Muckenhirn's OT head shot keeps Redhawks unbeaten
By Chris Walker

 

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Anyone who follows high school girls’ soccer knows that Naperville Central's Jill D'Amico is as talented of a goalkeeper you will find.

Apparently, Glenbard East junior goalkeeper Veronica Fairbairn is darn good too.

D'Amico, Fairbairn and their respective teams tipped off their DuPage Valley Conference schedule on Tuesday night in Naperville. While D'Amico was rarely tested, Fairbairn was pushed to the limit, making a handful of saves to allow her team to extend the game into overtime.

While Fairbairn smacked, blocked, redirected and caught plenty of shots, she wasn't able to get her hands on an Autumn Muckenhirn header with 1:00 left in overtime, which kept the Redhawks perfect, with a 1-0 victory.

"Honestly it was just a great way to finish and especially after having so many chances," Muckenhirn said. "At that point it was just about having to finish. It was just there for me to finish."

It took a short while for the game-winning shot to develop as several players got in on the action.

Freshmen Meredith Tunney played the ball to Veronica Ellis who unselfishly distributed it to Meredith McEniff. With several of the Rams converging on defense, McEniff fed the ball to Abby Joyce who served Muckenhirn with what proved to be the game-winning assist as Muckenhirn's header found the back of the net.

"That was as good as one you'll see," Redhawks coach Ed Watson said. "They (Glenbard East) never touched that ball during that sequence."

Finding the back of the net provided a huge sigh of relief for the Redhawks, who had plenty of chances in which they came up empty-handed. One such opportunity came their way just a little more than a minute into the second half. Senior Maddie Thompson blasted a shot off of Fairbairn's hands and up to the crossbar. It ricocheted straight down and Fairbairn was able to secure possession.

"We kept talking to the girls about making our life simple and scoring early and I thought we had some opportunities but didn't get them in," Watson said. "Then you're getting into halftime and realize 40 minutes have already gone and you still haven't got one through."

The speed and change in direction of the ball finally beat Fairbairn and the Rams.

"She's approaching the school record on shutouts," Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said. "We definitely think that she's one of the best goalies around."
Overbey also praised the play of a mix of midfielders and defenders, including Jessie Grumstrup, Sadie Moore, Meghan Mumental and Kelly Ravenscraft.

"I thought our defense did a really nice job of frustrating them. They were settling for 25 to 30-yard shots in the first half and that's a testament to how good our defense was playing, plus it doesn't hurt to have Veronica in goal."

Naperville Central (6-0-0, 1-0-0 DVC), which scored twice on headers in its previous victory (13 days ago against Waubonsie Valley), treated spring break truly like a vacation by not only stepping away from quizzes, tests and term papers, but away from soccer.

The Redhawks didn't practice over spring break until Saturday and Sunday and those two practices weren't mandatory sessions. Still, they drew 12 girls on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. The team did finally have a formal full team practice on Monday.

"All three practices were really good," Watson. "Every year we do it we know we take a risk. Certainly, a team that stays in town and practices during that time is going to be crisper than we are. But I've always taken the stance that they're student-athletes and it's a spring break for our students and they shouldn't be penalized because they're athletes."

If anyone was penalized on Tuesday, it was Fairbairn. Despite several heroic saves, she also had to watch to no avail as the game-winner eluded her.

"She had a great game between the pipes and it's unfortunate for it to come down to a non-clearance there," Overbey said. "It's not her fault. She's played well all season for us and once again did so tonight."

Generally not more than three or four minutes would transpire without the Redhawks challenging Fairbairn and the Rams defense. The Redhawks outshot the Rams, 21-1.

"I was really happy to be able to make a lot of saves and my defense was strong the entire game," Fairbairn said. "I'm just trying to do whatever I need to do."

Her adrenalin was certainly pumping on a night where warm daytime temps were engulfed by a chilly and windy evening.

"After every big save I get really energetic," she said. "It just pumps me up and I look forward to having another chance to make another big one to keep the team in the game."

Glenbard East (7-3-1, 0-1-0) came within a split second of scoring at the 23:45 mark of the first half as junior Bethany Wood just missed reaching a pass as D'Amico shot up to secure it. If Wood could've secured possession she would've had a one-on-one opportunity. Instead, it was a missed opportunity.

"That save Jill made in the first half goes partially unnoticed because so much of the game was played on their end of the field," Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. "That's a mini breakaway that she shuts down on the kid's foot. If she doesn't make that, then we're trailing and it's a different dynamic."

If the time away did anything to hurt the Redhawks it may have been stamina. It certainly wasn't the actual run of the game as they controlled possession.

"I know I was out of shape and huffing and puffing a bit in the first half," Redhawks sophomore Grace Orndorff said. "We didn't get out of shape too much so it was good to be able to pull out an important conference game."

Despite the loss, the Rams are optimistic that they can be competitive of against the perennial powers in the conference, namely the Naperville and Wheaton schools.

"Our goal is to break into the top four," Overbey said. "Obviously, even if we could've gotten a tie, and we were looking for a win, it's a great result. We kind of always gauge our first couple of DVC games to see where we're going to end up. If we can bring this effort to practice and games then we should be successful. Naperville Central is a great team and they're going to win a lot of games. They came out ahead today."

Fans had a momentary scare late in the second half when Naperville Central senior Katherine Short lay on the field. Fortunately for the Redhawks it wasn't an injury, but only a cramp.

Also for the Redhawks, freshman Allison Kincaide played valuable minutes and has become a fine addition to the team. Kincaide scored the game-winning goal in a JV match against Plainfield North and has stayed with the big club ever since.

"We asked her that day if she wanted to a play a little more and she finished the game on the varsity field when one of our outside backs went down," Watson said. "She was also with us for the Oswego and Waubonsie Valley games. She's not going back (to JV)."

The Redhawks have shutout the Rams in each of the meetings over the past three seasons, including a 1-0 victory last spring and a 5-0 decision in 2010.