Falcons doomed by unlikely first half vs. Naperville Central

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By Matt Le Cren

Sometimes you’re lucky. Sometimes you’re good.

Naperville Central was both Monday night and the result was a 4-0 DuPage Valley Conference victory over a frustrated Wheaton North squad that felt it deserved a better fate and probably did.

Junior midfielder Katherine Short led the Redhawks with the first two-goal game of her career, which helped Naperville Central (10-4-2, 4-0-1) seize sole possession of first place in the DVC, a half-game ahead of Naperville North (3-0-1). The Redhawks, Huskies and West Chicago (2-0-2) are the only teams still in contention for the league title.

Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly couldn’t believe his squad’s bad luck after watching the Falcons (7-6-1, 2-2) keep the Redhawks contained for much of the first half only to find themselves trailing 3-0 at halftime.

“It was very frustrating. I told the kids that I don’t know if I’ve seen any 40 minutes of soccer where you’ve outplayed the opposition and been down 3-0,” McEvilly said. “They had some very fortunate goals, some things that we can’t allow to happen that were simple errors.

“Our midfield owned the midfield throughout the first 40 minutes. We got behind them. Our defense did a good job of tackling and putting pressure and eliminating dangerous opportunities. Those can’t be goals. You can’t give freebies to Naperville Central and we gave them freebies.”

If you’re a Redhawks fan, those freebies were the result of Central’s new emphasis on taking long-range pot shots from all angles, a strategy that has been paying off lately for the usually offensively challenged Redhawks.

Both of Short’s goals were illustrative of this trend, which began when Krissy Many scored long-range goals in each of Central’s last two matches.

Short’s first score, which came with 26:54 left in the first half, was a 25-yard shot through a steady drizzle that slipped through Wheaton North goalie Emily Barry’s hands and trickled into the net.

“The girls are starting to figure out that the best thing to do is throw it at the goal and see if something good happens,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “On a wet night like this, the goalie’s gloves are probably a little slick and it slips through her hands and fortunately for us it trickles in.”

Short’s second tally was even luckier. Sophomore defender Amanda Alberts popped the ball up from the right wing in the general vicinity of Kristin Adams in the middle of the Falcons penalty area. The ball bounced over the head of Adams to the unguarded Short, who headed it home for a 2-0 lead with 12:30 to go before intermission.

“Kristin was there, which was a big help because then the goalie didn’t really see me sneaking in the back,” Short said. “Kristin distracted the goalie for me and I just snuck in the back and got my head on it.

It was an opportunistic play by the junior midfielder, who anticipated she might have a play on it when Barry came out to try to prevent Adams from getting to it.

“When it was in the air I could kind of tell once it bounced that Kristin wouldn’t be able to get a touch on it, so I really wanted to be able to be there just in case,” Short said. “It happened to work out like that, so it was really awesome.”

The goal may not make any highlight reels, but Short isn’t complaining and neither is Watson, who saw it as a thing of beauty.

“What we were saying on that one was, because we had the two girls in, the keeper had to go to the first girl, and when the ball doesn’t get to the first girl and bounces over, she can’t defend both,” Watson said. “So Kristin Adams was basically a dummy in that situation and it worked out well.”

The Redhawks increased the lead to 3-0 just 2:39 later when Meredith McEniff blasted a 27-yard shot off the underside of the crossbar and in. Barry, a freshman who had two saves, didn’t have a chance at that shot but was replaced at that point by sophomore Jessica Kiely, who made eight saves over the final 49 minutes. Most of those stops came on long-range shots, which has become Central’s main offensive strategy.

“One of our fortes is taking longer shots from farther out and once we found our way of scoring goals we decided to keep acting on it and take shots whenever we had an opportunity,” Short said. “It’s working really well for us. It was totally a team effort.”

Maddie Thompson capped the scoring with 9:41 left in the second half on another long shot from a tough angle, a 20-yarder from just outside the box on the left wing. McEvilly thought Thompson was trying to cross it and instead shanked the ball, which ended up sailing over Kiely’s head.

“[Depending on long shots] is a tough way to try to live by because we did a very good job of preventing them from actually creating,” McEvilly said. “They didn’t get behind us one time.  We expect more out of ourselves than this in the conference. But the kids were able to play the second 40 and not get their heads down.”

Ironically, it was the Falcons who nearly drew first blood, missing a great scoring chance just 4:30 into the contest. Ashley Oltman made a cross in front to a wide-open Sidney Sharkey. Sharkey normally buries such shots nine times out of 10, but the junior fanned on this one, leaving D’Amico to breathe a sigh of relief.

“For sure I was nervous on that one,” D’Amico said. “If they would have scored on that…it completely turns the game around and maybe gives them the momentum to come back and get another one, so it was really important that we held them there.”

Watson agreed.

“Absolutely, and that’s why you never know when you’re going to get your chance and I said to the girls we’re lucky, we should be down 1-0,” he said. “Then we finally got it going. It could have been a completely different game.”

D’Amico, who made three saves in recording her eighth shutout, had to make one great save, which came with 4:55 to go in the opening half when she sprawled to her left to stop Oltman’s one-timer from eight yards out. Sharkey had created that chance by sprinting into the right side of the box and sending a perfect pass from the end line.

“They didn’t get many chances because the defense really held them strong,” D’Amico said. “The few chances they had we cleaned up.”

The Redhawks have stepped up their defensive effort lately, giving up only one goal since a 6-2 loss to Neuqua Valley. Sophomore Amanda Alberts has led the way with her stellar play at left back, not only marking well but triggering the transition with strong clearing passes.

“Amanda Alberts has just been big-time for us,” D’Amico said. “She has battled so hard for every ball, Carly [Franzese] has been playing great and we put [Veronica Ellis] in the back again and she’s been great too,” D’Amico said. “The whole defense has just stepped up big time since the Neuqua game because I think that was a big wakeup call for everyone, that something needed to change.”