Redhawks, New Trier play to draw

Updated: August 23, 2011 7:44PM

Even though there was no tournament trophy or specific standing to be gained, as hosts of the 14th Annual Naperville Invitational, the last thing Naperville Central wanted was to complete its part of the two-week event with a loss.

That’s why the players were understandably pleased to have rallied for a 1-1 draw against the defending invite champion and currently No. 7-rated New Trier in Saturday’s consolation matchup. The Trevians, who were looking to bounce back from a 1-0 semifinal loss to Waubonsie Valley, were unable to preserve their 1-0 lead and endured a loss followed by a tie for the second time this year in order to stand 11-2-4 on the year.

“Coming in we knew they were ranked and both teams wanted to bounce back from losses,” Central goalie Jill D’Amico noted. “Even though they took the lead, we fought back and I think that shows our character.”

After a scoreless first 40 minutes, the Trevians got on the scoreboard 4:18 into the second half when Anne Marie Thomas’ rocket was stopped by D’Amico only to have Morgan Steinberg follow up from four yards out.

“It was amazing that Anne Marie’s hard shot didn’t go in so it essentially became an assist in how well it set me up,” Steinberg said. “We’re told to pretty much crush every shot and then to follow them up and that’s what happened.”

“Yeah it was really frustrating to make that stop and then for us to not be able to clear it,” D’Amico said. “But as a keeper, all you can do is make saves knowing sometimes it’s a team effort to keep the net empty.”

As a team, the Redhawks were determined to get an equalizer with nine of their 15 overall attempts (compared to the Trevians’ seven) coming in the second half. Central also had a 7-4 edge for shots on frame. The equalizer came with 21:02 remaining when Sabrina Cisneros got the ball on the right wing, pivoted sharply and bombed a 19-yarder into the net.

“Being down we knew we needed to get more offensive and coach often tells me to dribble in and not just look to cross, but sometimes take a chance so I just shot it toward the goal,” Cisneros said. “Coming from 1-0 down I think this is can be a boost to our confidence because we worked hard on creating opportunities and it shows we can play with top-ranked teams.”

“There’s no question we could have lost our focus and lost that game,” Central coach Ed Watson added. “We’re still not at full strength and just aren’t deep enough to lose a top player like we have, so in some respects we’re still just trying to get better as a team. We had a defensive letdown in back and an innocent throw-in suddenly led to a goal for them because we were mainly just watching. Thankfully Sabrina did a nice job for us from the outside. I also thought Veronica Ellis played well since she understands that she’s our hybrid player in that we can use her all over the field.”

From start to finish, the Redhawks won their initial group and went 2-1-1 in the tourney in order to stand 10-5-3 for the season. New Trier, which also won its group, also went 2-1-1 in the event.

“During a couple parts of the game we looked good in a 5-8 minute sequence, but sometimes we still fell back into a kick and run mode,” Trevian coach Jim Burnside said. “Overall we’re happy to have played a top seed and not lost, but we need to eliminate those momentary losses of focus.”

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