Brindle, Neuqua Valley break out

Going into Thursday night's Best of the West tournament boys soccer game against Benet, Neuqua Valley hadn't been happy with the way it was playing to start the season.

The Wildcats were much happier after the game.

Neuqua Valley scored 3 times in the second half to take a 3-0 victory against a talented Redwings club at Naperville North.

"I'm proud of the guys now, because we had been struggling, and they put it together today," Neuqua Valley coach Tony Kees said.

Senior midfielder Jacob Brindle put it together the most, scoring 2 goals and assisting on the other.

"And there's more in him yet," Kees said. "There's more in him. And it's my job to try and get it out, because he's a wonderful player. But there's more in him than what you're seeing."

Brindle opened the scoring in the 44th minute, soaring high over a Benet defender to head in a Will Butler corner kick near the far post.

Three minutes later he connected the final pass in a slick sequence that found Nicko Makropoulos for a goal. He finished the game with a goal off a diving header in the 76th minute.

"We had to finish this win, and that's what we came out to do," Brindle said.

"We've taken some nice goals this year," Kees said. "We're not as prolific as last year, but some of our goals have been well-worked. That's part of the fun."

It wasn't as much fun for the Redwings (2-1-1).

"Probably the disappointing thing for us is we're a huge team," said first-year Benet coach Sean Wesley. "We have big kids. We win headers. And they beat us to every ball in the air, and that included two corner kicks that they scored on."

Neuqua (3-0-1) entered the game having already been tested by Lyons Twp. and Naperville North.

"We've had the top three big dogs coming at us first. We had to see where we were," Brindle said.

But Thursday's game was Benet's first tough match of the season.

"The game was a little big for us tonight," Wesley said. "I mean it was our first real test. The kids were a little excited."

The Redwings forced Hunter Hollingshead to make 5 saves for the shutout, but Hollingshead handled the shots easily.

"We didn't create anything up top," Wesley said. "That certainly put pressure on our defense, put pressure on our midfield. Disappointing. We think we're better than this. We're going to work hard to kind of prove it the rest of the year."