Richard Zoller likes to take charge for Mount Carmel. Actually, he’ll take every charge. ‘It’s pretty amazing.’

Richard Zoller is Mount Carmel’s version of a human speed bump.

Zoller scored only four points Wednesday night, but the junior forward wrecked Hyde Park’s season by taking four charges in the first half. He leads the team in that category.

Caravan coach Phil Segroves estimates that Zoller has over 30 charges this season, but even he has never seen one player take so many in such a short period of time.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Segroves said. “It’s hard in this day and age.

“Kids want all the glory on the other end. They want to shoot threes and dunk, and that’s fun, too. I love when guys dunk the ball and shoot threes.”

Four was better than three in this case as Zoller helped set the tone early for the Caravan, who knocked off Hyde Park 70-51 in a Class 3A Glenbard South Sectional semifinal.

Mount Carmel (27-6) will be shooting for its first sectional championship since 2008 — and just the third overall — at 7 p.m. Friday against top-seeded Simeon.

The Caravan do plenty of both dunking and taking 3-pointers, but not many teams can play defense the way Zoller can. It’s the first thing Segroves noted in the postgame speech to his players.

“It’s a team effort, but Richard Zoller and those four charges right away took Hyde Park out of trying to get downhill,” Segroves said. “They’re real big in the pick-and-roll game, and we knew once they get downhill, they look to go and finish.

“So we were practicing on showing early, and Richard did just that for us.”

Indeed, Zoller stepped in front of DaMarian Morris on Hyde Park’s first possession. Zoller went down like a bowling pin, but the Caravan got the ball back.

By the end of the first quarter, Zoller had drawn two more charges and Mount Carmel led 22-8, with senior guard DeAndre Craig scoring 10 of his 22 points and junior center Angelo Ciaravino adding six of his game-high 26.

“He’s a great glue guy,” Ciaravino said of Zoller. “If we don’t have him, it’s a whole different game.

“I know other guys would step up, but we definitely needed those charges to get us going early.”

Zoller showed the toughness of a football player, but he doesn’t play that sport. He plays on the golf team in the fall but doesn’t seem to mind contact or the pain that can come from taking charges.

“I don’t really feel much,” Zoller said. “I think it’s just a lot of adrenaline. It gets you going, so a little bit of pain is worth it. We’re all willing to do it.”

Along those lines, Craig later took two charges and some of his teammates tried to draw them, too. It was all part of the game plan.

“A charge comes from teamwork,” Zoller said. “It’s not a one-man ordeal. Everything has to come together. We work on our rotations a lot in practice and it comes in handy.”

The big early lead also came in handy because Hyde Park (24-7) chopped a 17-point deficit down to 54-49 on a 3-pointer from Jurrell Baldwin, who led the Thunderbirds with 19 points and six rebounds.

But Craig responded with two free throws and Ciaravino followed with back-to-back dunks to fuel a closing 17-2 burst.

The first dunk came with 2:21 remaining after Ciaravino caught an inbounds pass from his brother, Anthony, at midcourt and sprinted past the defense.

“That’s our famous out-of-bounds play,” said Angelo Ciaravino, who finished with a game-high 12 rebounds and tied his brother and Morris for game-high honors with four assists. “We try to get it at least once a game.

“I see that opening and my brother is smart enough to see it right away. We make eye contact and I know I’m getting it, so I just get going.

The 6-foot-6 Ciavarino runs like a track star, although he doesn’t compete in that sport. It’s one of the reasons why Zoller said the Caravan are fun to watch.

“People are definitely surprised by my quickness and athleticism,” Ciaravino said. “So let them keep being surprised.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.