Redhawks top DVC rival WW South in a regional title game

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By Eddie Burns

Naperville Central put together a total team effort and it resulted in coach Troy Adams’ first regional championship.

The Redhawks put together a solid 80 minutes during their 2-0 win against DuPage Valley Conference foe Wheaton Warrenville South to capture a 3A regional championship on Saturday afternoon at Central’s Memorial Stadium.

Adams put together goals for his team before the game and the Redhawks met them by scoring off a dead-ball, generating scoring chances and holding the Tigers without a goal.

“We’re about creating goals and giving the kids something to work for and we did that,” said Adams, who is in his second season.

The first half was rather uneventful with each team generating some scoring chances, but the game went to intermission scoreless.

Central (15-4) broke through in the 44th minute when it scored off a throw-in situation.

Adam Hamielec tossed a throw-in directly to teammate Jack Patrick, who was standing about eight yards away from the WW South goal and Patrick flicked his head on the ball and it flipped just beyond the reach of Tigers’ goalie Tim Reinders to give Central the lead.

“We’ve been trying to work on that the whole season,” Hamielec said, “but we haven’t had much success with it.”

Patrick said there was some luck involved.

“Most of the time, my goal with the flick is the get the ball to the box so someone else can finish,” Patrick said. “This time, the ball went right over the goalie’s head and into the goal. It was a great throw and the ball came off of my head perfectly.”

WW South coach Guy Callipari said a combination of factors led to the goal.

“We started getting fatigued which led to us making mental mistakes and that gave them dead balls and where were not challenging,” said Callipari, whose team finished at 14-7-4.  

“The ball got up in the air way too much for us to contend. They are just too strong in that environment. They played with a lot more of a direct style of play. The turned us around and put pressure on our defense and got to dead-ball situations and then orchestrated something constructive and it worked.”

WW South (14-7-4) responded with its best chances when Dan Burns found himself with a pair of opportunities in the Central penalty area, but both shots were not on frame.

Central’s goal forced WW South to press and take more chances in the offensive third, which left the Tigers more vulnerable in the back and that allowed Central to score its second goal.

Sam Reskala started the scoring run when he played the ball ahead to Pat Flynn, who went in and challenged Reinders. The initial shot was stopped by Reinders, but the rebound went to Blake Beehler, who had an open goal and he put the ball away for the goal and a 2-0 lead in the 70th minute.

“We always talk to the boys about keeping the ball low,” Adams said. “The kids always want to score brilliant goals, which are scored up near the crossbar. Goalies hate to have to go down, so we’ve stressed to the boys to hit the ball low and luckily Blake kept it low. It is always good to see something we talked about take place on the field.”

On the defensive end, Central remained solid with seniors Sean Stevens, Kevin Linne and Mike Plant leading the way as they have all season. Goalie Mike Pavliga also finished with four saves.

“Our backs have been solid all year no matter who has been in there,” Adams said. “In the state playoffs, the bench doesn’t quite get the same amount of use, but really we won today because of all 22 kids and not just the 16 that played.

"We won because when we come out to practice that we have kids who are willing to work hard, willing to push their teammates – you are only good as what you practice. It is those kids who maybe have not gotten as many minutes this year who allowed us to have success, so it is a credit to all of those kids whether they have been playing or not – this is their victory.”

Central, which is the third seed, advances to meet second-seed Batavia in the sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Naperville North., which means Callipari won’t be able to face his son Cameron, who is a senior for Batavia.

“He kept his end of the deal more than I did mine,” the elder Callipari said. “I would have looked forward to that, but we won’t get that chance.”

The Tigers rebounded this season and were in the thick of things in the DVC. Other season highlights included the Tigers’ participation in the championship match at the Barrington Tournament, WW South won a showcase match at Toyota Park against East Aurora and captured the Wheaton Cup.

“We struggled last year and that was a learning curve,” Callipari said. “I know that it isn’t satisfying and the possibility going forward was a possibility, but this is a tough sectional and you have to rise to the occasion and we didn’t take care of the little things or the details on the defensive end and it cost us. On the offensive end we didn’t have much imagination in the offensive third.”