Class 3A semifinal:
Naperville Central vs. Stevenson
By Curt Herron
As a young coach, Troy Adams got the opportunity to enjoy a very special experience when he led Naperville Central to two second place finishes and a third place showing during his second, third and fourth seasons at the Redhawks helm from 2011-2013. The streak returned the program to the state finals for the first time since it claimed second place in in its only previous trip in 1988.
Three-year performers Devon Amoo-Mensah, Sam Reskala, Drake Swope and Jay Tegge and two-year regulars Connor Allen, Pat Flynn, Jordi Heeneman, David Murphy, Jack Patrick, Mike Pavliga and Mike West helped lead the Redhawks to records of 19-5-0, 23-2-0 and 19-3-2. The first two squads fell in the finals on early overtime goals by Morton and Warren; the third group lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Edwardsville.
Now Adams hopes that the goalkeeping duo of senior Austin Waite and junior Dylan Scott, and the regular starting lineup of backliners senior Carter Bilik and juniors Patrick Berryman, Patrick Bohan and Michael Cavalleri, senior midfielders Sean O'Reilly and senior Josh Weigel, senior forwards Nathan Kwon and Joey LoDuca and his sons, junior midfielder Carter and freshman forward Chase will be among the names history shows helped the Redhawks win their first state championship.
Naperville Central (24-3-1), who was ranked third in the final Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, meets fifth-ranked Stevenson (21-0-3) at 7 p.m. Friday in an IHSA Class 3A semifinal at Hoffman Estates High School. The winner draws either defending 3A champion and second-ranked York (20-0-3) or eighth-ranked Romeoville (27-1-1) in Saturday's 8 p.m. title match.
The Redhawks earned their first state appearance since 2013 with a 4-3 victory over Hinsdale Central in Tuesday's East Aurora Supersectional. Cavalleri, LoDuca, Bohan and Chase Adams scored goals while LoDuca, Bohan, Weigel and Kwon had assists.
Naperville Central brings an eight-match winning streak into the contest, which includes a 2-0 semifinal win over West Aurora and 3-2 title victory over rival Naperville North at Bolingbrook for the seventh sectional championship in program history. The first came in 1988 when coach John Paskvalich led the school to its first second place finish.
The Redhawks are unbeaten in their last 16 matches (15-0-1). After suffering their last loss, a shootout defeat against Conant in a BodyArmor championship match Sept. 18, they won their next seven matches before settling for a 2-2 draw with Benet on Oct. 4.
During the current streak, Naperville Central has outscored its opponents by a 50-13 margin and has recorded eight shutouts while allowing just one goal on four occasions.
Adams' squad owns victories over six teams that were ranked in the top 20: no. 4 Morton; no. 7 Naperville North; no. 8 Romeoville; no. 10 Oak Park and River Forest; no. 12 St. Charles East; and no. 19 Hinsdale Central (twice).
The Redhawks closed out their regular-season with a bang on October 13 when they captured a 4-0 home win over Romeoville, handing the state semifinalist Spartans their only defeat and snapping their 13-match winning streak.
Chase Adams leads the squad with 22 goals and 18 assists. LoDuca ranks second in both categories with 21 and 11 helpers. Kwon has scored 13 goals and three assists; Weigel has a dozen goals and nine assists. Cavalleri has five goals.
The Redhawks are a young team with only seven seniors on the squad. They are defender Owen Stephens, Waite, Bilik, Kwon, LoDuca, O'Reilly and Weigel. Captains for the Redhawks are Berryman, Bohan and Weigel.
The Redhawks won the championship of the DuPage Valley Conference and had seven all-conference selections: Chase Adams, Berryman, Bohan, Kwon, LoDuca, Waite and Weigel. Chase Adams won the conference's Golden Boot award; Kwon shared honors for the Silver Boot. Waite received the Golden Gloves award. Sophomore Benjamin Saylan and Bilik both received sportsmanship awards.
Troy Adams now ranks third among all Naperville Central coaches for most state trophies won with four. The only coaches who've won more hardware were Bill Salentine with eight in boys water polo and Mike Adams with seven in swimming and diving.
"To advance out of our sectional, with the depth and quality of teams in it, and then beat a talented and organized team like Hinsdale Central shows how hard these players have worked for the past year," Troy Adams said.
"The seven seniors have done an amazing job of keeping the team focused on our goals and making each training session and game valuable. The schedule we play during the regular-season helped to test us, teach us what we need to do better and give us experience in tough, challenging environments.
"We have gotten contributions from everyone this year. We have five or six players with 20 or more points and everyone on defense has played a major role in our success this year. Winning a state title has always been a program goal at Naperville Central. We are excited for the chance to compete again for one."
Stevenson makes its second state appearance after its 2012 debut. In the middle year of Naperville Central's run of three-straight state trips from 2011-13, the Patriots fell 3-0 to the Redhawks in the semifinals and took home fourth place honors after a 1-0 defeat to Sandburg.
That squad was coached by Mark Schartner, who led the Patriots for 33 years and won 427 matches. He ranks eighth in victories among Illinois boys coaches.
PepeJon Chavez is in his third season leading Stevenson and owns a 46-5-7 record. His 2021 team recorded a 15-2-4 mark and fell in the sectional semifinals to eventual state runnerup Fremd.
The leading goal scorer for the Patriots is senior midfielder Daniel Sokolovsky, who has 13 goals and six assists. Senior midfielder Bryant Rouse has 10 goals and nine assists, senior forward Filip Janda has eight goals, senior midfielder Rohan Gopalam has seven goals and six assists and senior defender Nazar Mormul has 10 assists.
Senior goalkeeper Aidan Morris has allowed 20 goals in 20 matches for a 1.00 GAA and has made 95 saves. Stevenson has recorded nine shutouts and allowed one goal on nine other occasions. Captains for the Patriots, who won the North Suburban Conference, are senior defenders Owen Zakrzewski, Steven Nyc and Mormul.
The Patriots have played to three draws. The first two were 3-3 deadlocks against Leyden (Aug. 25) and Zion-Benton (Sept. 22); the last was a 1-1 score line against Round Lake (Oct. 11). The team won nine in a row between its first two draws. It heads into the Final Four on a six-match win streak.
During the postseason, Stevenson has outscored its opponents by an 11-4 margin. It scored 2-1 wins over Fremd and Waukegan in the Buffalo Grove Sectional before capturing a 1-0 victory over New Trier in the Hersey Supersectional.
While the Patriots have won 10 state titles in boys sports, they've only won three championships in a tournament that was bracketed. The most recent was water polo in 2021.
The school's most famous boys championship happened in 2015 when Illinois Player of the Year and current New York Knicks player Jalen Brunson led the Patriots to the Class 4A title in boys basketball.
Naperville Central vs. Stevenson
By Curt Herron
As a young coach, Troy Adams got the opportunity to enjoy a very special experience when he led Naperville Central to two second place finishes and a third place showing during his second, third and fourth seasons at the Redhawks helm from 2011-2013. The streak returned the program to the state finals for the first time since it claimed second place in in its only previous trip in 1988.
Three-year performers Devon Amoo-Mensah, Sam Reskala, Drake Swope and Jay Tegge and two-year regulars Connor Allen, Pat Flynn, Jordi Heeneman, David Murphy, Jack Patrick, Mike Pavliga and Mike West helped lead the Redhawks to records of 19-5-0, 23-2-0 and 19-3-2. The first two squads fell in the finals on early overtime goals by Morton and Warren; the third group lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Edwardsville.
Now Adams hopes that the goalkeeping duo of senior Austin Waite and junior Dylan Scott, and the regular starting lineup of backliners senior Carter Bilik and juniors Patrick Berryman, Patrick Bohan and Michael Cavalleri, senior midfielders Sean O'Reilly and senior Josh Weigel, senior forwards Nathan Kwon and Joey LoDuca and his sons, junior midfielder Carter and freshman forward Chase will be among the names history shows helped the Redhawks win their first state championship.
Naperville Central (24-3-1), who was ranked third in the final Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, meets fifth-ranked Stevenson (21-0-3) at 7 p.m. Friday in an IHSA Class 3A semifinal at Hoffman Estates High School. The winner draws either defending 3A champion and second-ranked York (20-0-3) or eighth-ranked Romeoville (27-1-1) in Saturday's 8 p.m. title match.
The Redhawks earned their first state appearance since 2013 with a 4-3 victory over Hinsdale Central in Tuesday's East Aurora Supersectional. Cavalleri, LoDuca, Bohan and Chase Adams scored goals while LoDuca, Bohan, Weigel and Kwon had assists.
Naperville Central brings an eight-match winning streak into the contest, which includes a 2-0 semifinal win over West Aurora and 3-2 title victory over rival Naperville North at Bolingbrook for the seventh sectional championship in program history. The first came in 1988 when coach John Paskvalich led the school to its first second place finish.
The Redhawks are unbeaten in their last 16 matches (15-0-1). After suffering their last loss, a shootout defeat against Conant in a BodyArmor championship match Sept. 18, they won their next seven matches before settling for a 2-2 draw with Benet on Oct. 4.
During the current streak, Naperville Central has outscored its opponents by a 50-13 margin and has recorded eight shutouts while allowing just one goal on four occasions.
Adams' squad owns victories over six teams that were ranked in the top 20: no. 4 Morton; no. 7 Naperville North; no. 8 Romeoville; no. 10 Oak Park and River Forest; no. 12 St. Charles East; and no. 19 Hinsdale Central (twice).
The Redhawks closed out their regular-season with a bang on October 13 when they captured a 4-0 home win over Romeoville, handing the state semifinalist Spartans their only defeat and snapping their 13-match winning streak.
Chase Adams leads the squad with 22 goals and 18 assists. LoDuca ranks second in both categories with 21 and 11 helpers. Kwon has scored 13 goals and three assists; Weigel has a dozen goals and nine assists. Cavalleri has five goals.
The Redhawks are a young team with only seven seniors on the squad. They are defender Owen Stephens, Waite, Bilik, Kwon, LoDuca, O'Reilly and Weigel. Captains for the Redhawks are Berryman, Bohan and Weigel.
The Redhawks won the championship of the DuPage Valley Conference and had seven all-conference selections: Chase Adams, Berryman, Bohan, Kwon, LoDuca, Waite and Weigel. Chase Adams won the conference's Golden Boot award; Kwon shared honors for the Silver Boot. Waite received the Golden Gloves award. Sophomore Benjamin Saylan and Bilik both received sportsmanship awards.
Troy Adams now ranks third among all Naperville Central coaches for most state trophies won with four. The only coaches who've won more hardware were Bill Salentine with eight in boys water polo and Mike Adams with seven in swimming and diving.
"To advance out of our sectional, with the depth and quality of teams in it, and then beat a talented and organized team like Hinsdale Central shows how hard these players have worked for the past year," Troy Adams said.
"The seven seniors have done an amazing job of keeping the team focused on our goals and making each training session and game valuable. The schedule we play during the regular-season helped to test us, teach us what we need to do better and give us experience in tough, challenging environments.
"We have gotten contributions from everyone this year. We have five or six players with 20 or more points and everyone on defense has played a major role in our success this year. Winning a state title has always been a program goal at Naperville Central. We are excited for the chance to compete again for one."
Stevenson makes its second state appearance after its 2012 debut. In the middle year of Naperville Central's run of three-straight state trips from 2011-13, the Patriots fell 3-0 to the Redhawks in the semifinals and took home fourth place honors after a 1-0 defeat to Sandburg.
That squad was coached by Mark Schartner, who led the Patriots for 33 years and won 427 matches. He ranks eighth in victories among Illinois boys coaches.
PepeJon Chavez is in his third season leading Stevenson and owns a 46-5-7 record. His 2021 team recorded a 15-2-4 mark and fell in the sectional semifinals to eventual state runnerup Fremd.
The leading goal scorer for the Patriots is senior midfielder Daniel Sokolovsky, who has 13 goals and six assists. Senior midfielder Bryant Rouse has 10 goals and nine assists, senior forward Filip Janda has eight goals, senior midfielder Rohan Gopalam has seven goals and six assists and senior defender Nazar Mormul has 10 assists.
Senior goalkeeper Aidan Morris has allowed 20 goals in 20 matches for a 1.00 GAA and has made 95 saves. Stevenson has recorded nine shutouts and allowed one goal on nine other occasions. Captains for the Patriots, who won the North Suburban Conference, are senior defenders Owen Zakrzewski, Steven Nyc and Mormul.
The Patriots have played to three draws. The first two were 3-3 deadlocks against Leyden (Aug. 25) and Zion-Benton (Sept. 22); the last was a 1-1 score line against Round Lake (Oct. 11). The team won nine in a row between its first two draws. It heads into the Final Four on a six-match win streak.
During the postseason, Stevenson has outscored its opponents by an 11-4 margin. It scored 2-1 wins over Fremd and Waukegan in the Buffalo Grove Sectional before capturing a 1-0 victory over New Trier in the Hersey Supersectional.
While the Patriots have won 10 state titles in boys sports, they've only won three championships in a tournament that was bracketed. The most recent was water polo in 2021.
The school's most famous boys championship happened in 2015 when Illinois Player of the Year and current New York Knicks player Jalen Brunson led the Patriots to the Class 4A title in boys basketball.