Naperville Central loses opener to Oak Park

It doesn't matter how many opportunities you create if you don't convert any of them into goals.

Chances were aplenty for Naperville Central in its girls soccer season opener on Monday night, but the Redhawks failed to finish a single one of them while Oak Park-River Forest scored the lone goal it needed, albeit a disputed one, early in the first half and then held on for the 1-0 victory.

"I said to the girls that soccer may be the dumbest game that people play," Redhawks coach Ed Watson said. "In football usually the team that has the better of possession wins the game, but in this sport that doesn't matter. You've got to put the ball in the goal."

Naperville Central (0-1) dominated possession and turned plenty of that into scoring attempts, especially in the second half. It wasn't just a player or two putting the pressure on the Huskies either. Kayla Burke, Kathleen Conforti, Meridith Hannan, Maggie Hillman, Madison Redeker, Isabel Reedy, Kayla Rowan and Ryan Dudycha all sent shots in the general vicinity of Oak Park River Forest's 6-foot-2 goalkeeper, Ava Trogus.

"I thought Ryan played one of her best games ever as a Redhawk," Watson said. "She did everything that we asked her to do. She got the ball and gave her teammates opportunities. What she didn't get was that one crisp opportunity."

Dudycha also appeared to have been taken down once in the box but the official's whistle remained silent. Her best opportunity came with a little more than 12 minutes remaining when Trogus had to make a diving save, just getting enough of her fist on Dudycha's shot to force it to trickle just wide left.

"It's our first game so we're still getting into the flow of it," Dudycha said. "We haven't played with each other for awhile so we're still a work in progress. You want to win, but the result of this doesn't really matter. It isn't conference."

Oak Park-River Forest got the only offense it needed from senior Anna Edelbuettel.

Patricia Heneghan sent a high ball in to set up the senior.

"She was working hard running down the line and played a beautiful high ball there," Edelbuettel said. "I just played it and Ashley (Gerin) basically followed the ball through to the goal."

Watson was flabbergasted.

"I thought they ran into our keeper (Kinzly Dressler)," he said. "(The official) said it was a fair challenge, but how is that a fair challenge? I was floored that they would give her the goal."

It held up, even though the Redhawks kept attacking in pursuit of the elusive equalizer.

"I almost had a heart attack," Huskies coach Ignacio Ponce said. "That's a great team over there, but I thought we fought them hard. They were a little stronger and bigger than us, but we're scrappy and I think that scrappiness really helped us out."

It was the first time since 2008 that the Redhawks suffered a season-opening loss to the Huskies. They had gone 6-0-1 during the past seven seasons, including a 5-1 win a year ago.