neuqua Valley – Ved Asur (Sanath Dachepalli) 36:49 remaining
Naperville North – Tyson Amoo-Mensah 30:54 remaining
Naperville North – Cam Radeke (Jacob Ryu) 9:43 remaining