Neuqua's 23rd straight win didn't come easy

Scott Davis (7) of Neuqua Valley controls the ball as Colin Rook (16) of Naperville Central moves in to defend. The second-ranked Wildcats won 2-1 and advanced to Saturday's sectional final.
(Jon Cunningham/For The Sun)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Give extra space to a player with the talent that Neuqua Valley's Bryan Ciesiulka possesses and more than likely he'll make the opposition pay.

Naperville Central discovered that the hard way Wednesday night.

Ciesiulka, who is a Neuqua co-captain, found himself with some room to operate and he delivered the winning shot on goal to help the Wildcats to a 2-1 victory against the Redhawks in a Class 3A Naperville North Sectional semifinal.

"I got a really good ball from Brandon Loncar and I just tried to redirect it into the goal," said Ciesiulka, who scored with his left foot from approximately 23 yards out in the 56th minute to give the Wildcats (26-0-1) the decisive one-goal advantage.

Central coach Jay Konrad thought his team was in trouble when he saw how much room the Redhawks (14-4-2) had given Ciesiulka.

"He is a pretty good player and when you let him go one-on-one, bad things happen for the other team," Konrad said. "If you are going to lose and that is the kid who scores on you, you can live with that because he is a big-time player."

The Wildcats and Redhawks treated a loud and enthusiastic crowd to a match that featured a great deal of back-and-forth action.

Central appeared to strike first in the 15th minute, but Chris Prince's goal was waved off because of an offsides call.

Neuqua countered a few minutes later when Scott Davis scored off a Keegan Balle restart. It was Davis' 24th goal of the season.

The Wildcats, who have won 23 straight games, maintained their 1-0 lead until the early portion of the second half when the Redhawks began to apply the pressure. Prince helped set up the tying goal when his shot hit the post and deflected to teammate Pat Flynn who tapped in into the net in the 48th minute.

It was the first time since an Oct. 10 match against Addison Trail that the Wildcats had allowed a goal.

"When (Central) scored that goal it was like, 'Oh boy.' You could just feel the rush of the crowd because we knew they were a second-half team and we knew we had our hands full," Davis said.

The Wildcats gathered themselves and Ciesiulka regained the lead a few minutes later.

"(Our) guys need tests," Neuqua coach Tony Kees said. "We haven't had to gut out too many games, but we did tonight and we've shown that we can and that is big for us."