With her first goal Tuesday night, a dynamic backhanded effort, Kara Wilson established herself as the all-time leading scorer in Naperville Central girls water polo history.
With her second, third and fourth goals, the Redhawks senior displayed the talent that put her in position to break the record as the No. 5 Redhawks opened the season with a dominant 14-2 win over Marian Catholic.
Central coach Jeff Plackett said he was certain that Wilson would eclipse the record of 213 goals that Nikki Nelson set last year as a senior. What caught Plackett off-guard, he said, was how impressive the record-setting goal was.
With her back to the goal and a Marian defender draped on her, Wilson deked to her left before flicking the ball with her right hand over her right shoulder for No. 214.
"If you weren't in the building tonight to see that shot, a backhanded shot five meters out across the cage, there is no question that is the prettiest of the 217 goals she's made," Plackett said.
Wilson said she forgot about the record before the game, and that it was "weird" to break her friend's record. As for the backhanded goal, Wilson said it was partially out of necessity because of the size of Marian shallow-end keeper Tracy Johnson.
"I've done that for a long time and I slowly have gotten that figured out," Wilson said. "This goalie was pretty big so I had to do something different."
At halftime, Wilson got a game ball from Central athletic director Marty Bee to commemorate the record and a big hug from her dad, who was working at the scorer's table.
"That was a really nice moment, that he's down on the deck and is able to share that with his daughter," Plackett said.
If this wasn't a record-breaking night for Wilson, a lot of the post-game chatter would have been about the versatile performances of teammates Claire Fleming and Haley Nelson. Fleming and Nelson made it clear Wilson isn't the only option for Central's attack as they had four and three goals, respectively.
They also took turns at goalie because starting keeper Sam Virella, who made seven saves in the first quarter, had to leave to perform in a band concert. In the third quarter, Fleming made six saves, including a penalty shot and another on a breakaway.
Also sitting in for Virella was Elizabeth Pucci, who stopped a penalty shot in the fourth quarter.
"Claire Fleming had a great five-meter stop, and then Elizabeth Pucci, it's her first year playing, and she just went in the goal and had a great stop at five meters," Wilson said. "So, it was awesome."
Central was quick on offense and pushed the ball into the zone, using their speed to counterattack. Marian was more deliberate and waited for the shot clock to get below 20 seconds, which was a countermeasure, according to Spartans coach Sean Scanlon.
"We have one player coming off the bench for us and they are so ridiculously fast," Scanlon said. "I wasn't going to let them swim us all over the deep end. So by holding the ball and holding the ball, we basically cut that second half into three-and-a-half minutes of offense instead of five or six."
Emily Wooten, Lauren Spaits and freshman Claire Wirtz also scored for the Redhawks.
sfuchs@scn1.com
Quick 6 kicks off second half
Jay Mariotti 24/7
Quick Hits
Related Content [Click to close/expand]
Facebook App
Font Size
Email
Bookmark
Black Text
Cell Phone Alerts