Huskies, Redhawks settle for 1-1 tie
By Gary Larsen

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Stop the presses. Somebody scored on Naperville Central and Naperville North on Thursday night.

The game between the miserly DVC rivals ended in a lightning-shortened 1-1 tie, putting both their conference records at 5-1 with one DVC game left to play for each.

“A tie is the worst,” North defender Jen Korn said.

Central coach Ed Watson agreed.

"I'm disappointed for all the girls on both teams because none of them wanted this to end the way it ended," Watson said. "They wanted to go out and finish the game but the actuality of it was we had one storm on one side of us and as we waited for it to leave, another one started to creep up on us."

Thursday’s game was a rematch of Saturday’s title game of the Naperville Invitational, which went scoreless through two overtimes before Central (17-1-2) beat North (16-1-1) in a shootout.

Central’s Katherine Short and North’s Abbie Boswell each netted a goal in regulation for two teams that simply refuse to give up goals. The top teams in Illinois typically give up less than a goal per game, but only a few have managed to do what teams like North, Central, Metea Valley, St. Francis, and Lyons Township have done.

All of those teams have given up fewer than 10 goals this year. Heading into Thursday’s game, Central had only given up 7 goals in 19 games while North had only allowed 5 goals in 17 games. Lyons Township has only allowed 6 goals, while Metea and St. Francis have given up 8 apiece thus far.

The Huskies and Redhawks play tight-fisted defense for a reason, and it starts with attitude.

"I'm upset that we gave up a goal," Korn said. "I don't think we came out as strong as I would have liked after the loss to them on Saturday."

While coaches from both teams applauded the opposing side’s execution of the goals scored on Thursday, neither one was crazy about lapses that allowed the goals.

North came out in attack mode through 8 minutes, but Central keeper Jill D’Amico and her backline held up under the pressure. "They slotted us early in the game and Jill (D'Amico) came out and made the save, but that's the nice thing about carpet -- if the ball gets away from that forward, it's going to get to the goalkeeper,” Watson said.

Katherine Short put Central up 1-0 after teammate Abby Joyce battled and kept battling for a ball deep in the corner, before crossing  it far post. Short scored her 10th goal of the year from 12 yards out.

"I think the girls came out and played well and then fell asleep defensively," North coach Steve Goletz said. "They get a ball across, we don't track a runner, and they score.

"We've given a couple of cheap ones away on restarts, but give Central credit on that one. Here we are trying to knock one in and take the momentum, they get the ball out, get a great cross, and (Short) finished. But that doesn't take the sting away of not tracking and not pressuring."

Largely even play carried most of the contest, with North knotting the score at 55 minutes when senior Zoe Swift ran down a ball to the end line on the right side and sent a beauty across the goalmouth, where Boswell charged the far post and buried it for her 9th goal of the year.

And just like Goletz, Watson would have liked to see his side get that play back.

"I thought our backline made one mistake and they capitalized on it," Watson said. "You have to give Swift a lot of credit on the goal. She created the goal just by pure speed and getting to a ball that perhaps we should have had. Then we lost Boswell on the back side."

From there, shots from long-range were all either side could muster to the final buzzer.  Lightning then sent both teams inside the building at Naperville North and after 45 minutes, the game was called.

Both coaches were pleased with the team-wide efforts put forth in the annual conference rivalry game, and Goletz was particularly happy with the all-out effort that Boswell gave his side for 80 minutes.

For four seasons ending in 2010, Boswell’s older brother Chris was one of the hardest-working midfielders in any high school game he played, and his little sister is making a similar name for herself.

“She plays like Chris, and that’s a credit to her,” Goletz said. "You know that Zoe is going to give you chances, all the time, and today I really thought Abbie played a phenomenal game.

"She held it for us, she was dangerous, she scored a great goal. She worked and worked. She tracked back, she tackled hard, and you'd never know she's a freshman out there. She also shows up for big games. You've got to love a kid who's a gamer, and she's a gamer."

Watson’s group, while lacking a marquee attacking player like Swift, has won 17 games by committee, playing their annual, brutally tough schedule.

"I thought across the board, the girls on the field played well. For us to say 'that kid had an unbelievable game' isn't really Naperville Central this year," Watson said. "We are a team that relies on everyone doing their job. They work real hard and they all pull for each other. The oars are all kind of rowing in the same direction."

Korn, a key component of one of the stingiest backlines in Illinois, tipped her hat to the job Central does defensively.

"They have a great keeper (in D’Amico). You can't put an easy goal in, you're going to have to make a shot to score," Korn said. "But they play solid defense everywhere. It's not just their back line. Their whole team plays good defense and they make it hard to turn on them. I hope we can play them again.”

It won’t be easy for either team to get to a third match against each other.  They’re both part of a sectional annually loaded with a stable of the state’s best teams.

"We have work to do," Watson said. "We've got to work through a regional. If this opponent awaits us that means we've made it to a sectional final, but there are a lot of teams in the sectional that are going to have a say in that."