Boys soccer: Naperville North blanks Geneva
Naperville North has been one of the best soccer teams in the state so its success in the annual Best of the West tournament is not surprising.
The Huskies moved another step closer to a sixth consecutive championship in the prestigious tournament by defeating Geneva on Thursday afternoon, 5-0.
"I think we just kind of started off (the year) rocky and as soon as we got the first goal the last game we kind of gained a lot of momentum," Huskies senior Cam Redeke said. "We had 3 and then 5 today and the midfield definitely helped a lot. We started pressing a lot more and guys were just winning their 1-on-1s and they helped a lot."
Naperville North (2-1-1) jumped ahead of Geneva (0-3-1) just a little more than 8 minutes into the action as Jacob Ryu found Cam Redeke in the box.
"I just saw him and then he played it to me and we connected and I kind of just popped it over the keeper," Redeke said. "It was weird. I just saw the keeper just coming and then the ball and at the last second I just flicked it over, just tried to keep my composure and put it in."
Redeke has now scored three times this fall.
An own-goal, created by the offensive pressure from Radeke's freshman brother, Noah Radeke, helped the Huskies increase their lead to 2-0 with 18:15 remaining in the half.
The younger Radeke was able to cause a commotion after getting deep in the box and the ball caromed off a Viking.
Geneva, which upset the Huskies in a tournament game in 2019, had a few chances of its own in the opening half. They included midway through when Ryan Leake got ahead of some defenders but could only roll a shot toward the goal, and a driving Christian Diaz, who misfired wide right just minutes before the break.
"First of all, that's a great team and they're just really good," Leake said. "We need to work in practice to fight back and we need to learn from this, learn from our mistakes and watch our film and come out our next game and give it our all."
A second-half spark proved elusive for the Vikings while the Huskies offense kept at it, getting a gorgeous goal from 31 yards out from Ryu less than 2 minutes into play in the second half.
"Basically I practice a lot at Nike (Park) that same exact shot," Ryu said. "I always aim for the top left or switch it up whenever it's open and just find the open net."
Tyson Amoo-Mensah added a penalty kick goal to make it 4-0 while Alex Arrendondo finished a big-scoring night with 15:59 remaining.
"Now we're starting to get our rhythm and starting to be confident in our team," Ryu said. "And we're really trusting each other, and I think that is the most important part."