D'Amico shines in goal as Redhawks blank Huskies

By Eddie Burns

Naperville Central returned to form and played its style of soccer against Naperville North.

The change paid dividends for the Redhawks in the form of a 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference win against the host Huskies on Monday night.

Central entered the match having not scored in three of its past four matches, but the Redhawks didn't panic and did what they do best – capitalize off restarts.

The Redhawks received goals from junior forward Krissy Many in the 37th minute and senior midfielder Hillary Scott in the 49th minute to provide more than enough offense on this particular night because sophomore goalie Jill D'Amico was sensational in the back.

"In 80 minutes, we want to build out of the middle of the field and come forward and create shots, but we have to score on those set pieces when we get those chances," Central coach Ed Watson said.

Both Redhawks' goals came off restarts of some form. An Alex Coon throw-in helped create the first scoring opportunity.

Coon sent a throw into the North penalty area and the ball danced past a few players before settling at Many's feet.

"It was one of the strangest goals I've scored," Many said. "As a team, we always talk about getting ahead early – especially against teams we know that are going to come out strong.

"(Scoring that first goal) really helps us set the tone. We've been playing really hard lately, but we haven't been finding the goal really much I think with us finding the goal gave us that much more confidence that we could get after it and win the game."

Watson said Many's goal was a lot more difficult than it might have appeared.

"Krissy really had her defender pinned on her hip," Watson said. "It would be easy to say she put the ball in the empty net, but a lot of kids can shank that or go at the ball too hard. She calmly touched it into the empty net."

The Redhawks (7-1-4, 3-0-1 DVC) held a one-goal lead at halftime and then built on it early in the second half.

Junior midfielder Ashley Tegge set up the second goal with perfectly struck ball on a corner kick situation.

Tegge placed the ball high and near the back post only where Scott could rise up and head the ball into the goal.

"Getting that second goal was really big," Scott said. "Trying to hold onto a one-goal lead can be very scary, but getting that second goal was like lifting a huge weight off of our shoulders."

Scott said North's defensive alignment created less stress for her and allowed her to gain the back post.

"I think they were playing a zone-type of defense on the corner attempts, which made it a lot easier for me to get in front of them since they don't like playing man-to-man defense," Scott said.

"I know (North's) Zoe Swift was telling her teammates to mark me in the back, but nobody listened and I was open on the back post."

Watson said the second goal was a clincher.

"To get the goal out of halftime as quick as we did was huge," Watson said. "We talked about if we could get a second goal right away that it would give us a big advantage. Ashley played off a great ball and we were going to get a head on that."

Once Central had its two-goal lead, the Redhawks were in good shape with D'Amico in the back. The Huskies put forth several quality chances, but D'Amico was ready as she delivered several big saves.

Two plays in particular really stood out as D'Amico turned away North's Hunter Drendel and Rycke Guiney at different stages of the second half.

"Jill saved us a lot tonight," Scott said. "She's a big-time goalie who made some huge saves."

If D'Amico wasn't making a save, Scott was doing her best to turn away North on corner-kick situations.

Several times the Huskies (6-2-2, 3-1) had momentum when they generated a corner kick, but watched as Scott won the ball in the air and helped clear it out.

"I'm the one who is not marking and stays in the box and goes after the ball," Scott said. "It is a lot easier that way."

Watson said he was pleased with the outcome, but he'd like to see his team score outside of the set situations.

"I would love for us to be able to do it other ways, but that is what we are," Watson said.

"We had some moments where if we could get more scoring situations in the run of play that we might actually understand how to deal with them, but we'll continue to work at that."

Central is off until Thursday when it begins the Naperville Invite at home against Palatine.

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