Niko Ladas was in elementary school when his older brother, George, helped Naperville North win Class 3A state championships in 2016 and 2017.

Ladas attended many of the games back then, of course, and he paid particular attention to star midfielder Jack Barry, who created countless goals with his prodigiously long throw-ins.

“I’d say we’re very similar players,” Ladas said. “We utilize our skills with the long throw to get as much as we can off of them because most teams don’t have a long throw. So it really helps us out.

“Barry could throw it way farther than me. He always threw it from like the 30. I could only throw it from the 20 or 25.”

Even so, that distance is long enough for Ladas to create some havoc, which is exactly what he did at the Class 3A East Aurora Supersectional on Tuesday. The junior midfielder’s heave from the right wing went to the near post to Noah Radeke, who headed it up into the air.

When the ball came down, Andrew Hebron sent a 5-yard shot off the underside of the crossbar and into the net with 27:10 left in the second half, and that turned out to be the game-winning goal as the Huskies rallied to beat Collinsville 2-1.

Naperville North (22-1-3), now unbeaten in its last 25 games, will play Lyons (19-6-2) in the state semifinals at Hoffman Estates at 6 p.m. Friday.

“I threw it in, and I saw Andrew hit it bar down,” Ladas said. “It was a perfect goal.”

Ladas is the latest in a long line of throw-in specialists that includes Barry and Christian Romano, who filled the role on Naperville North’s 2018 state championship team. Ladas’ secret is simple, but his preparation began long ago.

“Basically, I just wind up and throw it as hard as I can,” he said. “I’ve always been able to throw it far since I was young. I’ve been practicing since I was like 5. My mom’s been helping me.”

Ironically, the Huskies haven’t been as effective on restarts as they usually are, but they haven’t needed it as their high-powered offense has produced 79 goals.

But goals get harder to come by as a team advances deeper into the playoffs, so a thrower like Ladas becomes more important. His improvement from the start of the season has been vital.

“We knew we had a strong thrower in Niko, and we just said we have to capitalize on restarts,” Hebron said. “That’s been our focus for a while now. Restarts win games. Coach was telling us a story about a team that won and they scored like 75% of their goals on restarts.”

That was Naperville North’s 2018 state championship team, which won with great goalkeeping and defense. This team features a great midfield and two terrific strikers in Radeke and Jaxon Stokes, who scored the game-tying goal 13 seconds into the second half after Collinsville (14-6-1) had taken a 1-0 lead in the first half.

Ladas had made several throws into the Kahoks’ box in the first half with nothing to show for it. Radeke was whistled for a foul on a couple.

“On (the goal), he put his hands like this (at his sides), and he jumped like a pogo stick, and he got enough of it that it beat that first line of defense,” Naperville North coach Jim Konrad said of Radeke. “And Andrew is so quick. He exploded and just got a foot on it and buried it.”

Hebron had noticed something in the Collinsville defense and was ready to exploit it.

“It happened once in the first half when Noah headed it up and it went straight up and nobody was on the other end,” Hebron said. “So I saw this happen, and I knew I had to get there because there was nobody there.”

It was more proof that the Huskies are learning fast and that Ladas is becoming more dangerous with his throws.

“Definitely,” Hebron said. “I played with Niko at the JV1 level (last season), and he could throw it far. But now it’s just a whole other level of dangerous.”

Now the Huskies are two victories away from winning their fifth state title, which would be the third for the Ladas family.

“I’m very pumped,” he said. “I’m just going to lock in for the next couple days, eat healthy, pump up the team.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.