Naperville Central clinches DVC four-peat
Four years, four DuPage Valley Conference girls soccer championships.
Naperville Central made it clear early Tuesday night it wanted to clinch No. 4 for itself, scoring just a minute into its 3-0 victory against Glenbard North.
“Being a four-peat for conference championships is an awesome thing and I’m really excited about it,” said Redhawks junior Katherine Short.
Short played a role in that quick first goal. After a long throw-in bounced in the Glenbard North penalty area, Short’s shot was blocked by a defender and fell to senior Kristin Adams, who promptly sent it back where it came from.
“That first one was up in the air and no one was going for it,” Adams said. “I got a foot on it. It went in.”
“That was really important,” Short added. “It really set the tone for the game. Getting ahead that early helped our team to gain confidence to keep going and show ourselves off and push forward.”
The quick goal suggested a blowout, but it never happened. Despite allowing a Maddie Thompson goal in the 18th minute, the Panthers (6-11-2, 0-6-1) held firm.
“We knew we wouldn’t get many (scoring) chances, and actually I was pretty pleased with what we did generate,” said Glenbard North coach David Stanhope, whose team took 6 shots and forced Naperville Central goalkeeper Jill D’Amico to make 2 saves for the shutout. “I thought we played them really hard, and that’s been the story of our season against the better teams. We’ve always been pretty competitive and we’ve lost a bunch of games by the odd goal: 2-1 and a bunch of 1-0s.”
“We were trying to get a bunch of shots off, but it just didn’t happen and the other team put up a really good fight,” Short said. “Definitely, a 2-0 lead is kind of a nervous lead to have, because if they score a goal then they’re immediately back in it. We kind of needed to get that third goal to seal the deal.”
The third goal finally came in the final minute, Short scoring with a volley off an Adams cross for Naperville Central (12-6-3, 6-0-1).