Naperville North takes down WW South

Updated: October 22, 2011 6:45PM

Provided with a new lease on its season the Naperville Central boys soccer team has thus far taken full advantage.

The Redhawks, who lost three of their last four regular-season matches, continued their strong postseason play with a 2-0 win against DuPage Valley Conference foe Wheaton Warrenville South to capture a Class 3A regional championship on Saturday afternoon at Central’s Memorial Stadium.

Central (15-4) excels on executing off restarts and dead-ball situations and that is what directly led to its first goal.

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 four minutes into the second half.

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

Well, that was until Saturday.

Patrick said there was some luck involved, as their usually is when it comes to goals in soccer, but there was plenty of skill on display.

“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 that Patrick’s height and ability to win those types of balls in the air made the difference.

“What can you say?” Callipari asked, “It is hard to challenge against a guy (Patrick) who wins 90-percent of head balls. (Patrick) is very gifted in that way and he sort of caught us off guard a little bit.”

Central’s goal forced WW South (14-7-4) to press and take more chances, which left the Tigers more vulnerable in the back and that allowed Central to score its second goal.

Sam Reskala started the run when he played the ball ahead to Pat Flynn, who went in and challenged Reinders. Flynn’s 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 clinching goal and a 2-0 lead in the 70th minute.

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.

Central, which is the third seed, advances to meet second-seed Batavia in the sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Naperville North.

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