Boys Soccer: Naperville North ends Wheaton Warrenville South’s surprise postseason run in sectionals

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BOLINGBROOK – There have been some classic sectional final clashes over the years between the Naperville North and Naperville Central boys soccer teams, including a year ago, when the Huskies prevailed.

Get ready for another one at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bolingbrook High School.

On Tuesday, the Redhawks and Huskies punched their tickets to face each other in the Bolingbrook sectional semifinals. In the early game, top-seeded Naperville Central downed West Aurora 2-0, and in the nightcap, second seed Naperville North disposed of Wheaton Warrenville South 5-2, which had a nice playoff run as the 11th seed.

“I like to brag about our district,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “Since 2010, it’s been one of the two of us advancing to the supersectional, so this year, we’re guaranteed again that there will be a District 203 school representing this sectional.”

Said his crosstown counterpart, Troy Adams: “You earn a regional and you really earn a sectional. One of our preseason goals was winning conference and the other preseason goal was to win the sectional.”

Naperville Central (22-3-1) had to work extra hard to pick up its victory, as Mother Nature made things challenging due to a cold, driving rain that slicked up Bolingbrook’s artificial turf field.

That didn’t matter to Redhawks’ junior defender Michael Cavalleri, who scored in the 25th and 52nd minutes, and nearly added another in the 45th. The second goal was particularly elegant, as Cavalleri corralled the ball in a scrum in front of the West Aurora net off a right-post rebound,

A sweaty Cavalleri was shivering postgame, but that didn’t matter either. At this time of the year, it’s survive and advance.

“The weather wasn’t ideal; it was super-cold, especially on the turf,” he said. “(Winning) feels great. We knew we had a good team this year. We really hope we can get past (the sectional final) and try to go really far for the first time in awhile.”

West Aurora’s best opportunity came in the 60th minute, as senior defender Blake Studdard fired a shot point blank down low, but the ball was seized by Central junior goalkeeper Dylan Scott. Naperville Central took 7 shots, 5 on goal.

The Blackhawks finished 15-4-5.

In the second game, Naperville North (17-3-4) wasted no time jumping out to a 2-0 lead over the upstart Tigers. Senior forward Alex Barger scored off a corner kick on the right side in the 23rd minute — the fifth corner of the game at that point for the Huskies.

A minute later, sophomore forward Jaxon Stokes added one of his own wide open center. Both goals were a culmination of the Huskies’ strategy to keep the ball on Wheaton Warrenville South’s end.

But the Tigers (10-7-3) proved resilient, getting a tally in the 43rd minute by senior midfielder Gael Alfaro on an assist from junior midfielder Edgar Guzman.

But Barger put the game out of reach with his second goal of the night, a 20-yarder buried in the left corner of the net.

“You kind of expect him to score like that, because he’s been scoring like that all season,” Stokes said of Barger. “It still stuns me sometimes, though.”

That sets up Saturday’s rematch, of which Barger and Stokes are looking forward.

“They are always a tough opponent,” Barger said. “Central has a ton of good players and we love that rivalry between us, but we know Saturday we’re going to come prepared and they are going to come prepared as well. It’s going to be a good fight.”

As for Wheaton Warrenville South, Alfaro reflected on his team’s postseason run.

“We all came together as one team, because in the beginning of the season, we were all over the place,” he said. “We were coming off a winning streak coming into the playoffs, and that really helped us out.”