Girls soccer: Naperville North connects in third-place game
Megan Benmore now knows what she would have missed and she's ecstatic she didn't miss it.
The Naperville North senior finally joined the team last year after being restricted from playing for the Huskies by her club.
Benmore and her teammates were extremely joyful and smiling from ear to ear on Saturday night as the Huskies dominated Andrew, winning the Class 3A third-place trophy with a 3-0 victory.
"I've only played the last two years, but I've made so many friends here," she said. "It's sad that I'm going to have to leave them (to Northern Iowa), especially after this year because we were all so close."
The Huskies were as close knit of a group as they come this spring. They connected so beautifully on the field as they did off it.
"We play together and we really play for each other," senior Katelynn Buescher said. "We are so connected, we love each other and we hang out outside of practice and stuff."
The game-winning goal came via junior Reilly Riggs with 7:21 left in the first half, or at least half of it did depending on whom you ask. To the naked eye it appeared as if Riggs and Megan Benmore headed the ball simultaneously.
"We'll have to watch the replay," Benmore said. "We just looked at each other and wondered who scored that."
Benmore missed another header a minute later, but the Huskies didn't need it.
Hannah Martin, who had 9 game-winning goals this season and will be play an even bigger role next year since she's just a sophomore, scored with 35:03 remaining in the second half to make it 2-0.
Buescher finished the scoring with a penalty kick with 6:28 left.
"What more could you ask for then to play the last day of the season and you got as far as you could," she said. "And you get to basically put away the last goal."
After losing 16 seniors coming into the season, there were a lot of questions with this year's Huskies, but they found answers pretty quickly with players identifying roles and filling them.
"Those seniors were a big part of the team so we were kind of nervous and didn't know really what to expect," Benmore said. "After a few practices everyone's personality just fit together so well. Then we started hanging out outside of soccer and having so much fun and I think that helped us play for each other, to battle harder and to have such a fun season."
And it was a season that was overflowing with highlights and accomplishments, culminating with the ninth state tournament trophy in program history.
"We've had more heralded groups come in and everybody outside of us as a group thought this was going to be a down year at North because we lost so much," Goletz said. "It's a credit to how special these kids are and how hard they worked. They truly bought into what makes Naperville North soccer great."