Youngsters lead the way for Warriors against Red Devils
By Matt Le Cren
The good news for Hinsdale Central Thursday night was that it held Waubonsie Valley star Vanessa DiBernardo scoreless.
But the bad news was that the Red Devils took a double dose of trouble from two members of the next generation of stars as the Warriors held on for a 2-1 victory on the opening night of the Naperville Invitational at Naperville North.
Freshman Rachele Armand scored her fifth goal of the season and sophomore Shannon Donelson tallied her second to lead Waubonsie Valley (9-0-1).
Armand's goal came with 28:08 left in the first half when she outraced a defender to a loose ball and walked in on Hinsdale Central goalie Katie Tarman before sliding a six-yard shot just inside the right post to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead.
"Hannah [Klancic] just passed me a really good ball and I dribbled it for a while until the goalie came out and just shot it," said Armand, whose first career goal came in a season-opening 3-0 win at South Elgin.
"It felt really good. I enjoyed scoring a goal against them."
Donelson increased the lead to 2-0 with 25:45 remaining in the second half. She got around the defense on the left side of the box and scored with a left-footed blast from 15 yards away.
While Waubonsie coach Julie Bergstrom claims she never thinks farther ahead than the next game, she has to be pleased that the talent cupboard won't be bare after the Illinois-bound DiBernardo, whom many consider to be the best player in the state, graduates after this season.
"The younger ones are always learning from the older ones with game management, the effort and mentality [needed] to compete," Bergstrom said. "Every game is something to learn from."
Armand and freshman Jenna Romano are the most highly-touted of Waubonsie's large corps of young players that includes five freshmen and four sophomores.
That group seems to have integrated with the upperclassmen faster than had been expected.
"It's been really fun," Armand said. "I've enjoyed it. The girls are really nice. [High school] is a different experience and I've enjoyed it a lot.
"I feel [my skills] are pretty good but there's still room for a lot of improvement and I think playing older girls is helping me improve."
One area the Warriors need to improve on is finishing games, a lesson the Red Devils taught them by making things interesting.
Hinsdale Central (6-5) became just the third team to hold DiBernardo scoreless and broke the Warriors' string of six consecutive shutouts when Eryka Hawkins scored with 8:56 remaining.
Drea Issleib knocked the ball into the middle of the field and an alert Hawkins raced past a defender and beat Waubonsie goalie Allison Fox to the ball.
After getting around Fox, Hawkins dribbled the ball into the empty net to make it 2-1. It was just the third goal surrendered by the Warriors this spring.
"It was exciting," Hawkins said. "Drea Issleib won the ball and then it was just a loose ball in the middle and I tried to get to it as fast as I could. I surprised myself I think."
But the Red Devils weren't finished. They repeatedly knocked dangerous balls into the Waubonsie zone and wound up outshooting Waubonsie 13-10.
Their last chance to tie the score came with 1:20 left when defender Allison Roberson missed wide left with a 41-yard free kick.
"They pushed a lot of their players up because they had nothing to lose," Armand said. "It was kind of hard to get back and defend but we stuck with them."
Hinsdale's play was a marked improvement from Tuesday's disheartening 2-1 loss to Oak Park, which scored the game-winner with six seconds left in overtime.
"We tried new things, putting more people up top, trying to at least put something in the back of the net," Hawkins said.
"It worked. We were really excited. I think we had a really good game, better than some of our past games."
Hinsdale's defense was impressive in limiting DiBernardo to three shots, all in the first half, though two nearly ended in scores.
The Warrior standout made a fast run into the box with 31:50 left in the first half but rolled a shot just wide of the right post.
Then with 4:30 to go in the opening period, she got behind the defense as Tarman charged out of the box but couldn't stop her.
DiBernardo tried to score from 16 yards out on the empty net but Hinsdale defender Melissa Boduch intercepted the shot and knocked it over the end line.
"Boduch played a great game in the back," Hinsdale Central coach Skip Begley said. "I was happy with our girls' effort. We got focused and we tried to score and that's what we're going to have to do.
"I certainly don't think they were that excited about playing us. We don't have much of a moniker with us right now. They just came off a big win against Neuqua. They got up 2-0 and we kind of came alive.
"I think there were some positives to take from tonight's play and that's one of our goals is to try to get better each game and I thought certainly we were better tonight than we were Tuesday. We just have to be a little more consistent."
CLICK TO SEE WARRIORS' TEAM PAGE
CLICK TO SEE WARRIORS' PHOTO PAGE |
