Flynn doubles up for Naperville Central

Naperville Central coach Troy Adams knew his team had to start taking advantage of its opportunities.

Despite outshooting Wheaton Warrenville South 7-3 in the first half, including 3 shots on goal, both teams went into halftime with a scoreless tie.

However, behind 2 second-half goals from Pat Flynn, Naperville Central (7-1, 3-0) took advantage of its opportunities late in the game and came out on top 2-1 against its DuPage Valley Conference counterpart Tuesday evening.

“The halftime speech was it doesn’t matter how much you control the game,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “If you don’t score, it’s all for naught.”

The opportunities were there for Naperville Central in the first half. Forward Conner Allen finished with 3 of the Redhawks’ 7 first-half shots, including 2 in the first eight minutes.

Naperville Central finally got on the scoreboard with the first goal of the game in the 63rd minute. Midfielder Jack Patrick threaded a ball through the Wheaton Warrenville South (4-3-2, 0-1) defense to Flynn who kicked it in for a 1-0 lead.

“We probably spent in the last two practices at least two hours on playing some kind of a small-sided game and just striking the ball,” Adams said. “We’ve seen it where it’s a good opportunity, but a bad shot. Hopefully, you get more goals like that where we strike the ball well and score. We haven’t had a lot of those, but it was nice to see that in the first goal.”

Flynn again found the back of the net five minutes after his first goal. A shot by Mike Plant was blocked by the Tigers defense, but the ball deflected to Flynn who kicked it in from 18 yards out, bouncing off the right post and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

It was Flynn’s second multiple-goal game of the season.

“It was a free kick by (Mike) Plant that bounced around in the box,” Flynn said of the second goal. “The ball came to me. I saw the opportunity and took advantage of it.”

The Tigers cut the lead in half with 2:23 to go in the game after Max Carey tallied his fourth goal of the season off an assist from Sam Gesessew.

“I think at the end of the game, everyone is a little hesitant and not moving as well as they did early on,” Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari said. “Sammy (Gesessew) got on a ball that we weren’t winning most of the day, but he finally got one. Max (Carey) got in front, spun around and made for an interesting last three minutes.”