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Girls soccer: Benet blanks Oswego, impoves to 10-1

Benet sophomore Chloe Sentman was sidelined for six games earlier this season with a concussion.

Now she's back and giving opponents a headache.

Sentman scored her second consecutive game-winning goal on Friday, redirecting a cross from Keira Petrucelli to break a scoreless tie with Oswego at the Naperville Invitational at Naperville North.

Anna Casmere and Eleanor Mahan later added insurance goals as Benet went on to win 3-0.

"It's really exciting," Sentman said. "Coming back from so much time off, it's been hard to get my confidence back, and it's been somewhat of a hard transition.

"But the support I've gotten from my team has helped me a lot and the goals have given me a lot more confidence. My teammates have really built me up."

After being unable to break through Oswego's tenacious defense for the first 61 minutes, the Redwings (10-1) used a nice build up to produce the game's first goal.

Petrucelli raced through the defense into the right side of the penalty area and sent a sharp pass through a crowded crease. The ball missed Casmere but found the foot of Sentman on the far post with 18:26 left in the second half.

"Keira made a run-up and I couldn't really see anything because there were a few of our girls and a few of their defenders and their goalie," Sentman said. "All of a sudden it was at my feet, so I just had to tap it in."

The diminutive Sentman has had to deal with several issues this season. In addition to the concussion. She's playing a different position than she has in the past.

A natural forward, Sentman is being used on defense, though she has played in the back in the past.

"She's one of our outside backs," Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. "She might be our best attacking outside back.

"Going into the season we had a lot of forwards, so we needed to move some pieces around, especially in the back because we didn't have quite as much depth. She's played there before and we love her distribution from that spot."

Sentman's speed and willingness to get into tight spaces has allowed her to be a solid two-way player. She scored the only goal in Benet's 1-0 win over St. Viator on Tuesday.

"She's such a solid player for being so young and new," DiMatteo said. "She's amazing."

This could be an amazing season for Benet, which was the Class 2A state runner-up last season. The Redwings can be explosive offensively, which they demonstrated against Oswego by scoring three times in a four-shot sequence.

Sentman's strike opened the floodgates. Casmere, a senior forward, made it 2-0 just 2:13 later when she ran up the right wing, lost the ball to a defender, then got it back and blasted a hard shot off the hands of Oswego goalkeeper Amara Loghmani and under the crossbar.

Mahan capped the scoring with 1:33 left when she volleyed home a cross from DiMatteo.

"I think we're just all-around a team that never gives up," DiMatteo said. "We put our all into everything, regardless.

"Everyone on our bench is just as good as all the girls that start."

The Panthers (7-7-1) had a short bench for this game due to several injuries. That eventually proved to be a problem despite the tough play of Loghmani, who made six saves, and defenders Cameron Guzman and Peyton Johnson.

"We were doing pretty good, it was just my defense got tired," Oswego coach Gaspar Arias said. "We only had two subs

"(The Redwings) are pretty fast, so they got free on the outside. But I'm happy with the way my players played almost the whole game. Except for those (last) 10 (minutes, it was a great even game."

Benet will face host Naperville North at 10 a.m. Saturday in their final group stage match. The winner advances to next Thursday's tournament quarterfinals.

"This was a really good confidence boost to have such a solid win going into tomorrow's game," Sentman said.

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