Naperville Central junior midfielder Michael DeFalco can be easy to overlook.
That comes with the territory for a 5-foot-4 soccer player.
“If it was last year’s team, he would look really short,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said with a grin. “Fortunately, we’re not as tall as last year.”
Does DeFalco still have room to grow? Skill-wise, yes. Height-wise, maybe.
“A little bit,” DeFalco said. “There’s not much left in the tank, but hopefully a little more.”
DeFalco may be short of stature, but he’s long on heart and determination, as he has proved during his first varsity season.
“He absolutely is fearless in challenging,” Adams said. “He knows he’s giving up 3-4 inches, but he will throw his body in. He might not win it every time, but he’s making sure it’s not an easy out or an easy header. So it’s awesome.”
DeFalco is more of a distributor than a pure scorer, but he’s capable of playing attacking midfielder or winger.
Adams has had many of his players try several positions this season, and DeFalco is no different.
“Moving kids around keeps them sharp, and I think it makes it harder to keep track of them,” Adams said. “(As a defender), you just get comfortable. ‘I’ve been running next to you for the last 10 minutes,’ then all of a sudden it’s, ‘Wait, I had No. 2. Where the heck did he go?'”
That’s exactly how DeFalco, who wears No. 2, got free at an opportune time during the Redhawks’ Class 3A Bolingbrook Regional semifinal on Tuesday.
Sophomore midfielder Eli Jarrell‘s 12-yard shot struck the right post and caromed in front to DeFalco, who buried the rebound to break a scoreless tie with Plainfield Central.
DeFalco’s strike came with 26:50 left in the second half and proved to be the game winner as the fifth-seeded Redhawks beat the 10th-seeded Wildcats 4-0.
Naperville Central (10-5-7) will play third-seeded Bolingbrook (11-5-4) for the regional championship at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“I kind of just saw an opportunity,” DeFalco said of the first game-winning goal of his varsity career. “It came to me, and I had to finish. I was unmarked. They must have forgot about me.”
That’s not a novel occurrence for DeFalco, who often is one of the smallest players on the field. But teams would be wise to pay more attention.
“I’ve got a feeling that there’s going to be a lot more of those coming because he’s always in the right spot and he tends to finish those,” said Jarrell, who scored twice to increase his team lead to 12 goals. “It’s really nice.
“He brings a lot of energy, a lot of skill. He can find passes that most kids can’t, and then he finishes.”
DeFalco has three goals, but two have come in his past two games. He also scored in a 1-1 tie against St. Charles North in the regular-season finale on Oct. 12.
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“I see the field very well, and I like distributing the ball,” DeFalco said. “I like playing a nice through ball, trying to get all my teammates in the game and get them the ball.”
DeFalco, who is a nephew of ESPN Chicago radio host Carmen DeFalco, comes from a rich soccer background. His father, Louis, was a midfielder at Naperville North, where his uncle, Tony, was a defender on the 1998 state championship team.
But DeFalco is happy to be thriving at Naperville Central, where he played on the freshman team during his first year and on junior varsity last year.
“You’d love to have guys that can start on varsity first day freshman year, but that doesn’t happen,” Adams said. “Mike is a great example of somebody who’s worked hard in the offseason to become a better player.
“Today is probably the best day he’s had with accelerating with the ball at his foot, really looking to step on the gas and go. And he can do it, though it hasn’t been asked of him as much this year. He’s not only gotten better from freshman year to now, he’s also gotten better as the season has gone on.”
DeFalco is enjoying every minute of the journey.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “This program has done a really good job overall of bonding everyone together and developing everyone into better players.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.