Naperville North senior Jaxon Grier said there’s no special story behind the unusual spelling of his first name.
“There’s not really a reason,” Grier said. “My parents, I guess, just decided to name me a little differently from everyone else.”
There was nothing generic about Grier’s play Saturday. The reserve midfielder scored the goal that saved the Huskies’ season.
Grier tallied the tying goal on a powerful header off a cross from Alex Barger, who later set up Jacob Ryu’s winning header as top-seeded Naperville North rallied past Naperville Central 3-2 in the Class 3A Plainfield North Sectional championship game.
The Huskies (21-5-2) will play Morton (20-1-3) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Lewis Supersectional.
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Grier has scored two goals in his career. Both have come in the state playoffs.
“Jaxon is a kid we’ve had high hopes for the whole time,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said. “He’s incredibly athletic. He can get up and down the field well.
“Some games lend themselves to certain players. Today’s game lent itself to Jaxon. When he got in, the game changed because he’s able to get forward and make them respect us.”
Third-seeded Naperville Central (15-8-1) earned respect by outplaying the Huskies for the first 60 minutes.
The Redhawks took the lead twice, first on a header from Nathan Kwon at the 16:46 mark of the first half and again on Sean O’Reilly’s 40-yard free kick with 22:52 remaining in the second half.
O’Reilly’s goal came just 1:28 after Wright State recruit Cam Radeke pulled Naperville North even by converting a penalty kick.
“I thought we were going to keep the lead,” O’Reilly said. “I thought we were going to stay disciplined on defense and not let any stupid mistakes happen.
“Our defense was great the whole game. Nothing was going by them. We had them.”
Until they didn’t. The Redhawks held the Indiana-bound Barger to just one shot, but he burned them with two perfect crosses from the left wing.
Grier headed home the first with 13:37 left to force a 2-2 tie. Then Ryu nudged in the second one for the go-ahead goal at the 4:49 mark.
“You can’t really say anything about that,” O’Reilly said. “Great crosses and they got on the end of them.”
Grier said he figured he would have space on the right wing because the Redhawks were focused on shutting down Radeke, the Huskies’ leading scorer.
“When Alex took that ball up, I knew they were going to track Cameron, so I made the run,” Grier said. “I was definitely nervous.
“I knew I had an open goal, so I had to pick a spot where the goalkeeper wasn’t. I placed the ball and it went in.”
Barger, who has a team-high 14 assists to go with 11 goals, wasn’t surprised.
“Jaxon is a great player,” Barger said. “He puts in a ton of good work and you saw it here with his goal.
“He buried it. He was digging not just on that goal but for the entire 80 minutes.”
That helped the Huskies hit pay dirt in time to win their fifth straight sectional title and 16th overall.
“There’s no words to really explain,” Grier said. “It’s just so much excitement. My last year, it’s really fun playing for North.”
Konrad was thrilled to see a role player like Grier star in a big game.
“In the tournament, you need kids to step up in roles they’re not used to doing,” Konrad said. “Some games, if it’s a technical style, that’s not Jaxon.
“If it’s a fistfight, let’s go up and down the field and play aggressive, that’s Jaxon. Today, he obviously threw a good punch.”
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Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.