Huskies top Metea, East Aurora up next

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By Matt Le Cren

Most soccer teams have one dangerous forward who can put the ball in the back of the net.

The best squads have two such talents.

Naperville North, much to its opponents’ chagrin, has three.

What’s more, the trio of Evan Trychta, Kyle Lindberg and Joe Sullivan has a cohesiveness that is tough to figure out and nearly impossible to stop.

They were at their best again on Saturday, taking turns setting each other up as the Huskies sent Metea Valley’s first senior class into retirement with a 3-1 victory over the host Mustangs in a Class 3A regional championship match in Aurora.

“We definitely have a connection,” Lindberg said. “It’s fun playing with the whole team but those other two up top, it’s like we know where we all are on the field at the same time. We all know where we want the ball, so we play it and connect well.”

They did it early and often against the Mustangs (9-7-5), who had trouble stringing many passes together in the first half that Naperville North (20-0-1) controlled after scoring twice in a seven-minute span to take a 2-0 lead.

“I think our motto for the playoff run is just hit them hard in the mouth in the first 10 minutes, send them a message that we’re not overrated and we should be No. 1,” Lindberg said.

“If we start off going into tackles hard like we did today, get those two early goals, it gives us motivation and momentum. It also kind of breaks them down too.”

Lindberg scored two goals, giving him five in two playoff matches and a team-leading 18 for the season. The first came at the 32:55 mark of the opening period when he volleyed home a Trychta free kick.

That goal was set up when Trychta was fouled on the right wing. Trychta, who recently committed to UIC, a school that is also recruiting Lindberg, bent the ensuing 30-yard free kick in front of the Metea goal to a spot no one else was able to get to.

“That was such a good ball,” Lindberg said. “Restarts are a big part of our practice. We work hard on them in practice and we like it when we get those [foul] calls.”

Trychta takes nearly all of Naperville North’s set pieces. He is especially tough to defend in those situations because of his ability to put the ball on frame from 45 yards in or find one of his teammates. Goalies have to respect his ability to shoot and that sometimes leads to opportunities for others if Trychta decides to pass.

“I target a specific region,” Trychta said. “It’s like, get it within [a few feet] of this zone and I’ll be good. I just try to make it possible for someone to get on the end of it.”

Trychta tallied his 15th goal of the season 6:54 later when he ran onto a long pass from midfielder Samy Darwan and lofted a 25-yard shot over the head onrushing Mustangs goalie Derek Carothers and into the net.

Carothers made four saves and played well in a game in which his side was outshot 16-6, but he was hung out to dry when Lindberg made it 3-0 with 7:15 left in the second half. Sullivan assisted on the play with a quick pass up the middle to Lindberg, who barely stayed onside and finished a short breakaway with a 17-yard rocket into the lower right corner.
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“I’m shocked right now, but we played so good during the season and to come out and lose to a very good team like this is kind of disappointing,” Carothers said. “They play with three up top. The forwards are really strong so we tried to contain them as much as we could.”

“The biggest thing is you can’t give a team like that goals and we gave them two and it made it tough for us to come back,” Metea Valley coach Josh Robinson said. “A ton of respect to Naperville North and everything they’ve done but our boys, they didn’t quit. They worked as hard as they possibly could and I’m just super-proud of what the seniors have done.”

One of those 14 seniors, forward Cody Jones, gave the Mustangs something to cheer about when he knocked in a free kick from senior midfielder Zach Bavol with 5:40 left to deny Naperville North’s bid for its 14th shutout. It was the second goal of the year for Jones and just the eighth given up by the Huskies, who continue to be terrific defensively in front of goalie Kevin Anderson, who faced only six shots thanks to the efforts of defenders Max Auden, Neil Wiaranowski, Matt Vogel and Lee Grander.

The top-seeded Huskies advance to the semifinals of their own sectional, where they will host East Aurora on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Naperville Central faces Batavia in the second semifinal at 7 p.m.

For Metea’s seniors, it is the end of the line for a group that sowed the seeds of what should be a competitive program for years to come.

“We built a very good foundation here at Metea,” Carothers said. We had lumps during the season and kids filled in the spots.”

The Mustangs had to play this season, their first with seniors, without two of their best players in defender Danny Shea, a potential all-stater who broke his foot two days before the season, and Loras-bound midfielder Joel Schmidt, who was limited to a handful of games because of injury. Shea made his season debut by starting Saturday against the Huskies.

“It’s hard for people to get who haven’t opened up a school,” Robinson said. “It’s amazingly difficult and they should be commended for the things that they did. It’s a very difficult thing to [have to start] without seniors and to have to build a program and not have the tradition and have to do the things that they’ve had to instill and make, so without a doubt, the past three years working with this group of boys I have been so proud of them.

“To do what we’ve done, we’ve built each year and I say this with the utmost honesty, working with [Waubonsie Valley girls coach] Julie [Bergstrom] on the girls side and having two state titles, I’ve never been more proud of kids than this group here because they’ve had to fight through a lot of adversity and play a season without their two best players.”

Metea’s senior class also includes leading scorer Ryan Solomon, midfielders Adam Miller, Andres Espinosa, Kevin Decker, Ryan Smyth and Marco Cattani and defenders Blake Erwin, Brett Erwin and Ian Baumgartner.