Boys soccer: Naperville North sends seniors out with third-place state finish

When you can't celebrate a championship, you celebrate your seniors.

Featuring eight seniors in its starting lineup, including one who scored for the first time this season, Naperville North rebounded from Friday's heart-wrenching loss in the semifinals to beat Glenbrook North, 5-2 on Saturday morning in the Class 3A third-place game at Hoffman Estates.

"In this game, you try to celebrate all the kids and the coaches were able to play everybody," Huskies coach Jim Konrad said. "All the boys work so hard all year. It's nice to have a chance to get everybody in the game. That said, obviously, both teams wanted to win, too. So I'm proud with the way the boys responded after a tough loss last night, especially in the second half today where I thought we looked more like us which was a good way to end the season."

With Grant Montanari in goal and Jackson Clarke, Ryan Gaccione, Ryan Anderson, Ryan Paltzer, Dillon Clark and Joel Ruderman getting the rare start as seniors along with regular starting senior midfielder Hindo Allie, the Huskies brought home a third place trophy for the first time to add to hardware that includes four state titles.

"The mood coming in was optimistic with Hindo (Allie) being the only senior that started (this season), so there's a mood of next year we're going to get them," Konrad said. "So we said this is the first game of the next year kind of and we celebrated the seniors tonight while at the same time using this as a springboard for the new year and the boys did that."

Naperville North (23-2-3) went ahead 1-0 on an own goal in the first half and doubled up at 2-0 in the 43rd minute when Noah Radeke delivered his 20th assist of the season for fellow junior Jaxon Stokes' 29th goal.

"I feel like obviously it's tough being in this game," Radeke said. "Just like we wanted to win yesterday, we knew we had to come here and at least get the result that we wanted."

After senior Ian Lee scored the first of his two goals with 29:24 left in the game to cut North's lead in half, Radeke scored in the 69th minute. The junior pounced on a ball that the Spartans failed to clear from Sam Hess and buried it to make it 3-1.

Allie then joined in on the offensive burst, with a one-timer from just under 30 yards away to make it 4-1 in the 76th minute.

"Jaxon (Stokes) unselfishly dished it off to me and I just shot it inside of the foot," Allie said. "I was just trying to get it on target. I was just excited to see it go in on the final game of the year. As a Huskie it just means a lot. I think of it as a perfect ending."

Allie's contributions this season were immense and probably unheralded without big stats, but rather big-time play.

"You see all he does for us," Konrad said. "He's kind of sacrificed a lot of personal accolades and goals to play the sixth for us."

Ruderman couldn't have asked for much more than what he got with just 2:34 remaining in his high school soccer playing career.

"I haven't scored this season and Jaxon (Stokes) was dribbling down the sideline and I saw an opening and knew he would get the ball to me," Ruderman said. "I happened to be in the right place and luckily the ball bounced over the goalie's head."

While the Huskies will be a top team again next year with so much talent returning, they'll also lose a senior class that contributed in different ways.

"All the seniors we just like to build on the culture and we're always pumping up our teammates," Ruderman said. "Even if we're not going in, we'll make that the subs are getting ready and when there's a water break, we'll make sure the kids are getting water. It's the culture we bring here."