Riverside Brookfield High School senior Austin Castilla and Lyons Township senior Nick Reilly are soccer teammates in the offseason. On Friday, they contributed to the progress of their respective teams as the Lions won the annual meeting 4-0 at Bennett Field in Western Springs.
Castilla, Reilly and the Lions’ Jackson Lesner, Hayden McTigue and Luka Popvic are among who train and play with the SPNG summer tournament team.
“I feel like we made a ton of progress. Coming from our previous losses, this was a boost for our team,” Castilla said. “Even though the score didn’t plan to go our way, we moved great as a team. It’s something we’re going to keep moving forward.”
Reilly especially had fun by scoring twice for the Lions (10-3-2), the latter with seven seconds remaining, and assisting one of senior Jackson Lesner’s two goals. Ryan Kernan and Ryland Avants added assists.
“I’ll see (Castilla) in a couple of weeks and after the season, we do winter training together,” said Reilly, who leads the Lions with seven goals this season.
“There’s friendships outside of our team. Every time I look at our schedule, I reach out to the guys from other teams, guys that I’ll see that I played with before, played in the past. It’s those friendships, you know.”
LTHS led 3-0 at halftime. Lesner scored with 25:02 left until halftime following a corner kick. Reilly scored 1:25 before the half after Avants’ blast was deflected and then assisted Lesner with just three seconds left.
Reilly’s last-second goal came off a trap of Avants’ sideline cross.
“It just came off my chest,” Reilly said. “The first one, Ryland took a shot, a little deflection, and it rolled right in front of me.”
Between the attacking zones, the Bulldogs (3-9) had some strong possessions but they were limited to one shot each half by Luis Alvarez and Jackson Streeter against goalies Conor Robinson and Joe Ratcliffe, who each played one half.
“I would say win or lose, this one (was our best game). Even though we lost, we played our best today,” RBHS senior captain Logan Wilson said. “We’re keeping our heads up and planning on moving forward to become better.”
The Bulldogs also saw progress after losing 4-2 on penalty kicks to Elmwood Park to settle a scoreless tie. The loss dropped RBHS to 0-2-1 in the Upstate Eight Conference East Division.
The Bulldogs had back-to-back 3-1 victories over Proviso East Sept. 11 and IC Catholic Prep Sept. 13 with goals from Ruben Bricano, Michael Panduro and Alvarez.
“We’re trying to get better every single day. Every practice we try 100 percent,” RBHS senior captain Pablo Ponce said. “I think it’s showing, which I’m proud of as a team. It’s not something we see but we will see eventually.”
The Lions continued their momentum Sunday on their west field by winning the championship game of their bracket in the annual BodyArmor Tournament 3-0 over Mt. Carmel.
Avants scored from Reilly’s cross along the left sideline and Cormac Moran headed home Jacob Faas’ corner kick for a 2-0 halftime advantage.
Keenan scored in the second half from Reilly’s flick off a sidelines throw-in from Gavin Sullivan. The Lions led 18-0 in shots (12-0 on goal) and 7-0 in corner kicks.
“I’ve always kind of wanted to win this game. It’s a big tournament for us. You can see there were a ton of people out here,” Ratcliffe said. “I’m glad we got a good win and it’s going to be fun to hold that trophy.”
Reilly (7 goals, 4 assists), Lesner (6 goals, 2 assists), Avants (4 goals, 4 assists), Julian Avdiu (3 goals, 6 assists) and Faas (3 goals, 4 assists) are top scorers. Ari Chen, Harrison Kittridge and Sullivan have anchored the defensive line.
There were multiple BodyArmor bracket champions this season. In 2023, the Lions was the tournament’s overall champion and went on to finish second in 3A.
“[Sunday’s title] was exciting, especially since when we won two years ago, the team really picked up from there and made a good playoff run,” Avants said. “So we’re thinking history might repeat itself.”
