Speed steadily sinks Huskies

In the end, Naperville North wasn't able to keep up with Hinsdale Central on Thursday night as the Red Devils used their speed advantage to post a 9-6 win in a competitive match at the Neuqua Valley Sectional.

The Huskies had leads of 4-3 and 5-4 in the third quarter, but were shut out in the final quarter as Hinsdale Central goalie Lexi Gross made numerous saves and other North shots were off the mark.

"Hinsdale Central is a fast team, so trying to get offensively to the inside and move to get somebody open was a little tough," North coach Andy McWhirter said.

The reward for fourth-seeded Hinsdale Central (14-12-1) is a semifinal match with top-seeded Naperville Central (20-11) today. Second-seeded Neuqua Valley (16-8-1) will play third-seeded Waubonsie Valley (16-9) in the other semifinal.

Waubonsie beat Neuqua in both of their regular-season matches, but Warriors coach Diana Mehl said those victories are not indicative of how either team is playing now.

"I'm not taking much (from those matches)," Mehl said. "I think we're both two completely different teams than we were. I think we're pretty much going to play very hard and I think it will be a very close and very competitive game."

The Redhawks beat Hinsdale Central both times they played in the regular season. Red Devils coach Chris Wilbur hopes his team can build on the way it performed the last time the teams met on April 9 when Central won 7-5.

"They swim just as well as we do," Wilbur said. "The key tomorrow will be to execute a little better, limit unforced errors and we just have to keep playing really solid defense. If we do that, I think it will be a close game."

Entering the fourth quarter, the score was tied 6-6 and it stayed deadlocked until Brie O'Doherty's goal with 3:44 remaining. Caitlin Connor, who had six goals in the match, scored a transition goal with 1:37 to go and O'Doherty added her second goal at the 1:07 mark to put the match in the win column for the Red Devils.

"When we played them the last time we noticed in the end of the game that we started to out-swim them a little bit," Wilbur said. "And we were able to do that again in the fourth quarter. We got a bunch of fast breaks and we were able to convert on a bunch of those."

Defending the Red Devils was a challenge for fifth-seeded North (8-16) at full strength. When Katie O'Dea picked up third and final ejection in the first half, it was even more difficult for the Huskies.

Seven of the 15 Huskies on the North roster climbed out of the pool for the final time in their high school career. Seniors such as Erin Gibson, who led the Huskies with three goals, did so after leaving their mark, according to McWhirter

"They walked away with the feeling that it was Hinsdale Central that had earned that win," McWhirter said. "It wasn't just handed to them."

Also scoring for North were O'Dea, Katie Lechowicz and Tracey Ahearn.

Kara Wilson had six goals and three assists, and the top-seeded Redhawks took a shutout into the fourth quarter in their win over the Saints.

The six goals give Wilson, Central's all-time goal scorer, 304 for her career.

"That's pretty much the story of the game," Central coach Jeff Plackett said.

Haley Nelson scored three goals and had four steals. Elizabeth Pucci scored twice. Sam Virella made 10 saves. Sam Shamburek had five steals and three assists.

The Wildcats were able to strike a balance between everyone getting playing time and presenting a cohesive attack in the win over the North Stars.

Kathleen Patterson scored six goals, Jeanette Nolte had three goals and both Chelsea Reczek and Jenn Rinehart scored twice. Brittany Jadwin, Megan Russell and Danielle Cirrintano each scored one goal.

"What I told them from the start is we really just wanted to focus on playing together as one solid team, passing to everyone, everyone tries to get a shot off and eliminating all the little mental errors that we often see," Neuqua coach Lenny DePasquale said.

Neuqua lost twice to Waubonsie in the regular season with both matches coming in the early going.

A match that was tied after one quarter and fairly competitive at halftime gave way to a dominant performance from the Warriors.

Waubonsie scored five goals in the second quarter, four in the third and four in the fourth to make way for another match with District 204 rival Neuqua. As their offense picked up, so did the defense as the Warriors held Hinsdale South to two goals in the final three quarters.

Tyler Crittenden scored four goals, several on long shots from mid-pool. Bailey Gucinski had three goals. Julia Carroll, Allison Szott, Sabina Kastanova and Jenny Seyl each scored twice.