Redhawks down New Trier, advance to Invite semifinals
By Matt Le Cren

 

CLICK HERE FOR NAPERVILLE CENTRAL'S TEAM PAGE

The Grateful Dead had only one Top Ten hit in their long career, that being “Touch of Grey.”

In it the band sings repeatedly of how “we will get by.”

That is what Naperville Central has been doing, getting by opponent after opponent despite lacking a star finisher. The Redhawks did it again Thursday, knocking off powerful New Trier 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the Naperville Invitational at Memorial Stadium.

Naperville Central (15-1-1) will take an eight-game winning streak into Friday night’s semifinal against Barrington. Naperville North takes on Neuqua Valley in the other semifinal. Both matches are at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s awesome,” Naperville Central’s Abby Joyce said. “Seeing as it is at our place and it’s our tournament, we really want to win.”

Joyce did her part to make it happen, bagging her sixth goal of the season with 23:59 left in the first half off a beautiful assist from fellow sophomore Grace Orndorff.

Orndorff sent a long ball up the right wing and over the head of a defender to Joyce, who received the ball about eight yards in front of the New Trier net. Trevians goalie Emma Schaff immediately confronted Joyce, but the striker was able to muscle it past her for the game’s only goal.

“That was a great serve,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “And Abby had great composure and finished nicely second touch.”

“At that point I wanted to stay real calm and I knew that [Schaff] was cover the post near post where I was, so I just tried to go weak side,” Joyce said.

That play was an example of how the Redhawks figured out a way to break down New Trier’s tough defense, which had given up only eight goals, and continued a pattern in how they have been able to keep winning.

“I think it’s just our intensity up top,” Joyce said. “We always talk to each other. We always try to read the defense because today we saw the opportunities weak side were available, so we tried to take advantage of that as much as possible.”

Though Schaff made six saves for the Trevians (14-2), the Redhawks didn’t create any further dangerous scoring opportunities. But what the hosts did do was dominate the midfield behind the play of Orndorff, Meredith McEniff, Madie Thompson and Carly Franzese, who played keep-away for much of the second half.

“That’s a major strength is our midfield,” Joyce said. “They’re winning the balls, they’re getting them out wide for each other up the field and into the corners so we can get crosses.”

The Redhawks also handled the Trevians physically, repeatedly winning 50-50 challenges to prevent the visitors from establishing any momentum.

“I thought after we got out of our end and figured out that we needed to get out on their outside backs and apply some pressure on their backs, we started to gain some control,” Watson said. “I thought in the second half we maintained that control for a great deal of time. When Meredith and Madie are winning balls, we’re a very tough team.”

New Trier’s Rachel Schellenback had two great chances to get the equalizer in the first half, but her 30-yard free kick sailed just over the crossbar at the 19:05 mark and Naperville Central goalie Jill D’Amico lunged to her right to knock a 23-yard shot out of harm’s way with eight seconds left before intermission.

D’Amico had to make only one routine save after that as the Trevians managed only two shots in the second half against the back line of Meredith Tunney, Amanda Alberts. Alyssa Angelo and Sabrina Cisneros. The four-year standout finished with three saves in recording Naperville Central’s 10th clean sheet, of which she has 9.5.

“Jill had the big save at the end of the half,” Watson said. “Once again she didn’t have to make a lot of saves but she certainly earned the shutout today.”