Zimmer, Central get rolling in 4-1 win
It may have been a referee's whistle that got things started, but the Naperville Central boys soccer team did plenty of its own things to finish matters Thursday night.
After close to 30 minutes of scoreless play between the host Redhawks and visiting Glenbard North, Naperville Central was awarded a penalty kick. Junior Tim Zimmer converted the opportunity into a lead that stood until early in the second half.
Less than one minute into the second half Zimmer drilled home a direct kick for a 2-0 margin. With that quick strike, Zimmer was two-thirds of the way to his first high school hat trick and the Redhawks were well on their way to a 4-1 DuPage Valley Conference victory.
"We got our momentum going after the penalty kick," said Zimmer, who has 5 goals on the year. "That's when we started connecting passes and I thought we played pretty well."
With 32:54 left in the second half, Zimmer tallied his third straight goal of the game on yet another restart, this time a direct free kick that he banged off the crossbar and into the Panthers' net.
Naperville Central (6-1, 1-0) came right back with another score just 25 seconds later, with a perfect cross from Art Garza setting up a header by Joe Wehrli that found the back of the net for a 4-0 lead.
"That definitely hurt us," Panthers coach Greg Chrisman said of the penalty kick. "It took the wind out of our sails. They're a good team and they were consistently pressing. When they get 2-3 goals in a 10-minute span, it's tough to recover."
Naperville Central coach Jay Konrad credited the Panthers' tough defense with keeping his team at bay until the second-half outburst.
"They mark really hard, and it took us a while to get adjusted," Konrad said. "They played us as hard as anybody this year."
Glenbard North ended the Redhawks' shutout hopes when Michael Eskridge scored on a penalty kick with 19:54 left to play. But the Panthers, who opened the year 5-0, dropped their second DVC battle of the week to fall to 5-2 overall and 0-2 in league play.
Zimmer, meanwhile, couldn't think of a better way to open the conference campaign.
"It was pretty nice," he said of the hat trick and opening win. "We just played good soccer, and this is a great way to start off."