Rust's goal in final five minutes wins it for Saints

As the ball bounced inside Naperville Central's goal on Friday night and as St. Charles East raced away to celebrate, there was one lingering question on everyone's mind.

Who scored?

A few facts were certainly known. The ball came in from the right from Shaylee Pedersen. A Naperville Central defender tried to get a leg on the ball. Jaime Rust and Hannah Ketterling were both inside the 6-yard box and both had their feet near the ball, which then ended in the net.

The mini-mystery took until the post-match to sort out. The answer to the goal-scoring riddle was Rust, whose goal with 4:18 left gave the Saints a 1-0 win.

"It was just a good ball in by (Pedersen)," Rust said. "I just got a touch on it. It was a 50-50 ball in the box. It was a good effort by all of our players attacking the ball and we didn't leave it in the box."

The result leaves the champion of this year's St. Charles East Invitational up for grabs, and it may not be decided when today's matches conclude. Game times are different than those printed in preseason schedules. Naperville Central plays Schaumburg at 4 p.m. while St. Charles East meets Geneva at 6 p.m.

Geneva has 10 points and has played 2 games. Naperville Central and St. Charles East each have 8 points, but the Redhawks have played twice while the Saints have played once, thanks to the cancellation of Thursday's game with Schaumburg.

But the main thing for both teams was that a full game got played. In St. Charles East's case, the contest was the second of a cancellation-plagued season. The opening minutes were excessively rocky, though you could almost hear the team putting pieces into place as the match progressed.

"I think we're starting more to grow as a team," Rust said. "It was hard having tons and tons of practices. Now we're more joined as a team. We're learning to play more off of each other."

Thursday's cancellation was especially hard on the Saints. They were getting ready to play when they heard that not only had the Naperville Central-Geneva game been canceled at halftime due to lightning, but the ensuing rain had waterlogged the field and the St. Charles East-Schaumburg contest was also canceled.

"It was very frustrating," Rust said. "We were already in the team room getting ready. There are games like that where you just can't get them in. I think we came out to play today and made up for it."

Naperville Central (3-3) came out with the cohesion of a team that had played five times previously. And the best chances prior to Rust's goal fell to the Redhawks. That left Saints goalie Zoie Samaan a very busy young woman.

"My concentration had to be on positioning," Samaan said. "I had to be in the right place because they had some good shooters and you don't want to get shot over. I don't have the greatest height so I have to put myself in the right spots."

The defense in front of Samaan has undergone some changes in the off-season. Samaan herself is a first-year varsity goalkeeper.

"I have to admit I was really nervous," Samaan said. "This was our first game where we were really tested. It was our first hard game and we all had to try really hard."

St. Charles East (2-0) saw its defense stretched, especially by Casey Short, who had most of the best chances of the game.

"Only soccer can be 1-0 and still be fun," Naperville Central coach Ed Watson said. "It was a fun game. We just have to be more aggressive in front of the goal."

Morgan Alberts deflected a ball goal-ward for Naperville Central with 2 minutes left, but the ball went very narrowly wide.

"She wasn't doing anything more than directing it on-frame," Watson said. "If it goes in, it's 1-1 and it's still not the result we're looking for. But it beats the result we ended up with."

The Saints suffered a blow when junior Katie King's season was ended with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the first half of the contest.

"It's a shame for her," St. Charles East coach Pat Feulner said. "She's worked her butt off to play. They were playing well when she got hurt. She'll work hard and be back. But you just hate to see that kind of injury."