Naperville North junior forward Noah Radeke has been great all season.
On Saturday, he was kryptonite.
In one of the best matchups of the season, Radeke was defended by Naperville Central senior Patrick Bohan, who shut him down for the first 75 minutes.
“Patrick Bohan is a superhero,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “It’s like playing against six guys.
“(Patrick) Berryman is amazing. He had a great game. And then Bohan, if he would have pulled out a cape, I would not have been surprised. He was unbelievable, and Noah is an incredible player.”
But Radeke finally solved Bohan in the 76th minute of the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional championship game. He got a pass from junior forward Jaxon Stokes about 25 yards from the goal, beat the defense into the box and took a shot.
Naperville Central senior goalkeeper Dylan Scott made an incredible diving save, but Radeke rolled the rebound inside the left post with 4:47 remaining in the second half.
That was all the scoring the top-seeded Huskies needed to edge the defending state champion Redhawks 1-0.
Naperville North (21-1-3), which extended its unbeaten streak to 24 games, was scheduled to play Collinsville (15-6-1) in the East Aurora Supersectional at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’m so proud of Noah,” Konrad said. “He had a hard game because Bohan is just a load, right? But I told him it just takes one time, man, to get a break.”
It was Radeke’s 21st goal of the season and his fourth in three games against the fifth-seeded Redhawks (12-6-7).
“Patrick is a great defender,” Radeke said. “It was hard all 80 minutes. In the last five minutes, I just finally slipped through and got a chance. I went between them, hit the first shot, the goalie made a great save, it came right back to my foot and I hit it in with my left foot.”
Radeke’s goal left Naperville Central coach Troy Adams to wonder what might have been.
“He caught Patrick on the wrong side one time, and our cover wasn’t necessarily in the right spot,” Adams said. “The great thing about being a forward is you only got to be right once. The backs were right every other time.”
Naperville Central senior defensive midfielder Carter Adams wasn’t on the field when Stokes won the ball and fed Radeke.
“Carter had to come out, so what if we had been able to win it in the midfield so it never gets to (Radeke) in the first place?” Troy Adams asked. “All these small things add up.
“There’s not really much else you can ask your kids to do in a game and not get a result. Up until that goal, I would say we had probably twice as many chances as them, but soccer is a cruel game. If you don’t find a way to bury it in the back of the net, you’re going to be in trouble at the end.”
The Redhawks, who had a second-half goal by junior midfielder Michael DeFalco disallowed by an offsides call, did have the better of play in the first half. Bohan nearly scored at the 10:40 mark when his 48-yard free kick went off the hand of leaping sophomore goalkeeper Jack Bouska and bounced toward the net, but sophomore defender Sam Hess cleared it off the line.
“We work in practice on always getting in behind just in case somebody misses it,” Hess said. “I saw the ball coming, and I just got it out. I like to always just be there, do the things behind the scenes. Without that and without Noah and without the team tracking back and playing defense and working hard, none of this would even happen.”
Naperville North won its 16th sectional title, and this is the 13th consecutive season either the Huskies or the Redhawks have won the local sectional. They have met in the sectional final in each of the last three seasons, with the Redhawks eliminating the Huskies last year.
“Against Central, it’s always going to be a battle nonstop for 80 minutes,” Radeke said. “We knew that. It’s never the better team. It’s whoever works the hardest.”
And perhaps whoever has the greater motivation.
“My freshman year, we lost in the supersectional (to Morton), and we lost to (Central) last year in this same game,” Radeke said. “Seeing all my teammates go out hard, I wanted revenge and just win this for our program.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
