LISLE - It was a night of missed opportunities for the Naperville North girls soccer team.
And it all added up to a crushing season-ending loss.
Hinsdale Central rallied from a one-goal deficit to score a 2-1 victory in double overtime against the Huskies to claim the Class 3A Benedictine University Super-Sectional on Tuesday night.
"It is a tough one right now for sure," North coach Brent Terada said. "When we look back (at the 2009 season) we'll look at it as a good year, but really, now I think we're all looking at it as a missed opportunity. To get out of our sectional, and then to lose is very disappointing."
Hinsdale Central's Tierney Burchett was credited with the winning goal in the 99th minute when she managed to get her head on Katie Schaller's restart from 45 yards out. Burchett redirected the ball just enough to get past North goalie Ellie Flessner with 14 seconds remaining in the second 10-minute overtime session.
Burchett might receive credit for the goal, but it was the low-line drive ball played by Schaller that earned plenty of high praises after the match.
"We've been practicing striking the ball in that fashion hoping that it would come in handy in one of these games and sure enough it did," Schaller said.
North (19-3-3) played the first half with the life and energy it showed during its sectional victory against two-time defending state champion Waubonsie Valley.
The Huskies applied constant pressure on Hinsdale Central goalie Nichole D'Agostino and it paid off in the 13th minute when Rycke Guiney hammered home a Haley Krentz rebound to give North a 1-0 lead.
The Huskies continued their offensive attack, but they wasted golden scoring chances by sending shots on an open net too high or too wide. On one occasion, the Huskies hit the post.
"We missed a couple of good chances and sometimes those come back to bite you," Terada said.
North led 1-0 at intermission, but the match had a completely different tone when leading goal-scorers Krentz and Jessica Kodiak were lost during the second half to injuries.
"We had the two injuries and that brought us down, but we had to keep fighting," North midfielder Jessica Arabia said. "We weren't playing our game in the second half and that is very disappointing. We had such a great opportunity in our hands and we weren't able to finish it."
The Red Devils (17-3-2) forged a tie in the 45th minute when Lee Battaglia scored off another Schaller restart.
From that point forward, Hinsdale Central had the better of the play for the remainder of the match.
"We had to change our style when Krentz and Kodiak went out," Terada said. "It threw us out of rhythm and we were just trying to survive until overtime. Once we got through regulation, we did the best to get reorganized and I felt like we gathered ourselves and played a little bit better in the first overtime."
North was trying to earn a trip to the state semifinals for the first time since the 2003-04 season.
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