Naperville Central's Wilson breaks school scoring record

With a quick whip of her right arm around her back, Kara Wilson released a blind shot past Marian Catholic's goalie just 2:21 into Tuesday night's girls water polo game.

The no-look shot gave Wilson the all-time career goals-scored record for Naperville Central as the Redhawks rolled past Marian Catholic in the season opener 14-2 in Naperville.

Wilson's record-setting 214th goal gave the Redhawks a 2-0 lead and was Wilson's first of 4 goals on the evening.

Oddly enough, Wilson may have been the last one in the arena to realize the magnitude of the goal.

"Actually I was really surprised," Wilson said of her ascent to the water polo peak. "I just totally forgot about it, but it's exciting though.

"It was funny because my really good friend (Nikki Nelson) was the one who held the record last year, so it was weird to break it because she graduated."

Wilson's score left quite an impression on Naperville Central coach Jeff Plackett, who couldn't recall a single Wilson goal more acrobatic than No. 214.

"A backhanded shot 5 meters out across the cage -- there's absolutely no question that that is the prettiest-looking of the 217 goals," Plackett said. "She does a nice job of making space for herself."

While Tuesday's sentiment belonged to Wilson, the spotlight shined on several other Redhawks as well. Claire Fleming matched Wilson's 4 goals on the night despite serving a full quarter as Naperville Central's goalie, and Haley Nelson scored 2 of the Redhawks' first 4 goals to give the home team some breathing room.

"We have a great team this year; I'm really excited," Wilson said. "We have slowly established players that we've all been able to work well with as a team, and so it's been great."

Naperville Central took a 7-1 lead into halftime and kept on scoring after the break. Nelson scored from nearly half a pool's length away just 20 seconds into the third quarter as the Redhawks swelled their lead to 10-1 at the end of three periods.

One positive for Marian Catholic (0-1) was the play of Annie Anderson, who accounted for both Spartans goals. Afterward, Anderson earned high praise from coach Sean Scanlon.

"Annie is not only one of my smartest offensive players, but defensively she's really smart," Scanlon said. "About middle of the season last year she just emerged, and I knew she was going to be one of my top two players overall."