Blackhawks fall to Redhawks in DVC play

By Eddie Burns

There are goals and then there are goals people don’t and won’t forget.

Naperville Central’s Jay Tegge scored one of those memorable goals during the Redhawks’ 5-0 DuPage Valley Conference win at West Aurora on Tuesday night.

Tegge’s strike came in the 27th minute when he ripped a shot from 40 yards out and the perfectly placed attempt found the upper corner.

“Jay’s strike was unbelievable,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “I said that I’m going to have to pull it off the video and send it to ESPN or something. I don’t think that thing moved once it got going – it just stayed on a line. You don’t see goals like that. You see those maybe once every six months in the Premier League.”

West Aurora coach Joe Sustersic offered his thoughts on Tegge’s goal

“That was a laser beam,” Sustersic said. “I don’t know how else you would describe that goal.”

Sam Reskala set up Tegge’s goal by playing the ball back to Tegge.

“I heard his name,” Reskala said. “I didn’t really see him as I was being attacked from all over. I passed the ball in his general direction and he just shot it. That was reckless. It was absolutely beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever quite seen a goal like that.”

Tegge was almost at a loss of words.

“It is definitely one of the best, if not the best goal I’ve scored,” said Tegge, who has four goals this season. “It was just pure adrenaline -- as soon as I struck it. I knew I hit it solid and it just rose slowly. I saw it hit the underside of the crossbar, then go in and it was a great feeling.”

Adams was quick to point to Reskala’s contribution.

“Any time Sam gets the ball, good things happen,” Adams said. “It might not be Sam scoring, but it is Sam holding, turning and hitting someone and then that guy slots it through and we score. Sam doesn’t get the credit he deserves, but he is an integral part of what we do.”

Tegge’s goal came on the heels of several missed chances by the Redhawks (7-1-1, 2-0) as they were relentless in their pursuit of a goal throughout the first half.

Reskala, David Murphy, Brad Holland and Ben Border each generated quality scoring chances, but they either missed the net or were turned away by West Aurora goalie Alex Guillen.

“The sad part about soccer is that you are going to get chances, but are you going to put them in the back of the net or not?” Adams said. “When you do, you look really good and when you don’t … everyone is like, ‘They are not that good.’ That is just how soccer is.”

Tegge’s goal was the lone tally of the opening half as the Redhawks held a 1-0 lead at intermission.

Central carried over its aggressive attacking into the second half. From the restart, the Redhawks spent the entire first five minutes of the second half in West Aurora’s end and it yielded three goals in a 3-minute span.

Jordi Heeneman tallied the first goal in the 44rd minute. Two minutes later, Drake Swope and Derek Kerbs teamed up for the Redhawks’ third goal as Kerbs sent Swope a cross off a corner past West Aurora goalie Robert Marquez.

Devon Amoo-Mensah capped the three goals in three minutes as he was the recipient of a well-played ball by Border, who sent a cross in toward the heart of the penalty area where Amoo-Mensah finished with one quick strike.

The three goals were the result of Central’s commitment to creating restarts.

“We had zero (corner kicks in the first half),” Adams said. “That told us that we were not attacking the end line enough, so in the first five minutes of the second half … we had three goals.

“Attacking the end line makes a difference because we can put teams under pressure and make them defend inside their box and when you do that – good things can happen. We were trying to get them on their heels because we wanted to keep attacking. We did a much better job of that in the second half.”

Sustersic said that scoring spree by Central really caught his team off guard.

“We played well at times, but there was that moment when we got shell-shocked when we gave up those three goals in three minutes,” said Sustersic, whose team is now 4-2-2 overall and 0-1 in the league.

“What I want to build on is that we played a great first half. We gave up one goal and it was a beauty. We go into halftime and it was 1-0 and they had a beautiful goal. We played structured and did a good job communicating. We gave up that first goal in the second half and there was that element of shock and surprise. We did a lot of good things, but we’re still learning.”

Central’s Jordi McCormack capped the scoring with a goal off a corner restart in the 78th minute.

While the Redhawks managed five goals, Adams was more pleased with defensive effort put forth, which resulted in their fourth shutout.

“To be able to score five goals against a team like West Aurora is good accomplishment,” Adams said, “but more importantly, I was happy that we kept the shutout.”