Redhawks edge Redwings again to cap senior night
By Matt Le Cren

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If Naperville Central and Benet are to meet a third time this season, it won’t be until the Class 3A state championship game on Nov. 3.

That is plenty soon enough for Benet, which has seen enough of the Redhawks, particularly senior forward Pat Flynn.

The two neighborhood heavyweights met for the second time in five weeks Saturday night at Memorial Stadium in Naperville, and for the second time it was Flynn who landed the knockout blow.

Flynn scored on a running 23-yard shot with 39 seconds left to give Central a 1-0 victory over Benet in the Best of the West championship game on Sept. 1.

Playing on the same field, the Redhawks star came up with an even more spectacular goal, chipping a 19-yard free kick over an eight-man wall and under the crossbar with 8:30 left in the second half to cap a 2-1 comeback victory on Senior Night.

It was Flynn’s 22nd goal of the season and 42nd of his four-year career, thus extending his school scoring record.

“We know that Kyle Dal Santo is a great goalie and it’s going to be something special scoring on him,” Flynn said. “They had two short kids on the end of the wall, so I was just aiming right above their heads and hoping it would go over. It somehow just got down below the bar. It was nice.”

It was more than nice; it was something not often seen at the high school level. Benet (14-3-1) looked to have its defense perfectly positioned with eight defenders confronting Flynn, whose kick came from just beyond the top of the penalty area.

But Flynn was able to maneuver the ball over the wall, under the bar and past Dal Santo, who barely moved as the ball sailed into the upper right corner of the net.

“I saw it at the last second but from where he’s at, it is really difficult for the goalkeeper,” Dal Santo said. “It’s hard to react to. There’s not much I could have done. He placed it really well. You’ve got to hand it to him.”

For Central coach Troy Adams, Flynn’s goal was Example A in how placement sometimes beats pace when it comes to taking free kicks.

“What we’ve been talking about is it’s not how hard you hit the ball, it’s about hitting it to the right spot,” Adams said. “And I know it’s hard as a player.

"You get that adrenaline going and you want to absolutely [blast] it, where you just have to remember to take a little off and make sure it finds the spot because goalkeepers have no problem with balls that are shot at them. It’s the ones they have to read and move. We’re still working on that finishing thing.”

But as Dal Santo pointed out, it is never a good idea to give up free kicks near your own penalty area, and the Redwings did it way too often against the Redhawks.

“From where he took it from, there was not much we could have really done at that point,” Dal Santo said. “We’ve just got to be stronger in the air and [not make] dumb fouls around the box or it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

Adams agreed.

“Realistically, on those kind of dead balls, if you hit it right you’re going to score; if you don’t it’s going to go off,” Adams said. “It’s not something the goalie can see or ever really worry about.

“Their problem was the same problem we had earlier in the game – when you keep giving up dead balls and throw-ins in your offensive third they’re going to end up causing you problems at some point during the game. And it ended up having that happen.”

Most galling for the Redwings was the fact they were beaten by Flynn, who chuckled when asked for an explanation about his scoring prowess against Benet.

“I don’t know what it is,” Flynn said. “It’s just you’ve got to put shots on frame and eventually they’re going to go in.”

By the way, it was the Redwings who put the first shot on frame and it went in just 3:52 into the contest. Robert Tomecek’s corner kick was headed toward the net by Joe Chiariello and Paddy Lawler hacked the ball out of traffic in front and scored from four yards out to put the visitors ahead 1-0.

But Central (15-1), which started an all-senior lineup, equalized with 12:47 left in the first half on senior Alexsi Pelkonen’s second goal of the season. Senior Jack Patrick sent a long ball into the box to Pelkonen, who got a step on his defender before sliding a short shot past Dal Santo.

The Redwings had a few chances to retake the lead, but senior goalie Mike Pavliga, who earlier this season broke the school’s career shutout record, came up with five saves, including a diving effort to deny Eddie Manzke on an open 17-yarder with 7:30 to go in the opening period.

In addition to Flynn, Patrick, Pavliga and Pelkonen, the other seniors Central honored were goalie Jon Bedell, forward Rahul Bhatia, midfielders Mike West and JJ Gustaitis, and defenders Andrew Feightner, Corey Halford, Pat Mallett, Connor Allen, Jack Burdett and Ajay Varghese.

“All the seniors played today and in my opinion they played great,” Flynn said. “It was a good mix. They all wanted to play today and we don’t see a drop-off when we sub and that’s one of our strengths is we have a lot of depth.

“So when we sub you don’t really see a big difference in our talent and our energy. Guys come off the bench and they bring a lot of energy and they bring a lot of fight. Everyone wants to get playing time.”

Adams was happy with the way his squad bounced back from Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Naperville North, which snapped the Redhawks’ 14-game winning streak, though he said more is needed.

“I was a little nervous about whether we were going to decide to suddenly just kind of tuck our tail and hide for a couple weeks until we decided to play again,” Adams said. “[The Redwings] probably in theory had the better of the play.

“Benet played harder than we did, they played faster than we did. We have to get better about matching the other team’s effort and desire.”

Benet’s desire was there, but as Dal Santo pointed out, the result was not.

“We definitely had our moments,” Dal Santo said. “It all depends on how well you deal with your lapses and we didn’t handle ours today, regardless if we had 70 minutes of the ball. They had 10 and scored two goals. We scored only one. That’s all that matters.”

The loss was the second in four games for the Redwings, who also lost 2-1 to Metea Valley and beat Marian Catholic 2-0 and Carmel 4-2 before losing this one.

“We’ve been struggling the past couple weeks,” he said. “It’s little things, like putting the ball in the net, to taking dumb fouls around the box. Like [against] Metea, we had 30 shots and 11 corners and we only put in one goal, so we’re not going to win many games [that way].”