Naperville Central's risk pays off

The Naperville Central girls water polo team learned a valuable lesson, and that's a big reason why it reached Saturday's Neuqua Valley sectional final after defeating Sandburg 10-7.

The Redhawks face top-seeded Naperville North at 10 a.m. Saturday with the winner going to the state finals at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire next week. The Huskies downed the host Wildcats 15-6 on Friday.

Third-seeded Naperville Central (22-10) split two games with second-seeded Sandburg (28-3) during the regular season. The most recent contest was May 7, with the Redhawks losing 8-4. Coach Jeff Plackett said playing it safe then didn't work, and it wasn't going to work Friday.

"We backed off our counterattack (in the loss). We didn't feel we had the ability to get into a track meet with them. They're very quick," Plackett said. "But now, what are you saving it for?"

Naperville Central lunged at the Eagles from the start, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before Sandburg could get a shot off that forced Redhawks goalie Faith Vandercar to make her first save of the contest with 2:50 left in the opening quarter. Naperville Central led 6-1 after the first seven minutes. Sandburg was on its heels as Naperville Central broke up any attacks it mustered. The Redhawks passed freely and made themselves at home deep in Eagles' territory at the start of the contest.

Junior Kaela Codo scored all 6 goals for the Redhawks in the first period and finished with 8 for the game. Emily Westlove tallied the other 2.

"We had a lot of adrenaline from that loss to them and we were working hard in practice," said junior Jennifer Oliver, whose passing helped set up three first-period goals. Alli Hansen's passing was also crucial to Naperville Central.

The Redhawks led 8-3 at halftime. Sandburg scored twice in the third to pull to within 8-5 and controlled the quarter, bottling up what the Naperville Central offense had done so freely earlier.

"We got to them and they didn't know how to respond. But after halftime they regrouped," Oliver said.

Sandburg's Sarah Dolitsky, who scored 4 of her team's goals, hit the back of the net to pull the Eagles to within 9-6 with 4:18 left in the game. Codo scored her last goal of the game with just more than two minutes to play. Dolitsky finalized her team's final score with 14 seconds remaining.

Naperville Central has lost both of its games against Naperville North this season.

"We're really good at keeping focus from start to finish. We're nervous but excited at the game time," Codo said of Saturday.