Redhawks struggle to finish vs. Wildcats

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By Eddie Burns

Naperville Central’s offense remained in hibernation on Saturday at Neuqua Valley as an all-too-familiar scene occurred with the Redhawks finishing without a goal.

The Redhawks were held scoreless for the third time in four games as Central lost for the first time this season -- 1-0 to the Wildcats.

“I really think we need to work on scoring some goals,” Central senior Alex Coon said. “We do a lot of things in practice to focus on our shooting, but for some reason, we’re not taking that component and putting it in our game. I just really think we need to shoot the ball more. I think our defense is fine and midfield we could win a few more 50/50 balls, but I think our main focus should be scoring.”

The Wildcats (10-0-1) had the wind at their backs and scored in the 18th minute when Allie McBride put a shot past Central goalie Jill D’Amico. The goal was created by Neuqua’s Megan Oyster, who sent a restart off the crossbar, which allowed McBride a chance at the rebound.

Outside of that scoring opportunity, Central managed to get to intermission behind by one goal knowing that the Redhawks would have the wind at their backs in the second half.

However, Central (6-1-4) never really created much of an offense with the wind at its back. 

The Redhawks’ best scoring chance actually occurred shortly before halftime when they were playing into the wind.
Coon lined up a restart outside of the Neuqua penalty area and placed the ball so teammate Gina Maddi could get a head on it, but Maddi’s attempt went just wide of the net in the 38th minute.

“We’ve been working on that and we always try to hit the back post and it was just unlucky – we tried,” Coon said.

The second half saw Central making one too many passes, which helped prevent potential scoring chances from developing.
“I definitely would have liked to have seen us put more shots on goal,” Coon said. “Anyone who had a free shot should have taken something at least because the wind would have helped us out, but we just couldn’t get a shot off and I think we were focusing on trying to get the perfect shot and we didn’t get it.”

The shots the Redhawks did take were from distance. One shot by Julianna Nania did create a rebound opportunity, but no Redhawks were in the area to pounce on the loose ball, which allowed time for Neuqua goalie Alexa Wilde to secure the ball.

Neuqua coach Joe Moreau actually thought having the wind created a disadvantage at times for both sides.

“That wind really knocks you out,” Moreau said. “It makes you really tired trying to run into the wind – that really hurts and it was doing some goofy things. It was a challenge for both teams and sometimes it is disadvantage to have a wind this strong because when you try to play through balls -- often times they go too long and the other team gets a lot of goal kicks. It was tough, but that is spring weather and you get used to it.”

Central did create three corner kicks in the final 40 minutes, but none of them panned out.

The Redhawks now turn their attention to their primary rival and Naperville North, which is Central’s opponent on Monday night.

The game will be played at North on its synthetic surface, which will be a welcomed sight for the Redhawks. Central’s players did not care for the natural grass surface it saw at Neuqua.

“We always really look forward to playing North,” Coon said. “The fact the match will be played on turf is good because that is something we’re used to. I honestly do think that playing on the grass did hurt us (against Neuqua) because we were so used to playing on our practice grass fields that were not in as good of condition as Neuqua’s was, so we were used quick balls going back and forth and I think that is why we tried to play the ball a lot in the air and it didn’t work out for us.”

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