Short's free kick sends 'Hawks to sectional semifinals

 

NAPERVILLE CENTRAL VS. PLAINFIELD NORTH PHOTOS
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By Gary Larsen

Two plays -- one subtle and one a sock in the gut -- made all the difference in Naperville Central's 1-0 win over Plainfield North in their 3A regional title game on Saturday.

The first play came late in the first half of a scoreless game, courtesy of Central’s Amanda Alberts, who found herself racing back as the lone defender in a 3-on-1 counterattack by Plainfield North.

And that’s not a place Alberts has been.

“Never,” Alberts said. “I haven’t been in that situation before. Coach (Ed) Watson just said ‘keep dropping, keep dropping’, so I just kept dropping and hoping that my midfield and my other defenders would get back with me. But I had faith in Jill (D’Amico) that she’d save the shot and I just had to force the pass outside.”

Alberts did just that and the 3-on-1 danger ended with a shot sent high by the Tigers.

“She played it right. She kept condensing the space and really turned it into a one-on-one,” Watson said. “By the time the girl had finally made the decision to lay it off, she had taken all of her teammates’ space away. (Alberts) did a great job on that.”

Plainfield North (17-3-2) had a handful of first-half counters that put a charge into the crowd, but neither the Tigers nor Naperville Central (14-6-3) found the net through 40 minutes.

The game’s sock-in-the-gut moment came 66 minutes in, with Central’s Katherine Short doing the socking.

Short was fouled 28 yards from goal and quickly volunteered to take the freekick. Free kicks have been taken by committee on a voluntary basis during a season in which the Redhawks haven’t had a true free kick specialist.

“I guarantee you if (Neuqua Valley’s) Megan Oyster came over, she’d be taking them and no one else would be wondering if it was their turn. If Oyster’s leg is still attached to her body, she’s taking it. But we haven’t had that kid this year.”

Short saw her chance and didn't hesitate to take it.

“The foul was on me and at that point I felt like I was able to take that shot,” Short said. “I don’t know what it was, but I was able to hit it. I felt really confident when I was stepping up to the ball.”

Short did her best Oyster impression, blistering a kick that whipped over a defensive wall of Tigers and stretched the back netting for the game’s lone goal.

“I always wait to see who believes they’re going to hit the shot, and (Short) was the one that sort of meandered over to the ball,” Watson said. “I thought ‘okay, she’s at least willing to go over and take the shot, so let’s give her one’, and that’s about as good a shot as you’re going to get. I think she’s probably going to get the kick when we do it again. She has not taken very many but she probably hits our best ball.”

For sixth-seeded Plainfield North, Short’s goal began a closing of the door on the Tigers’ chances to reach their first sectional.

“Both teams had chances to score but in a tough game like this you knew it was going to be close. It’s going to come down to one free kick and that’s all it came down to,” Tigers coach Jane Crowe said. “We knew it would come down to one play, and it did. It was a great free kick.”

After putting in her typical lunchbucket effort in the middle of the field all day, Central senior Krissy Many was ready to come off the field for a rest just before Short lined up her free kick. But once that shot put Central up 1-0, Many instead stayed on the field and slid to the back line.

“(Many) was coming off because she was out of gas, so it was a perfect scenario,” Watson said. “We just told her to go stand back there and rest, and head the ball and kick the ball away. So that worked out perfectly.”

Many’s presence in back made an equalizing goal less likely to be found.

“When they got that goal and dropped everybody back, it got even tougher,” Crowe said. “But they defended well. They haven’t been a big goal-scoring team but they defend very, very well.”

The Redhawks playTuesday in a sectional semifinal at Waubonsie Valley against cross-town rival Naperville North, the sectional’s second seed. The two teams tied 1-1 in their regular-season meeting.

Plainfield North moves on from a year in which it reached a regional title game for the first time in program history.

“We hadn’t been in a regional championship yet and we felt like this was our opportunity to win one,” Crowe said. “We definitely could have. It’s tough that these two teams have to meet this early. There are regional championships out there that aren’t nearly at this level. Somebody’s going to have to lose, and unfortunately it was us today.”

The Tigers will lose seniors Hayley Wegrzyn, Katie Cox, Marissa Basar, and Brianna Buckley to graduation but figure to return another top-shelf team next season.

Top scorers Callie O’Donnell and Ashley Handwork return to lead the attack, for a team that took Saturday’s loss much harder than it did in a regional-opening loss last season.

“It’s good that they’re disappointed. Last year, they were so young that I think they didn’t understand. They lost last year and it was just like ‘oh well, we’re just a bunch of freshmen and sophomores’. But I think they expected to win this game, which is what I want them to do. I want them to come in expecting to win.”

“It’s unfortunate that a team of that caliber has to get beaten at the regional final level,” Watson said. “I guarantee you that when we look at the remaining teams in Class 3A at the end of the day, there will be a good number of them that would not be able to beat this team. I’m very pleased for our girls, because this is a very good team that they got past.”