Naperville Central defeated Romeoville 1-0 in the IHSA State Championship on Nov. 5 at Hoffman Estates High School. The victory marked the first boys’ soccer state championship in Central’s history. 

The win capped off a one loss season for the Redhawks, only losing to Plainfield North.

“It’s almost impossible to describe in words,” said Troy Adams, boys’ soccer head coach. “It was just such a neat feeling last night. [The players] kind of made fun of me because they haven’t seen me run on a field before, I said, ‘you don’t win state championships often.’”

Redhawks captain Josh Weigel helped secure the victory by scoring the only goal of the night.

“It was a great pass from Sean [O’Reilly] to me,” Weigel said. “He found me in the middle and all I had to do was go around the ball and finish it.”

Romeoville had a record of 27-1-1 before entering the state series.

“I thought it was a phenomenal game,” Adams said. “I thought Romeoville played outstanding and I thought our boys executed the objectives that we had.“

Central’s varsity team is composed of diverse grade levels this year, including two freshmen, in a majority junior and senior team.

“They really just enjoy being around each other,” Adams said. “They want to win for each other. We had kids playing out of positions they haven’t played before. We had kids that were battling injuries throughout the season that were able to get through. We had kids that sometimes would play a ton of minutes and sometimes wouldn’t play as much but yet they were able to adapt to whatever was asked to them and do it.”

Central had previously beat Naperville North 3-2 in the sectional finals, Hinsdale Central 4-3 in the super-sectionals, and Stevenson 5-0 before playing Romeoville in the state finals.

Central hosted a celebration for the win on Nov. 6. Troy Adams, the team captains, Central Principal Jackie Thornton and Athletic Director Chris Kirkpatrick gave speeches. 

“I think the players were excited to see all the fans out at the game, to see the support that they had,” Adams said. “I know that when they won the first thing they wanted to do was to go celebrate with their fans.”