Wrap-up: Curnock earns MAC honor

Sophomore goalkeeper Lindsey Curnock (Batavia) was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week following a pair of shutouts during the weekend that moved her to the top of the Northern Illinois record book.

"Lindsey had a great weekend for us," coach Marci Miller Jobson said. "We are starting to see her game mature. She is playing with confidence and consistency and showed that this weekend. In two tight games she made big saves at key times."

Curnock made 5 saves in the Huskies' 1-0 victory at Ohio on Friday.

The whitewashing was the 11th of Curnock's career, moving her into sole possession of first place on NIU's all-time list.

Two days later, Curnock made 5 stops in a 0-0 overtime tie at Akron, for her fifth shutout of the season and the 12th of her career.

Curnock's 5 shutouts are the fourth-highest single season total in NIU history. Last season, she recorded 7 shutouts, the second-highest season total by a Huskie.

Curnock has not been scored upon in the last 228:06, including 200 minutes of shutout play over the weekend, and owns season goals against average of 0.59.

Prior to Curnock's award, the most recent Huskie goalkeeper to earn MAC Player of the Week accolades was Carrie Dvorak during the 2004 campaign.

Boys soccer

Neuqua Valley 4, Benet 1:ŒNeuqua Valley's boys soccer team is all about finishing.

On Tuesday the Wildcats took advantage of several Benet defensive lapses and went home with a 4-1 victory to move into Thursday's Class AA Neuqua Valley sectional final.

"We put the balls away when we had the opportunity," said striker Jaymie Bullard, who scored 2 of the Wildcats' goals. "They ran the possession at the beginning, but we came out firing later in the first half and in the second half."

The Redwings (9-11-1), who were seeded fourth in the sectional, moved the ball well but didn't create scoring chances, as the No. 1-seeded Wildcats' back line held tough.

"We played well in the first half, but we kept looking for that one more touch to get it closer," said Benet coach Henry Wind, "where Neuqua would just go in and bury it."

It took the Wildcats (20-1-4) almost 30 minutes to score, when Bryan Gaul put the ball through the wall on a free kick into the lower left-hand corner of the net.

The second goal came in the 35th minute when Robby Gargaro put a free kick into the area from distance that bounced off several players to Bullard, who netted it to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead at the intermission.

"They played exactly the way we thought they would play," Wind said. "They played direct and wait for you to make a mistake. They keep everything simple. They don't play around a lot. When they get the ball they go forward and they strike immediately."

The next Neuqua Valley strike came first in the 50th minute when Bret Hruby outran Benet goalkeeper Bryan Steigel to a ball that was passed into space and put it in from 18 yards away.

Then Bullard capped the Wildcats' scoring when he headed Gaul's corner kick into the net for his second goal of the night.

"Bryan gave me a great ball for that fourth goal," Bullard said. "It was a great victory because we lost to them earlier in the year on penalty kicks."

Two minutes later Erik Warren found the back of the net for Benet's only score of the game.

"We were pretty solid," said Neuqua Valley coach Jim Johns. "Benet is always an attacking team and they put a lot of pressure on you. We had good shape the whole game and we didn't make any mistakes in the back. We covered for each other very well today. It was a collective effort by the team."

The Wildcats will face Naperville at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the sectional final.

"This is a difficult sectional with a killer group of teams," Johns said. "We're tickled to death to be in the finals. All you want to do is survive. You don't even care how you win."

Gaul had another view of the victory.

"We're not smiling until we see ourselves in the state final," he said.

-- Neil Shalin

Naperville Central 1, Naperville North 0:ŒExpecting nuance was perhaps a bit much given the nature of the Naperville North-Naperville Central boys soccer rivalry and all that was at stake in Tuesday's Class AA Neuqua Valley sectional semifinal.

And so it proved, with both teams putting the "sock" into soccer, driving the ball back and forth at each other for 80 pulsating minutes.

In the end the match was decided by one of the most evident moments of skill -- a give and go between Naperville Central's Jerry Maddi and Byard Ebling on the right wing in the waning seconds of the first half.

Maddi took the ball around the outside of the Naperville North defense and shot into the left side netting with exactly one minute left before halftime.

"We had a lot of possession in their end the first 20 minutes but just couldn't put one in," Maddi said. "I saw their defense was flat, I played it to (Ebling). I just slotted it through on goal."

That goal stood up, thanks to stout Redhawks defending, and Naperville Central carried that 1-0 victory to a spot in Thursday's sectional title 6:30 p.m. match against host school Neuqua Valley.

"I just wanted to pick it up before halftime, even if I didn't get a goal," Maddi said.

Naperville North defeated Naperville Central 6-1 in the DuPage Valley Conference meeting between the two schools. Redhawks coach Jay Konrad said his team never talked about Tuesday's rematch being a case for revenge.

"We knew we didn't give North our best effort," Jay Konrad said. "I knew that the boys were not happy with getting thumped like we did. I am proud of how they played tonight."

Naperville North (16-4-4) struggled to create from open play. Riley Breese's long throw-ins and free kicks, were the Huskies best scoring threats. Throughout the match Naperville Central (19-3-1) responded with solid goalkeeping by Tyler Kelley.

-- Darryl Mellema

Men's soccer

Aurora 6, Benedictine 0: The Spartans (11-3-4, 7-0-2) extended their unbeaten streak to five games as they blanked the Eagles in Aurora. Chase Corricelli scored two goals in the first four minutes, giving him 15 for the year. Danny May's goal raised his season total to nine and Scott Anderson added a goal and an assist.

Women's soccer

Elgin 3, Waubonsee 2: The Chiefs' storybook season came to an end against Elgin in the semifinals of the Region IV Tournament. With an 8-8-2 final record, Waubonsee recorded the most wins in the history of the program. The team's leading scorer was Sara Merker, who had 24 goals.