Naperville Central Redhawks score late to win invite over Schaumburg

Defensively, Naperville Central has been a fortress this year.

Scoring goals has been another matter for coach Ed Watson's team. So there was definitely a feeling of happiness when the Redhawks scored twice in the final five minutes on Saturday to defeat Schaumburg 2-0.

That victory gave Naperville Central (7-1-1) the title of the St. Charles East Invitational.

"You've seen all week - we struggle to score goals," Watson said. "So we better defend. We gave up one goal in the tournament. Our goalkeeper (Jill D'Amico) does what she has to do and Jessica Rubin and Alex Coon, our center backs, cover us up nicely."

But the Redhawks still took time to get their offense together. In fact Schaumburg (6-5) had the better approach play, though they still failed to create many chances.

"We're learning," Schaumburg coach Greg Charvat said. "This tournament is about us getting ready for our conference play. We did give Naperville come opportunities. You give those up, and eventually, they will put those in."

Naperville Central improved as the match progressed. Gina Maddi continued to show the confident attacking play she showed throughout the tournament.

But when it came time to put the ball in the net, the Redhawks used set plays to get the job done - in Saturday's case, a corner kick and a throw-in.

Alex Coon headed the first goal with 4:38 to play. Kelly Blumberg got an insurance goal with three seconds to play.

"We have to score on restarts," Watson said. "(Coon) just stayed with it. We didn't need to score with three seconds to go in the game, but Kelly Blumberg just works her tail off. She plays all over the field and does whatever she can to help us win."

The tournament title certainly pleased Naperville Central, although Watson was happy with the things that took place to create the two wins and the tie the Redhawks gained in the week's play.

"You like the fact that there's medals on the end of it and you win a plaque," Watson said. "But we have other things from this week. We played three quality programs. We're getting our legs back after Spring Break. Now this springboards us into next week. We have Glenbard East, and then our cross-town rival with Naperville North and then we have Neuqua (Valley)."

In the new IHSA girls soccer brackets, Schaumburg is in the same sectional as St. Charles East and Geneva, making the games more than simply strong nonconference matches.

"It is good to play them because we are going to be having seeding meetings," Charvat said. "It's good to see where everybody's at."