Naperville North gets edge on Hinsdale Central

Saturday's showdown between two of the premier girls soccer programs in the area certainly lived up to its billing.

Highly contested throughout, Naperville North prevailed 2-1 over Hinsdale Central in Naperville thanks to a pair of goals in a three-minute span in the second half of the nonconference match.

Both the Huskies and Red Devils are now 2-1 on the young season.

"It's always an awesome game," said Naperville North coach Steve Goletz. "It's great playing a program as good as Hinsdale Central. (Red Devils coach) Michael (Smith) does just a great job getting them prepared and they play hard."

Trailing 1-0 after the opening 40 minutes, the home team notched the equalizer less than seven minutes into the second half when a cross from Maddie Krejci found the head of Alexis Dandridge, who deflected it into the side of the goal.

"When Maddie had the ball, I knew she would whip a good ball in," Dandridge said. "I just tried to get something on it to get it past the goalie. I got part of my head on it and I got the goal. It was a good feeling."

Just a couple of minutes later, Dandridge found teammate Shaina Dudas with a pass at the edge of the penalty box, and the fellow forward laced a low shot past Red Devils goalkeeper Katy Coseglia for the eventual game-winner.

"In the second half we stepped up our pressure offensively," Goletz said, "and we were better technically in the second half. And I thought we did a really good job limiting their chances."

Hinsdale Central's Melanie Sims had broken a scoreless tie at the 12:10 mark of the first half with a goal off an assist from Abby Cole.

"We enjoy having the opportunity to play Naperville North at this stage of the season," Smith said. "Especially in the second half, we saw some things we need to work on. That's why you play high-level matches early and consistently throughout the season.

"It's certainly disappointing, but we have a lot of time to grow and improve. And hopefully we will have another chance to play them and I guarantee it would be another exciting match."

Coseglia made a number of great saves for the visitors, including a diving stop on an early Dandridge header and a sliding save on a Krejci semi-breakaway attempt in the latter stages of the second half.