Redhawks beat Vikings, Saints at St. Charles East invite

Watson joins elite group of coaches with 300 victories

From staff reports

Naperville Central advanced to the championship of the St. Charles East tournament after claiming a 3-2 win over Geneva on Friday in Naperville.

The match was originally set for Wednesday in St. Charles but was canceled due to poor field conditions there, prompting the rescheduling.

On Thursday, the Redhawks (5-0-2) opened play in the four-team tournament by capturing a 1-0 victory over the host Saints.

Thanks to those two victories, the Redhawks will play for the tournament championship on Saturday at 5 pm against Schaumburg in St. Charles.

The win over the Saints also marked the 300th career victory for Central coach Ed Watson, who is now 301-79-47 in 18 years at the school.

Only seven other girls coaches in Illinois have won 300 or more matches, according to records submitted to the Illinois High School Association.

That group includes three other current coaches: Downers Grove South's Barry Jacobson (441), Quincy Notre Dame's Mark Longo (338) and New Trier's Jim Burnside (303).

Others in the 300-win club are St. Charles and St. Francis' Tim Dailey (368), Springfield's Bob Wharton (360), Naperville North's Alan Harris (339) and Cary-Grove's Chris Phillips (308).

In Friday's win over the Vikings, Autumn Muckenhurn, Katherine Short and Haley Hosper all scored goals while Alex Coon added an assist.

Sammi Hill scored both of the goals for the Vikings (3-2-1), who settled for a 2-2 draw with Schaumburg on Thursday.

Hill scored her first goal just over seven minutes into the match and Muckenhurn tied things off an assist from Coon with 1:00 left before the break.

Short put the Redhawks up for good with just under 29 minutes remaining and Hosper added an insurance score just past the midway mark of the half.

Hill completed the scoring with just under 19 minutes left in the match. Taylor McLain made four saves to get the win in goal for Central.

In the match with St. Charles East, Gina Maddi scored off of an assist from Kristen Adams with 14:38 left to lift the Redhawks.

Jill D'Amico made three saves to record the shutout in the net for Central against the Saints.