Short-handed Hornets unable to score against Redwings

By Eddie Burns

After the weekend Benet Academy had, it was nice for the Redwings to get a chance to finish in and around the net.

Benet put together a strong second-half effort, which included three goals, during its 4-0 win against Hinsdale South in a nonconference match played on Monday night at Benedictine University.

"For us to score some goals was definitely huge," Benet junior midfielder Brittany Pullen said. "Once we got that first goal everything else fell into place."

Sophomore Madie Burke, who had a goal and an assist, agreed with Pullen.

"It was nice to have a lot of offensive chances and to finish them," Burke said.

"We sort of needed this. We really worked hard in the second half and it paid off."

Benet (8-4) spent the weekend competing against top tier teams Fremd and Wheaton Warrenville South, but it had very little to show for it in suffering consecutive 1-0 losses.

"It was a learning experience over the weekend," Burke said. "Playing those teams made us better."

Benet's first goal against Hinsdale South (3-8) turned out to be a bit more difficult to get.

The Redwings spent the first 20 minutes or so going through the motions before they started to consistently apply pressure on the Hornets.

Benet slowly began to generate chances in and around the Hornets' goal, but it was unable to break through until Catherine Caniglia scored from 20 yards out in the 37th minute.

After maintaining a one-goal lead at halftime, the Redwings proceeded to score three additional goals in the first 25 minutes of the second half as Burke, Jamei Borges and Katie Liber each added scores.

"We really did a nice job getting down our crosses near the box," Pullen said. "Our defense did a nice job of pushing up and getting involved with our offense, which is really important if we're going to be successful.

"Our defense also became much more involved with our offense and that just helps to get everyone involved in our attack."

Benet's defense and goalie Claire Munaretto didn't receive much of a fight from a banged-up Hinsdale South attack.

The Hornets are hurting as they continued to play without key contributors in Brittney Noble and Meagan McPherson.

"We play well in spurts," Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf said. "We battle and we're doing some good things, but then I'm not sure if we get tired or what, but we lose our confidence.

"We string some passes together and we're hanging in there doing the best we can and then we get down and get down again. Mentally, we get down a lot and we don't have a lot of subs to put in there and that takes a toll on our team."

The injuries and lack of depth has allowed Wolf to insert five freshmen into his lineup.

Brenda Maugeri, Jessy Mutters, Colleen McPherson, Julie Vezzani and goalie Vanessa Niestrom all started against the Redwings.

Despite all of the hardships, the players are keeping a positive attitude.

"We're having a better season than we did last year," Hinsdale South junior Staci Ruzikca said. "We try to have a lot of energy – even when we are down.

"It is disappointing that we lost, but we kept the ball on the ground more and connected passes."

Wolf would like to see his team become more assertive when it comes to providing energy.

"They need to learn to keep each other up," Wolf said. "Someone needs to step forward and say, 'Come on ladies, we can do this, we can play better.' We're too quiet out there. We can't be quiet."

Benet did welcome back Katie Graber and Katie Kaufmann, who had both been out with injuries.

Both teams will turn their attention to conference action on Tuesday as Hinsdale South hosts Willowbrook.

Benet will host Nazareth Academy in a crucial East Suburban Catholic Conference contest.

"We've been struggling to come out strong and we'll have to do that against Nazareth," Pullen said. "We need to do a better job of mentally getting ourselves ready.

"It has to start in the warm-ups -- we need to start taking the upcoming game seriously. We need to pick up the intensity right from the start."

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