Redhawks stay unbeaten in DVC play
By Matt Le Cren
Photos courtesy of Diana Fowee

 

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Some players just have a nose for the goal.

Naperville Central’s Meredith McEniff has a forehead for it.

The senior midfielder headed home a pair of corner kicks Wednesday night to propel the Redhawks to a harder-than-it-looked 4-0 DuPage Valley Conference victory over Wheaton Warrenville South at Red Grange Field in Wheaton.

The Iowa-bound McEniff now leads Naperville Central with five goals, four of which have come on headers.

“I think it’s the balls that our team plays,” McEniff said. “They’ve been playing corners and hitting great balls with perfect placement, and so I’ve just been able to get on the end of them to get a goal.”

McEniff’s ability in the air is well known but as WW South coach Guy Callipari said, being aware of that and being able to stop it are two different things. One thing is for sure, however, and that is McEniff must be tightly marked in the box on all restarts.

That didn’t happen on her first goal, which gave the Redhawks (9-1-1, 3-0) a 1-0 lead with 17:57 left in the first half.

A corner kick by Grace Orndorff went straight to a wide-open McEniff, who nodded home an eight-yard shot. WW South junior defender Dana Christensen, who was guarding the left post, tried to clear the ball off the line but only got a small piece of it.

“I didn’t think I had a mark on me,” McEniff said. “I was definitely surprised, so it was kind of easier to get on the end of it.”

McEniff struck again with 25:25 remaining in the second half. This time she jumped up in a crowd in front of the Tigers’ net and headed home a corner kick from Katherine Short to make it 2-0. Short’s serve came within four yards of the line.

“That’s something that gets forgotten is that we’re getting pretty decent service,” Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. “Grace had a great first serve and Katherine had a great second serve, but you still have to give credit to the kid who’s willing to go up and hammer it home.

Like any coach, Watson would like to see his team score more goals in the run of play, but the Redhawks are living up to their reputation by scoring most of their goals on set pieces and shutting down other team’s offenses.

“The fact of the matter is, that’s how we have to score,” Watson said. “We went dry this last week [scoring only two goals in three matches at the St. Charles East Invite] because we didn’t get a lot of corner kick opportunities.”

McEniff’s second tally seemed to demoralize the Tigers (2-3-2, 1-2), who up until that point had played the Redhawks tough. The visitors scored again 48 seconds later when Abby Joyce scored off a rebound of her own shot.

“I thought in the first half we kind of started off a little slow and they kind of had their momentum going, but I think as time went on we were able to pick up speed and get our game going, like play on the floor and pass and move it,” McEniff said. “I think we were able to get some shots off it.”

The three-goal cushion was more than enough for Naperville Central’s defense, which has allowed only five goals in 11 matches. When Natalie Selk scored off a Kendall Lizzo assist with 1:51 to go, the Redhawks had their season-high offensive output.

“It was so nice,” Naperville Central goalie Jill D’Amico said. “To get the second one was nice and then the third and fourth are just icing on the cake.

“I feel relaxed once we get an insurance goal. You get calmed down a little bit and slow the game down. It’s not as intense, not as rough.”

D’Amico was the reason the Redhawks were in position to score insurance goals. The Jacksonville signee flashed her all-state talent twice in the first half, stopping a pair of WW South breakaways in brilliant fashion.

The first came nine minutes into what was still a scoreless game when Kate Fowee sprinted in alone on D’Amico, who came out and forced Fowee to take an extra touch to the outside. Fowee maintained her dribble while getting around D’Amico but was unable to put a shot on frame before the ball went over the left end line, instead shooting it harmlessly into the side of the goal.

The hosts had another golden opportunity with 8:45 left in the first half when a pass from Fowee sprung Lexi Peterson on a breakaway on the right wing. Peterson fired from just inside the penalty area but her shot was deflected by the hard-charging D’Amico.

“On the first one I was originally was going to come out and try to win it with my feet and then I decided to fall back and waited for that one big touch,” D’Amico said. “Once she took it, I came out and obviously pushed her further back.

“The second one...when it comes off of the first player’s foot playing a through ball in you just have to read that. I read that right away.”

In doing so, D’Amico demonstrated a key lesson every young goalkeeper should know when facing a breakaway.

“There’s no second-guessing it,” D’Amico said. “If you’re going to come out for it on the first touch or the ball played in you have to go right away and can’t stop.”

D’Amico later made three saves in the second half in recording her third consecutive shutout and sixth overall.

“It’s nice to have Jill behind us,” Watson said. “She made two big saves when there was nobody else but her to make them.”

Other than the breakaways, Naperville Central’s defense was rock-solid against a WW South team that did a pretty good job of stringing passes together, especially in the second half. The Tigers were unlucky not to have scored in the first half and came inches shy of tying the game early in the second half when Peterson’s 30-yard shot from the right wing struck the crossbar at the 37:35 mark.

The visitors got a scare seven minutes into the game when star defender Amanda Alberts left the game after hitting her head. The junior passed the concussion test but Watson held her out of the rest of the match as a precaution.

Senior Alyssa Angelo replaced Alberts and teamed with freshman Meredith Tunney to anchor the back line.

“It hurt to lose Amanda early on, but it’s really great to have Alyssa, who started for us last year at the center back position and is such a great team player,” Watson said. “She knows that she’s going to get her minutes but knows that she’s coming off the bench and she goes in and has a great game. And then our freshman, Meredith Tunney, just played the game very, very composed.”

In contrast, the Tigers’ back line is inexperienced and learning on the job, with players like Christensen, seniors Natalie Jensen, Katrina Geannopoulos and Jenna Schultz and freshman Victoria Adomshick still finding their footing in back.

They did well in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Huntley in the opening round of the Pepsi Showdown, with Geannopoulos and Peterson scoring goals, but will have to step up their game if the Tigers are going to make a deep run, as Tigers coach Guy Callipari thinks they can, in the Pepsi.

“We’re living on the line,” Callipari said. “It’s a tricky balance that could teeter either way depending on the bounce of the ball. In both games we felt we were certainly even in our competitive spirit, our willingness to go forward and our combination play was pretty good early on. Yet we weren’t able to do much offensively [tonight]. We need to finish those opportunities.”

The Tigers will play their third game in as many days Thursday when they travel to Lake Forest (6-2-1) for a second-round match in the Pepsi Showdown.