Boys soccer: Naperville North rallies in 2nd half to earn state berth

The freak athlete came out on Halloween and rewarded Naperville North with the treat of advancing to Friday's Class 3A state semifinals.

Huskies sophomore Andrew Hebron was dressed up in freak mode, scoring with 27:10 left in the second half to break a tie and lift the Huskies to a 2-1 victory over Collinsville Tuesday in the Class 3A East Aurora sectional championship.

Naperville North will play Lyons, who survived Stagg in penalty kicks, at 6 p.m. Friday at Hoffman Estates.

"Andrew is a freak athlete who's super explosive and fast and he gets going fast and stays fast," Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. "He's done a really good job of playing as simple as possible. He played in the back a whole big part of the year and now we're using him in the midfield primarily. If we would've stayed down we would've put him in the midfield and pushed (junior) Connor Hanrahan up. He applied so much pressure."

Jaxon Stokes stunned the Kahoks to open the second half, dribbling into the box before burying a 9-yard equalizer just 13 seconds into the return to action, his 28th goal this fall.

"Obviously, Stokes gets the first one to get things even and calm things down right away in the second half," Konrad said. "And then we scored the second goal and it got a bit nervy."

Naperville North (22-1-3) has had years where its been dominant on restarts. As great as the Huskies have been this season, that hasn't been one of its many strengths. On Tuesday, it was invaluable.

"The goals have not come easy on restarts this year," Konrad said. "It's been a year where we haven't relied on them."

Perhaps they were saving them for moments like when Niko Ladas launched a 30-yard throw-in. Junior Noah Radeke was able to get his head on it, depositing it in the box where Hebron was and then blasted it off the underside of the crossbar and into back of the net for the lead.

"I saw Niko throw it, and it happened once in the first half where I almost had a chance," Hebron said. "Noah headed it up and the ball landed and I just blasted it as hard as I could because I knew we had to score."

It was one of those unforgettable moments for a kid who prefers defense. His first goal arrived in the final game of the regular season. His biggest one came Tuesday.

"I never thought I'd be a goal scorer until recently," he laughed. "This is so much fun. I was so excited for high school season but I didn't know it would be as fun as this."

He's certainly added something more to a Huskies attack that has been super impressive all season behind Radeke and Stokes.

"Hebron was fantastic again tonight," Konrad said. "He just runs and runs and runs. He's going in out, in out and gets in there and scores a goal."

Coming out of halftime the mindset was completely about being better.

"We talked about how we had to be better," Konrad said. "This isn't the team the coach knew, this isn't the team the team knew. We just had to be better if we wanted to win state."

Collinsville (14-7-1) settled in after the four-hour drive to Aurora and jumped on the Huskies 1-0 after senior Sam Garofalo dribbled into the box and fired in a 15-yard shot with 24:21 left in the half.

The Huskies missed some chances in the first half, but those dangerous creations provided some momentum that carried over into the quick 13-second strike by Stokes.

"I think we left some goals on the field in the first half," Konrad said. "We had three super high quality chances. Their kid makes a great play, gets inside and they score a great goal. I'm proud the boys were able to hang on and battle even though we have room to improve with two games left. Obviously, we were good enough today to get it done. I couldn't be prouder."

Ladas said he wound up and threw the ball as hard as he could on the ball that resulted in the game-winning goal. It's an ability he's been working on for as long as he can remember.

"I basically wind up and throw it as hard as I can," he said. "I've always been able to throw it far since I was young and I've been practicing since I've been five. My mom's been helping me. I just threw it. When I saw Andrew hit it far down it was a perfect goal."

And a perfect moment.

"This is kind of unthinkable right now," he said. "We worked all season to get here. We lost our first game and have gone undefeated since."