Naperville Goal Gives Central Regional Title Over Plainfield

Without a player who is a star at pounding free kicks, girls soccer coach Ed Watson was watching to see who looked ready to fire one at a key point in Saturday’s Class 3A Naperville Central Regional title game against Plainfield North.

“I always wait to see who wants to hit the shot,” Watson said. “She was the one that started to meander to the ball. I thought, ‘OK. She’s at least willing to go over and take the shot, so let’s give her one.’”

‘She’ was junior Katherine Short. And with 14:51 left in a scoreless game, she squared up a shot on a free kick from 28 yards out that snuck around Plainfield North’s wall and to the upper left-hand corner of the net.

That proved to be the game-winner in a 1-0 Redhawks win. The win sets up a rematch with rival in the Class 3A Waubonsie Valley Sectional semifinals Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

“I just felt like at that point in time, the foul was on me and I felt like I was able to take that shot,” Short said. “I don’t know what it was, but I was able to hit it. I felt really confident when I was stepping up to the ball.”

Plainfield North (17-3-2) did not have many chances to score against the stifling defense of Naperville Central (14-6-3). The Tigers’ best chance may have come at the 12:41 mark of the first half.

The Tigers embarked on a three-on-one attack coming at Central goalie Jill D’Amico. But the one defender that was back there, Amanda Alberts, worked to cut down Plainfield North’s options and Katie Cox’s shot sailed over the net, keeping the game scoreless.

“She played it right,” Watson said of Alberts. “She kept condensing the space and really turned it into a one-on-one. By the time the girl had finally made the decision to lay it off, she had taken all of her teammates’ space away. She did a great job on that.”

The Tigers also had a breakaway that was saved by D’Amico, but otherwise had trouble getting around Central’s defense.

“It wasn’t going to be a high-scoring game,” Plainfield North coach Jane Crowe said. “We knew it was going to be close. It’s going to come down to a free kick. That’s what it came down to. It was a great free kick.”

The two teams tied at 1-1 way back on March 19, but the teams both looked quite different more than two months later.

“It’s unfortunate that a team of that caliber has to get beaten at the regional final level,” Watson said. “I guarantee you that when we look at the remaining teams in Class 3A at the end of the day, there will be a good number of them that couldn’t beat this team. I’m very pleased for our girls, because this is a very good team that they got past.”

It was the first time that Plainfield North had played for a regional title in girls soccer in the brief history of the program, giving the Tigers another step forward in their development.

“We felt like this was our opportunity to win one,” Crowe said. “We definitely could have. It’s tough that these two teams have to meet this early. Somebody has to lose, and unfortunately, it was us.”

Central moves on to face its rival, Naperville North, once again. The two teams battled to a 1-1 tie on April 23. The other semifinal will feature another set of rivals, defending Class 3A state champion and the nation’s No. 1 team according to ESPNrise.com, .

“Every time we play them, it’s a huge rivalry and everyone gets so excited,” Short said. “It’s going to be a really good game. We’re excited for it.”