Hornets fall to Benet in home opener

By Paul La Tour

When Benet junior Jamei Borges reflects on her high school soccer career, she’ll have some good memories of playing at Hinsdale South.

Two years ago Borges scored her first varsity goal against the Hornets in Darien. Tuesday marked her return to the stadium and Borges topped herself, scoring twice in leading the Redwings to a 2-1 season-opening victory over the Hornets.

“All day I was really excited for this game -- I just wanted to play,” said Borges, who scored a goal in each half. “Coming back to this field, starting off the season as an upperclassman, it’s really exciting. I like this field.”

The Redwings opened the season with an emphasis on offense, which they displayed throughout the match by pushing the ball forward and putting 12 of 17 shots on goal.

Borges gave Benet a 1-0 lead with 23:16 left in the first half. Her shot from the top left of the penalty area eluded a diving save attempt by goalkeeper Vanessa Niestrom before caroming in off the far post.

Almost exactly 40 minutes later Borges made it 2-0 after breaking free from defenders in the middle. Her shot from 15 yards out beat Niestrom high to her left with 23:02 remaining.

That proved to be the game-winning goal because the Hornets got back into the game in the 70th minute. Jackie Belmonte gave payback to the Redwings by knocking in a shot that also caromed off the post.

The play started on a corner kick taken by Belmonte. The ball worked its way back around to Belmonte, who was left open. She blasted a shot from 10 yards that eluded Benet keeper Claire Munaretto.

The senior finished with two saves as defenders Kelly Diedrich, Rachel Lovely, Colleen Lewellyan and Maria Schawabe kept the Hornets at bay for most of the night.

“We’re playing a flat-back this year as opposed to a stopper/sweeper, so we were just working on our formation and doing our best to slide and keep the ball away from them as much as possible,” Diedrich said. “I think we did a pretty good job with that (Tuesday). The forwards did a great job of pressuring them, so we didn’t have to do as much work.”

Early on the Hornets struggled against the speed and quickness of Benet’s front line. The Redwings put seven shots on goal in the opening 40 minutes and limited the Hornets to one.

“We played pretty well, but I think we need some more time to learn how to play as a team,” said forward Jamie Walker, one of four four-year varsity players for South. “We haven’t had that much time to prepare, but as the season goes on we’ll get much better.”

First game or not, coming out on the losing end is frustrating, especially when it took until the 70th minute until the Hornets could break through for a goal.

Belmonte’s goal gave the Hornets a spark, but they never really threatened to get the equalizer.

“We came out better in the second half, but too bad we got that goal with only 10 minutes left,” Belmonte said. “But it definitely helped. Breaking the shutout is definitely better than losing 2-0.”

The Hornets' young backline played well but made some mistakes, which coach Pat Wolf said is understandable for the first game of the season. Two defenders (Brenda Maugeri and Colleen McPherson) and Niestrom are all sophomores.

Wolf pointed to their play, as well as that of fellow defenders Carolanne Pilch, a junior, and senior Staci Ruzicka as strong points for the Hornets. Overall, Wolf said he liked how his players learned as the game progressed.

“There was improvement from the first half to the second half, so that was good,” Wolf said. “The girls came out after halftime with some energy. It was a good start. You want to get that first game in and then you have something to build on.”

Winning coach Henry Wind was also pleased with his team’s performance.

“We were looking to get the attack going a bit, and I think it looked a lot better than in past years,” Wind said. “We had some chances to score. Jamei Borges was outstanding, but not just with the two goals. She made some real good decisions with the ball.”