Warriors top Naperville Central on Klancic goal

By Matt Le Cren

For most soccer teams, going 117 minutes without scoring a goal would be no big deal.

For reigning state champion Waubonsie Valley, that constitutes a drought.

So Hannah Klancic had a one-word reply when asked how it felt to score her team’s first goal of the season Wednesday night against Naperville Central at North Central College.

“Finally,” she said.

Klancic’s goal came with 22:47 left in the second half and was enough to lift the Warriors (1-1) to a 1-0 victory over the previously unbeaten Redhawks (3-1-1). It also erased the disappointment of last week’s season-opening 1-0 loss at Lyons.

“I think we got really unlucky the first game,” Klancic said. “I think it’s just taken us some time to settle it down. The first game is always crazy.

“Honestly, I think we played awesome against LT. We just couldn’t get the ball in the net. We just needed people to take more shots but I think this game we had a lot of people attacking and shooting.”

Megan Green started the decisive play with a corner kick, which was knocked out of the penalty area by Central’s defense. But freshman Kristen Dodson alertly sent the ball right back into the box and it found the foot of Klancic, who poked a five-yard shot past Central goalie Jill D’Amico.

“I think [Dodson] just flicked it back and I got the lucky touch on it,” Klancic said. “I was really determined.”

D’Amico, a three-year starter, has a reputation for making tough saves. She made six stops and did not get the blame for Klancic’s goal.

“It’s unfortunate,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “The goal that they scored had a really funny spin on it and it just went right past Jill. I think she had it and next thing you know it just kind of dove away from her.

“We talk about if you have your mark then they don’t have a chance to win the ball, so somebody dropped the ball on the back end.”

Naperville Central was only outshot 10-9 and gave up just one other good scoring chance, that coming seven minutes before Klancic’s goal when Green raced in on a partial breakaway but sent a 15-yard shot wide of the left post as D’Amico charged out of the net.

The Redhawks thought they had drawn first blood five minutes into the second half when Krissy Many headed an Ashley Tegge corner kick off the inside of the right post. The ball ricocheted across the crease before being cleared by a defender.

Waubonsie goalie Jordan Myers made five saves to record her first shutout. Two were difficult stops. The first came with 33:00 to play when she parried a hard shot from Kristin Adams around the right post and the second was even better as she leaped to tip Meredith McEniff’s 20-yard shot from the left corner just over the crossbar.

“Jordan had an amazing save,” Klancic said. “That last one was really great. She did a great job in the back and so did our defense.”

“Myers has waited a long time to play at the varsity level,” Watson said. “Her father and I are good friends and, while I wish she hadn’t done it against us, you know what, good for her. That was a save that a lot of keepers can’t make. They punch it into their own goal or they flat-out fan on it, so that was a big-time save for her.”

Klancic also gave kudos to defenders Kerri Skotnicki, Mary Wright and Michelle Filipek, whose efforts often get overlooked.

“They don’t get any credit and I feel like we have the strongest backs,” Klancic said.

As usual, the two sides played a close, low-scoring contest, which is what the Redhawks do nearly every contest. Central wins a lot of 1-0 games but Watson said his squad must do better offensively in order to knock off the top teams.

“We didn’t create enough shooting opportunities. We had the ball in their end in the second half and didn’t come up with shots and we just have to get to the point where we identify where the shots are going to come from and who’s going to have to be able to pull the trigger,” Watson said. “We possess pretty nicely but we are not a great combination team. We don’t have that type of kid that when they let the ball go is scrappy enough to go and get in behind somebody.”

“We do a lot of passing and standing and that’s good enough to possess the ball, but in the attacking third you’ve got to be crafty and right now we’re a work in progress.  But when we get opportunities like dead balls or restarts, that’s where we’re actually pretty dangerous. Krissy did a great job on that [near-miss].”

While Watson said that a loss doesn’t really matter at this point in the season as long as his club draws lessons from it, Klancic had the opposite view.

“I honestly think the beginning games are most important because we really see what we have and then we just keep building on that,” the junior said. “It’s really like a stepping stone for the rest of the year.

“We’re really not [used to losing any matches], but we took [the LT loss] to heart and we really wanted to get it back this game. I think we played a lot harder than we did the first game and settled things down and played on the ground.”

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