Chicagoland Soccer

Mustangs fail to finish in loss to Naperville Central

By Matt Le Cren

Naperville Central prides itself on playing great defense, so getting whacked 6-2 by Neuqua Valley last Saturday didn’t sit well with the Redhawks.

So what did they do? They went right back to work.

Naperville Central shut out Palatine 2-0 Wednesday in its opening game of the Naperville Invitational on Wednesday, and on Thursday blanked Downers Grove South 1-0 on a goal by Krissy Many to clinch the championship of its group and secure a place in the tournament quarterfinals.

The win over the high-scoring Mustangs (11-2-1), who had beaten their previous six opponents by a combined 32-0, was particularly impressive.

“Clearly Neuqua manhandled us on the scoreboard, but we just gave up too many mistake goals,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “Both Palatine and Downers South are physical teams and we’re more of a finesse team, and I thought our girls handled themselves pretty well.”

Watson made only one change after the Neuqua match but it has paid dividends.

“Mr. Watson made a switch. He put Veronica Ellis in the back with us and I think we’re working better together as a team,” said sophomore defender Amanda Alberts. “I know we have a lot of chemistry together, so we’re able to keep composure and figure out who we had to mark and make the play.”

“Moving ‘V’ into the back certainly helps us,” Watson said. “V doesn’t like to lose. You like to put a kid on the back that doesn’t like to lose.”

The play of Ellis, Alberts, juniors Carly Franzese and Alyssa Angelo and sophomore Sabrina Cisneros in the back allowed the Redhawks (9-4-1) to hold the Mustangs to 11 shots, only six of which were on frame. Standout junior goalie Jill D’Amico easily stopped those.

“We made sure we stayed on our marks,” sophomore defender Amanda Alberts said. “They were running around a lot, but we talked a lot as a defense. I know Krissy helps us in the back and our goalie, Jill D’Amico, really helped us figure out where we had to be, who we had to mark, so we were able to figure that out and stop them.”

Downers South, which actually outshot the Redhawks 11-7, had only one chance in the first half, that coming with 7:30 when Jessica Bronke headed a Megan Martin corner kick wide of the right post.

In the second half, a sharp cross from Stephanie Zurales just missed the head of Sarrah Ludwig on the left post at the 37:30 mark and 19 minutes later Bronke sent a 23-yard shot over the crossbar. The only other time the Mustangs came close to threatening was on Martin’s 45-yard free kick with 10:10 remaining. D’Amico came out to grab it as three Mustangs crashed the net.

“We didn’t take enough shots and we didn’t generate enough offensively to score,” Downers South coach Barry Jacobson said. “We held possession of the ball pretty well, but you don’t get points for possession.

“You can’t just possess the ball and win the game. We had a couple shots early in the game that we didn’t put on frame.”

But Many put a 33-yard shot on frame and it went sailing under the crossbar with 6:30 to play in the first half for the game’s only goal. It was the first goal of the year for the senior midfielder.

“The whole game I felt like I was open weak side and I was just trying to convince the team to get the ball back there and finally it hopped through,” Many said. “I just hit it and put it towards the goal.

“I wasn’t really expecting it to go in. I was just hoping one of my teammates would get on the end of it.”

In the end, it proved that sometimes the longest shots are the most difficult to defend.

“That’s a girl goalkeeper’s bugaboo, that high ball with just enough pace that you have to try to figure out whether to punch it or catch it,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “We’re fortunate – we scored the first goal against Palatine the same way.”

“They had a good shot and we didn’t,” Jacobson said. “That’s what they do. [Many] hit a beautiful ball.”

The Redhawks will find out late Saturday who their opponent will be in next Thursday’s quarterfinals. They are clearly feeling confident after beating the Mustangs in a physical contest.

“One of our goals every year is to win our own tournament or make it to the finals, so it looks like we’re on our way and it feels good,” Many said. “This is our field, this is our turf. We know we can beat any team if we want to.”