D'Amico stymies Huskies

A few minutes after Napervilles North and Central tied 1-1 on Thursday, North coach Brent Terada stood with an exasperated look on his face.

Jill D'Amico put it there.

"I don't know how many point-blank shots we took on her, but she kept the ball out of the net," Terada said.

D'Amico - Naperville Central's freshman goalkeeper - dove for, leapt after and swatted away shots long and short taken by the Huskies, finishing with 10 saves in the double-overtime DuPage Valley Conference contest.

No less than five of those saves were highlight-reel material.

"It's fun when you have to make saves like that," D'Amico said, "but it's nerve-wracking. Our defense is so good, in a lot of games I've had to do very little."

Against a Huskies team that Redhawks coach Ed Watson called "the best team we've played yet," Naperville Central (8-1-2, 2-0-1) grabbed a 1-0 lead when Krissy Many took a ball toward the left corner, cut it back and launched a long cross that had fate on its side.

Many's serve floated under the crossbar and nestled into the side netting of the far post in the game's fourth minute.

From there the Huskies (6-1-2, 1-0-1) earned a 9-1 edge in shots overall through 40 minutes, with Julie Arabia, Haley Krentz, Kristin Adams and Hannah Brenner all testing D'Amico with hard-hit shots from close range.

"I thought we had the better of the run of play. We were just unlucky," Terada said. "It's just frustrating because we felt like we had a lot of opportunities, and couldn't capitalize on them."

Naperville Central spent more time in its attacking third in the second half but couldn't find a truly dangerous shot on net. D'Amico elevated to stop a free kick that was blistered by the Huskies' Krentz in the 58th minute, but Krentz tied the score in the 76th on a penalty kick.

"I missed so many shots during the game, it was the least I could do," Krentz said of her penalty-kick conversion. "(D'Amico) had a great game."

Two hard-fought but fruitless overtime periods later, the cross-town rivalry ended in a tie, due to a newly implemented conference rule omitting a shootout as a way to decide a winner.

The Huskies ultimately earned a 17-6 edge in total shots taken and an 11-4 edge in shots put directly on net.

"We shut them out for 100 minutes. Did it take some unbelievable saves? Yes," Watson said. "But we have a keeper that can do that."