Boys soccer: Bohan, Naperville Central battle for 1-1 tie with Naperville North
Patrick Bohan is valuable no matter where he's at on the soccer field for Naperville Central.
On Tuesday he was back in his best spot, helping the Redhawks earn a 1-1 tie at home in a DuPage Valley Conference game against Naperville North.
“He is absolutely one of the best backs in the state,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “And we even play him a little out of position. He's really an outside back, but he's so valuable there.”
Looking to maximize Bohan's talents and fill the team's need for a scorer, the Redhawks fiddled with their lineups and roles early on, including utilizing Bohan up top.
“He's all-state, a phenomenal back, but also were looking at how we need someone to score goals,” Adams said. “He's a very good player so maybe he can move into the attacking job? He did a good job, but sometimes you want kids that are the best at something to be the best at that thing.”
Senior goalkeeper Dylan Scott was certainly at his best to ensure the Redhawks would escape with the tie making a pair of stops on breakaways.
“When you are playing really good teams players got to step up,” Adams said. “Somebody has to do something more than what they normally do and I think Dylan played extraordinarily well today. We've talked about it, it's collectively some people have to play the way they exactly play and other people have to raise their game. Dylan raised his game.”
Naperville Central (5-3-3, 2-0-1) scored on a PK from Eli Jarrell with 26 seconds left before halftime to lead 1-0.
Naperville North (9-1-1, 2-0-1) tied the game with 32:05 left in the second half. Colin McMahon's direct kick was sealed by Noah Radeke, who seemingly won countless ones all game. He then laid it off to Hindo Allie who tapped it in to make it 1-1.
“Noah Radtke was unbelievable tonight,” Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. “He's known for scoring goals, but he won 20 head balls tonight in the box. Without him winning balls in the back, we lose that game for sure, and without (Patrick) Bohan running around in the back solving all those problems for them it would be tough for them to handle our top two.”
Remaining chances were limited and defended well after the Huskies tied it up.
“This is good. We needed a game like that because we've been rolling,” Konrad said. “We had been scoring almost at will so it's a good reminder that we still have got to grow and learn something.”
They already knew they'd see a much different Redhawks team than the one they beat 5-0 in the Best of the West championship game at the beginning of the month.
“This was a grit game and if you are going to (tie) North, especially when they have a nice set of players and athletes like they have this year, you've got to have some grit and we really had some grit,” Adams said.