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Sports

Naperville Central Overcomes Injuries in 1-0 Win Over Benet

Redhawks lose three players, but still manage get the job done.

Naperville Central boys soccer coach Troy Adams said that there is an axiom his squad goes by.

Champions adjust.

In Saturday night's non-conference tilt against Benet, that was just what the Redhawks did.

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Senior co-captains Jimmy Altosino and Jeremy Kaden, as well as junior defender Mike Plant, all left the game injured. But several players shifted positions and helped Central post a 1-0 win to run its record to 6-2.

"You hate to see players go down," Adams said. "We lost a lot of good players tonight. They all adjusted. Kids were playing a little bit different positions than they had played in the past, but they came up big, kept their composure, managed to get some quality shots on goal."

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Those injuries came just as sophomore Conner Allen was making his return from a concussion and senior Joe Yarshen had already been lost to injury. Kaden was taken in for X-rays on his ankle and Altosino injured his knee, though Adams did not think it was serious. Plant was already dealing with an ankle injury before aggravating it Saturday.

"It's tough, but I think we can manage," Central junior Adam Hamielic said. "Some players know how to play positions better than others because they played them longer, but some people just have to step up and play different positions."

Hamielic, indeed, found himself in a rare spot with 14:09 left in the first half. A defender, he scored his first goal of the season on a bouncing ball in front of the net for the game's lone tally.

"The nice thing there was that it was, for lack of a better term, a mudder goal," Adams said. "We've talked about the great teams finding ways to score when it isn't always pretty. We found a way to score that wasn't pretty, but it got the back of the net."

Central had two other apparent scores wiped out in the first half, making Benet coach Sean Wesley breathe a sigh of relief. But the Redwings (2-3-1) just couldn't get the ball in the net all night.

"Second half, extremely happy with the way we played," Wesley said. "We know we have talent. We know we have ability. We just haven't put it all together. Definitely, I thought we had five chances on goal in the second half, the most we've had all year, and yet, nothing to show for it."

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