Naperville Central's late goals sting Tigers

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By Matt Le Cren

Naperville Central was in like Flynn Tuesday night.

Pat Flynn, that is.

After being kept at bay for over 62 minutes by Wheaton Warrenville South’s gritty defensive effort, Flynn scored twice in a five-minute span late in the second half to propel the visiting Redhawks to a 2-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory at Red Grange Field in Wheaton.

The win was the fourth straight for Naperville Central (7-1, 3-0), which remained in sole possession of first place in the DVC, a half-game ahead of Naperville North (8-0-1, 2-0).

“The last three games the points of emphasis have been we play strong, we just don’t finish in the beginning of the game and that was true today again,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “I would say we had the better of the play in the first half but it didn’t result in a goal.

“The halftime speech was, it doesn’t matter how much you control the game or how you possess the game. If you don’t score it’s all for naught. The nice thing is we talked at halftime about our central mids being a little bit more dynamic, making runs actually at speed. That was the first goal, so it was nice to see that we took something we talked about and applied it to the game.”

The play that broke the ice came with 17:35 left in the second half, when junior midfielder Jack Patrick won a ball at midfield and threaded a perfect lead pass through two defenders to Flynn racing up the right wing.

Flynn got it in stride as he angled toward the goal, took a couple of touches and then slid a short shot under the arm of Tigers goalie Tim Reinders and inside the left post to give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead.

“The first goal was just a great ball from Jack Patrick,” Flynn said. “He saw me running and he played it right through the defense. It was a good diagonal ball. That’s what we’ve been preaching all day and so I was happy that we could put one in the back of the net and capitalize.”

Five minutes later, the Redhawks capitalized again on something else they’ve struggled with this fall.

This time it was defender Mike Plant who got things started by blasting a 35-yard free kick from the left wing into the middle of the WW South box. The ball ricocheted off a defender to the top of the box, where Flynn was anticipating an opportunity. He got it and blasted a shot off the inside of the right post and in for his sixth goal of the year.

“It was a free kick by Plant and it was a good ball and it bounced around in the box,” said Flynn, who now has two multiple-goal games this season. “I was holding the 18, saw the opportunity and just took it, hit it pretty much as hard as I could and found the post and it went in.

“We’d been working hard all game. Especially in the first half we had a lot of opportunities and couldn’t seem to get one on frame, so I was happy.”

While the Redhawks have been winning on the strength of their defense, the offense has left a lot to be desired, so Adams was happy to see Flynn finish like that.

“We have probably spent in the last two practices at least two hours on playing some kind of a small-sided game with just striking the ball, because it’s almost frustrating,” Adams said. “It’s good opportunity, bad shot. Hopefully that’s one of those things [where] if we get one of those we start getting some goals like that, where we strike the ball well and score. We haven’t had a lot of those this year.”

Naperville Central outshot the Tigers 6-3 in the first half and 13-5 overall, but the hosts were doing a good job of shutting down the middle until Flynn’s first goal.

“We held fairly well,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “We just kind of relaxed just for a second and they took advantage of the situation and we weren’t balanced enough in the back to control that type of ball played through and you’ve got to give them credit. They made a nice pass and a great finish. It was certainly worthy.”

The Redhawks ultimately prevailed because of their strength in the air, particularly in the midfield behind the play of Flynn, Patrick and senior Adam Hamielec.

“Our central mid did a much better job of winning balls in the air today than we’ve done in the past,” Adams said. “It was nice to see that. I’d guess 75 to 80 percent of the balls in the air, we won.

“As much as it’s nice to get possession, it’s those dirty little deeds that somehow get you wins. That’s the difference between getting a win and a loss at some point. You’ve got to have some guys on the team who are willing to do that.

“[Patrick] had a great game. He had a nice assist to Pat and he had a ton of balls in the air that he won, and he’s starting to get the ball off his foot a little quicker, playing at speed.”

That doesn’t mean the Redhawks had an easy time of it. The Tigers (4-3-2, 0-1) made a nice comeback in the final minutes, shocking the visitors and cutting the deficit in half when Max Carey took a pass from Sam Gesessew and somehow managed to get a shot off despite being surrounded by three defenders just inside the Central box.

The shot seemed to surprise Redhawks goalie Mike Pavliga, who didn’t even dive as the ball scooted inside the right post with 2:26 remaining. It was Carey’s fourth goal of the year, tying him with Erik Yamane for the WW South team lead, and just the fourth goal allowed by the Redhawks.

“I think at the end of the game everybody’s a little bit hesitant, not moving as well as they did earlier on,” Callipari said. “Sammy got up and flicked on a ball that we weren’t winning most of the day and finally he did get one and Max just kind of came in front of him and he just spun around and it’s one of those things where you don’t take a second touch, just get it going to goal and see what happens. It made for an interesting last three minutes and that’s all we can ask for.”

The Tigers did get in the Redhawks penalty area twice more but were unable to get a shot off as Central’s back line of Plant, sophomore Jay Tegge, junior Corey Halford and senior Sean Stevens stayed strong in front of Pavliga, who had to make only one save and faced just two shots in the second half. Their performance overshadowed a strong effort from the Tigers defense, which was led by Will Huesing and Mike Kania.

“They were stellar today,” Callipari said. “Will and Mike do a great job for us centrally as well and our system was to defend and then get into transition and get numbers forward and try to pull [the Redhawks] out a little because they hadn’t give up many goals all season.

“They’re not going to give anything so what you’ve got to do is lull them into a false sense of security and  bring them forward  a little and then try to attack in spaces that are not occupied any longer. We did have some looks, not many, and that’s what we told our guys – you’re not going to get good looks, so any look this evening is going to be a good look.

“That’s the way it’s going to be in the DVC. You’re either chasing somebody or you’re being chased, but it’s always a race so it’s a lot of fun to be here.”

The Redhawks are having fun despite not being ranked like local rivals Naperville North and Neuqua Valley.

“We’re not North. We don’t have every single [All]-DVC player in the conference. We’re not ranked in the national rankings,” Adams noted. “It’s nice to see results and winning is important, but we’re still at the point in the season you’re still working on how we can improve. And the key for us is we outwork the other team. When we outwork the other team, we win, and when we don’t, we don’t win. It’s a real easy equation.”

Adams said the Redhawks are in a key four-game stretch that features three consecutive league games followed by a test against sectional opponent Downers Grove South on Saturday. They’ve won the first three and are not surprised.

“No, we have a good team,” Flynn said. “We have good team chemistry, which always helps and our defense and our goalie has played strong all year so it’s always easy when you don’t need to score that many goals.

“No one has respect for us right now, but we’re playing hard, we’ve been working hard in training, we’re trying to put together wins just to prove that we can play with these guys.”

They’ve proven themselves to Callipari.

“They’re sneaking up on people a little bit,” said Callipari, who won his 250th career game last week. “They have 12 seniors so they have a lot of experience.

“They’ve got some playmakers in specific roles that are needed, the two central defenders have played together for a long time, so obviously you see a lot of continuity in what they do, a lot of communication. It’s tough to break them down through the middle and up top they’ve got the one guy that can run.”