Benet, Naperville Central finish even

To be continued?

Nothing was decided during Saturday afternoon's nonconference game between Benet and Naperville Central.

While it was a rematch from when the Redhawks prevailed 3-1 on Sept. 6 in the Best of the West Tournament, neither team created many scoring threats in this one as both walked off the field after a 0-0 draw.

Perhaps the teams will have a chance to go at it again in the postseason?

If both teams win their respective regionals, as well as sectional semifinal games, they'll meet in the Class 3A Bolingbrook sectional championship on Nov. 1.

"We hope so," Benet coach Sean Wesley said. "I'm sure (Naperville Central coach Troy Adams) hopes so too."

When the teams met on Sept. 6 they each had played a game earlier in the day, so they were by no means at full strength. They were close to full strength on Saturday, although Benet's Daniel Morefield didn't play due to an illness and Naperville Central's Jordi McCormack sat out with a fractured foot. Still, the teams went hard at one another with nothing really on the line other than bragging rights and potential momentum for the postseason.

"I was happy with the way we played," Adams said. "It's the Saturday nonconference, non-seeding game and everybody got in and everybody played and that's a good high school game on a Saturday."

Benet (13-2-2) had a couple of scoring chances but not too many as the Redhawks did a nice job of limiting Benet senior forward Kyle Kenagy's chances.

Surprisingly, Kenagy only drew one foul call despite the game being very physical.

"Two of the best teams in state went at it," Wesley said. "They have great athletes in the back and this was way more like a college game than a high school game."

Naperville Central (10-1-6) also put some pressure on Benet's back line, but those opportunities were scarce.

Neither team simply connected enough passes to sustain a consistent offensive attack, which also wasn't surprising based on both team's play throughout the fall.

"I thought we did a good job defensively and eliminated a lot of their chances, and most of theirs came on restarts," Adams said. "I credit our defensive intensity and work rate, and if you get pressure on the ball it's very hard to connect passes and very hard to sustain an attack."