Naperville Central makes hay with Noah Hey, wins Best of West title

Benet had worked hard to earn a 1-0 halftime lead on host Naperville Central.

It didn’t last long.

Noah Hey scored 25 seconds after intermission, Daniel Poole fired home the go-ahead goal 2:36 later and Naperville Central rolled to a 3-1 victory Saturday night at Memorial Stadium to win the Best of the West championship.

It was an impressive display of firepower against a Benet team which had not given up a goal before a 4-2 win over Naperville North earlier in the day.

“We wanted to come out right away and pop one in, keep digging ourselves back in the game and that’s what we did,” Hey said.

The Redhawks (6-0-1) attacked right off the second-half kickoff, with Jordi Heeneman driving into the box and passing the ball back to Poole, whose volley was cleared off the line. Hey was there to put away his second goal of the season.

“I saw the defender mishit it,” Hey said. “The ball fell right to me and I put it home.”

Poole soon followed with his second goal, a quick flick between Benet goalkeeper Konrad Bayer and the near post following a Heeneman cross from the right corner.

After that, it was all Redhawks. Heeneman made it 3-0 at the 22:21 mark with a tap-in volley of a 30-yard free kick from Riley Guttosch and Central outshot the Redwings 9-1 after intermission.

“I think in the first half they didn’t allow us to get into our game and play the way we wanted to play,” Hey said. “Then in the second half we came out really strong and popped one in and the rest is history.”

Benet (4-1) was by far the strongest team the Redhawks have faced, but Naperville Central coach Troy Adams wasn’t too animated at halftime.

“He just calmly told us to play our own game, just don’t overcompensate, don’t try to take it all on by yourself and play as a team,” Poole said. “Coach always tells us there’s always an opportunity in the first five minutes and we took it.”

The Redwings had taken a 1-0 lead with 19:17 left in the first half on Connor Mote’s first career goal. Freshman Artur Pach sent a strong cross from the right corner that missed the head of star Kyle Kenagy but found the foot of Mote on the back post for a calmly struck finish.

Benet nearly extended the lead with 11:15 to go when Kenagy made a 70-yard run through the defense and into the right corner before passing to Pach, whose cross was punched out by goalkeeper Joe Kallikadan but went straight to Omar Kashow.

Kashow’s header sailed over Bayer, but was headed off the line by defender Sean Flading.

“We almost got the second goal,” Benet coach Sean Wesley said. “We would have been in great shape. That said, I think it’s a really tough day on the kids.

“To play Naperville North at Naperville North and then come here and play Naperville Central at Naperville Central five hours later, I just didn’t think we had the legs.”