Short to Blumberg gives Redhawks passing grade

With a talent like Casey Short on your side, scoring opportunities can develop quickly.

Even so, Naperville Central's Kelly Blumberg and her girls soccer teammates had to be wondering if they would ever score a goal against visiting New Trier Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. After all with just more than three minutes remaining in a scoreless tie, the Redhawks (16-4) were denied three times in front of the net as Trevians goalkeeper Caroline Kerr and her defense stopped point-blank threats.

A minute later, Blumberg missed just high and to the left on a crossing shot to keep the score 0-0.

But sure enough, Short made a great pass to Blumberg that led to the game's only tally, a goal with 1:42 remaining that lifted the Redhawks to an impressive win over 15-3-2 New Trier.

"Kelly was probably kicking herself for not scoring on the play just before the goal," Redhawks coach Ed Watson said. "She works so hard. I'm happy this year her effort is being rewarded by scoring."

Naperville Central, playing without regular goalie Hannah Oppenheimer, who suffered a concussion earlier in the week, survived a first half in which New Trier had the wind at its back and had 4 shots on goal. Freshman goalie Chrissy Many stopped all 4 shots, including a great leaping deflection of a 35-yard free kick off the foot of sweeper Alicia Johnson.

Short and her fellow Redhawks then had the better of the play in the second half but waited until the final minutes before finally striking the back of the net. When asked about her near-miss, Blumberg replied, "Oh my gosh!"

But when given another chance, she finished the play and finished off New Trier.

"I knew I had to make up for it," she said. "They were all looking for Casey to score and left me open. They all pretty much thought she'd take it and instead Casey just slipped it through to me."

The pretty pass set up Blumberg, who used her left foot to push the ball into the net.

Trevians coach Jim Burnside felt the wind played a big role in the contest, and he felt his squad should have created more chances in the first half.

"We talked about needing to take shots," he said, noting that his squad was aware that Central had a new freshman keeper on the field. "We just didn't get enough. And the wind was a factor, but they did a good job with it. They created some chances."

Watson was glad his team withstood New Trier's strong first half and then finally got on the board just in time to pick up the victory.

"It's good to get a win against a good team," he said. "That was just two pretty good soccer teams playing."