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Surging Benet blanks Naperville Central
Updated: October 8, 2011 7:34PM
As much as coaches and players like to talk about having momentum going into the playoffs, that can be a fickle trait that can change sides quickly in any given match.
So a more accurate factor might be that intangible known as “mojo,” a kind of loosely defined magic. In Saturday’s non-conference meeting, host Benet definitely had it in a 2-0 victory, and Naperville Central — ranked No. 7 in the last Sun-Times poll — definitely needs to regain it.
Not only did the Redwings (13-3-1) go a perfect 7-0 in home matches, the latest triumph gives them a consecutive win streak of 10 matches and an unbeaten string of 12 (11-0-1). Benet takes a 13-3-1 overall mark into a Thursday non-conference visit to Downers Grove South before ending the regular-season with a huge East Suburban Catholic Conference showdown at St. Viator on Friday.
With a 7-0 record in league play, a Benet win or tie would give the Redwings the ESCC title outright, instead of having to possibly share it.
For Naperville Central, once an owner of nine straight triumphs, Saturday marked the second 2-0 loss within the last three matches, leaving the Redhawks with a 13-3-0 record. Central ends the regular season Tuesday hosting West Chicago in a battle for second place in the DuPage Valley Conference.
“To be honest, it’s the age-old story, we didn’t take advantage of some opportunities we had,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “A couple guys got in there and we should have put those chances away. The advantage in the game was they did a great job of finishing their opportunities; they got players forward when needed to and counter-attacked out of the back well.
“The first half, we played uninspired soccer, just kind of went through the motions, and I told them ‘we’ve got four halves since we played (Naperville) North, and I hope we’re not just closing up the season because we lost to North.’ North’s a good team, Benet’s a good team, but we’re gonna play good teams and we cannot just come out and go through the motions.”
Perhaps part of the Redhawks’ trouble was falling behind early in the match as only 3:02 was gone when Benet took the lead. Creighton-bound Ben Kucera set up teammate Alex Senak for a five-yard header.
“I can attribute that goal to Ben Kucera,” Senak said of his second goal of the year. “He took a lot of the ‘D’ with him and then made a beautiful flick, and I got some separation from my defender, and then just put it away. It was right there on a platter.”
For his half, Kucera insisted it was an example of Senak’s ability.
“Alex does it every day in practice, so I love to see it in a game,” Kucera said. “In order to make it far in the playoffs, you’ve got to have some momentum and I think we’ve got to do more of what we did last year, and that’s play possession soccer. Today may not have been the best example, but it shows that we can get a win even when we’re not playing our best. Part of this is because coach makes the difficulty in practice and in a game pretty close, which helps us a lot.”
Despite Naperville Central having advantages in overall attempts and shots on frame, it was a case of quality over quantity as the Redwings converted half of their on-goal tries. With 22:39 remaining in the contest, Kucera converted a penalty kick conversion after the Redhawks were whistled for deliberate handling of the ball within the penalty box. That was Kucera’s eighth goal of the season, putting him behind Hunter Miller (11 goals), who was absent due to a recruiting trip.
“We’ve been gaining momentum with every win, and coach told us we needed a big win going into the playoffs, and this was a pretty big game for us,” Senak added.
The contrast was reflected in Naperville Central senior Kevin Linne’s assessment: “It’s got to be there for every game now and in the playoffs, you can’t take even one off. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t there for us today.”
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