Wildcats top host St. Charles East in final tourney tilt

CLICK HERE FOR PLAINFIELD CENTRAL'S TEAM PAGE

By Steve Nemeth

More often than not, quality trumps quantity.

Such was the case for Plainfield Central in Saturday’s fifth-place contest of the 18th Annual St. Charles East Invitational in which the Wildcats chalked up a 1-0 victory over the host Saints.

From a statistical standpoint, St. Charles East compiled a 17-8 advantage for overall attempts and a 7-3 edge for shots on frame, but all that mattered was the “heads-up” combination the Wildcats got with 8:26 left in regulation.  That’s when Mohammad Rashid’s free kick was headed sharply into the Saints’ goal from five yards out by Josh Rosenbaum.

“I told him (Josh) to just get open near the far post and I’d find him,” Rashid said. “We practice those set pieces a lot, but it always feels great to finish them in a match.”

“On free kicks we alternate who takes the kick, whether we go for a goal, or try to flick it to a teammate,” Rosenbaum said of his fifth goal for the year. “In this case, the rotation had me going for goal and ‘Mo’ placed a perfect ball to my head.”

Saints goalie Mike Novotny stopped the only other two on-target shots and also chalked up six “defensive cover-clear” situations in which his play avoided a potentially dangerous situation. But that one goal was enough for Plainfield Central to reach double digits in victories at 10-5-1 in contrast to a St. Charles East unit which saw its ledger slip to 4-6-1.

“What can you say?” Saints coach Paul Jennison asked shortly after the match. “We give up one really good shot on goal and we lose because on offense, we can’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

Aside from Jennison’s obviously biased viewpoint, the Wildcat defense and keeper Tyler Badertscher had something to do with the Saints’ failure to score.

The match was 13-plus minutes in when Brian Gielow’s header required Badertscher to make a stellar one-hand tip save over the crossbar.

“As a keeper you generally know if you got enough (of a touch) on it for the save. A lot of times your momentum is enough to help push it away,” Badertscher said.

The junior goalie also got directly in front of a T.C. Hull’s left-footed blast from eight yards out on the left wing just 10:53 prior to halftime. Within a minute of that try, Badertscher had to stretch out and dive to his left to knock another attempt wide. There were only six minutes to go when a Wildcat defender got in the way of another booming try by the Saints with a rebound that was headed back into the net before Badertscher snared that as well.

It marked the sixth shutout of the current season, who worked with his defensive mates last season to equal the Plainfield Central single-season record for whitewashes with 12 clean sheets.

“Every time out I’m just doing my very best to get us a win, and if we can get a shutout, that’s all the better,” Badertscher added.

His teammate Asfid wasn’t quite as satisfied over the victory simply because he wanted more success, either within the match in terms of scoring or for the season overall.

“We got another win, but we should have more. Just like we didn’t finish some opportunities today, I think a couple losses and our tie could have, and should have been wins,” Asfid admitted.

Technically, it was the seventh triumph within the last eight matches played by Plainfield Central. It came three days after a five-match win streak was snapped in a 3-2 group-play contest against eventual invitational winner Glenbard North. That was the latest of a trio of one-goal setbacks on the Wildcats’ ledger.

“I think a real key to our success has been mental toughness,” Rosenbaum said. “In the matches we haven’t won, we sometimes just went through the motions and didn’t really play with heart.”

In addition to the St. Charles East Invite in which Plainfield Central won three of four contests, the Wildcats have their last three road contests before finishing with four straight home dates. After a Monday visit to Larkin, Central is at Plainfield East for one of its four remaining Southwest Prairie Conference matches. After five straight SPC titles, the Wildcats will need some help even for a share of a sixth after a 1-0 loss at Plainfield South earlier this year.

St. Charles East has monstrous week ahead starting with a Tuesday Upstate Eight Conference River Division match at St. Charles North, a Wednesday trip to West Aurora, a Thursday Tri-Cities meeting with Geneva in Batavia, and Friday-Saturday participation in the Gateway City Classic in St. Louis, MO.

“Their keeper had some great saves, but at the end of the day things just didn’t go our way,” Jennison repeated. “I thought we were solid in back and neutralized their threats. On offense we spread the ball and created opportunities. We’re not a kick and run club like some teams, we work hard to keep the ball on the ground, passing and possession are our game. The important thing now is for us to stay positive and just continue to work hard. We do that and I still believe good things will happen.”