Red Devils put three on the board at Elk Grove
By Gary Larsen

Hinsdale Central is picking up where it left off.

It was a young Red Devils team that entered last year’s postseason with a record of 6-12-2, before reeling off three wins and reaching a Class 3A sectional title game and a shootout loss to Downers Grove South.

Jenn Jarmy sat out for almost all of last season with an injury, before returning to score a goal in the game against Downers South.

“By the end of last season we showed that our regular season meant absolutely nothing,” Jarmy said. “When we got to the playoffs, that’s when we stepped it up and we did everything we could to make a name for ourselves.”

That objective continues, as the Red Devils improved to 2-0-1 with a 3-0 win at Elk Grove (1-1-0) on Thursday, when Jarmy scored twice and Casey May added a goal in the win. Central also has a win over St. Ignatius and played to a 1-1 tie with defending Class 3A state champion Naperville North in its second game of the year.

“It’s a new year and it’s amazing what confidence will do for you,” Red Devils coach Michael Smith said. “The juniors and seniors have been playing at the varsity level for the last three years, their second (year) in this system and style, and that confidence has them doing things that I wouldn’t even have presented to them in practice at this time last year.”

Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus enters the season with a slightly different mindset. Last year’s team featured two now-graduated Division I players in Katie Naughton and Kelli Hubly, a team with a short bench that nonetheless battled its way to a 13-8-1 record.

Despite the graduation of two bona fide all-state players, the Grens return a solid stable of varsity veterans in 2013.

“We’ve built it up to the point where we have high standards and expectations, so I think we’re unhappy when we don’t do well, and that’s what you want from your players,” Klaus said. “All in all, I can’t complain about our effort today. It was a very competitive game against a good team.”

Playing on a grass field in the early stage of recovering from a brutally cold and wet March, conditions didn’t allow for much speed of play. The Red Devils scored five minutes in when Jarmy located a Red Devils’ shot that went off the post and finished on it from 10 yards out.

May and Jarmy each sent shots wide thereafter and Darby Moran did the same before halftime. The Red Devils led 1-0 at intermission and had their coach’s approval.

“What I liked was the movement off the ball, which initiated all of our scoring opportunities,” Smith said. “Even the ones that didn’t come to fruition, it was the player not thinking ‘I’ve got to run inside’. Lead the play, see what the person on the ball is doing – that’s high-level thinking.”

That ever-elusive final pass to a quality shot is even more elusive early in the season, but the Red Devils have been able to find it through three games thanks to attacking players like Jarmy, May, Moran, Caitlin Smith, and Alison Cerny.

Playing in its second game of the season, Elk Grove played without started keeper Melissa Solorio and one of its best defenders in Alexis Olague.  Sophomore field player Abby Smola filled in nicely between the pipes and Klaus slid holding mid Sarah Kinnard to the backline in Olague’s absence.

Senior Emily Wary and her big, athletic presence will key the Grens in back, along with Olague and veteran junior Jocelyn Potratz. Nikki Zaino, Kelly Regan, Kelly Naughton, and Sarah Stram all have experience at midfield and in the attack, but finding a quality shot was tough for the Grens on Thursday.

“The first ten or fifteen minutes we were in their defensive third – not real dangerous, but I know (Hinsdale Central)  had a good result against Naperville North so overall it was a good experience for the girls. We didn’t get blown off the field, we’ve only had one practice on grass, so all in all a good effort by our girls. It’s good experience for us going into conference next week.”

Central went up 2-0 when Cerny found May at 62 minutes, when the Red Devils blocked a Grens freekick and scored quickly in transition. May finished from deep on the right side with Smola charging out at her.

Jarmy made it 3-0 at 67 minutes to finish the day’s scoring.

“It feels really good,” Jarmy said. “I came back for the last two games of the season last year and I actually scored, and that got me so much more excited for this season because I knew how good we were going to be. There was a big motivational factor in that.

“The fact that we tied Naperville North showed that we can compete with the top teams and that we are going to make our way up there.”

Freshman Elizabeth McDaniel earned the shutout in net for Central against Elk Grove and the girls in back kept danger to a minimum.

“(Katherine) Treankler is a senior in back, she’s new to the program, and she brings some of that grit and toughness that will help keep things locked down, and Katie Camden is returning as a center back this year,” Smith said.

“We also had some girls from jayvee and the freshmen teams join us today, we have depth in the program, and at every level we’re doing all the same things. So we didn’t have to talk to the (younger) kids today about the warmup or the style they’re supposed to follow, and when they got in you never would have known who the two or three jayvee players were.”

Hinsdale Central plays at Riverside-Brookfield on Saturday before hosting their first West Suburban Silver game of the year against Downers Grove North on Tuesday. Elk Grove hosts Cary-Grove Saturday before jumping  into Mid-Suburban League play at home against Conant on Wednesday.