P'field C. falls in regional

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Plainfield Central High School's successful soccer season come to a close in a physical 3-1 loss to Naperville North in the Class 3A Bolingbrook Regional final Friday afternoon.

Third-seeded Naperville North (17-3-2), which won its fourth regional title in a row and 19th in the last 24 years, advanced to the Naperville Central sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Plainfield Central, which was the No. 11 seed and won the Southwest Prairie Conference title with a 6-1 record, closed with an overall mark of 13-6-2.

"They (Naperville North) aren't the most physical team we've played all year, but this was certainly the most physical game we played all year," Plainfield Central coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "We got beat up. It seemed I was going out on the field every few minutes in the first half.

"Not that our guys can't handle it, but the high school game has gotten too physical and I believe they have to clean it up. It (physical play) hurt our rhythm, but we got beat by a team that is very good and has a lot of skill players."

The physical play showed early as Wildcat junior forward Logan Spidle and Naperville North senior forward Ediz Yorulmazoglu collided and play had to be halted as they were shaken up. Plainfield Central also had injuries to sophomore forward Giuliano Dinardo and sophomore defenders Jon Rosenbaum and Bryce Barman that stopped the clock in the first half.

What also stopped the clock was a Naperville North goal. That came off a throw-in on the left side by senior defender Mike Hogan that got through the box and was put in on an easy touch by Husky junior midfielder Chris Boswell 6:01 into the game.

But thanks to some hustle and good positioning, the Wildcats tied it. Spidle sent a ball in that Huskie junior goalie Mike Wiest came out about 20 yards to play. Wiest went to kick the ball out, but Rosenbaum was closing fast and the ball deflected off the defender and back into the net to give Central the tying goal with 10:52 to play in the first half.

"Those type of goals follow Jon because he hustles," said Fitzgerald, whose squad tied the Huskies 1-1 on Sept. 22. "But other than that we just didn't get a whole lot of chances."

Central did have a chance about 14 minutes into the second half, but a long shot by sophomore midfielder Tyler Gill sailed just over the upper right corner.

Four minutes later the Huskies didn't miss as senior forward Emerson Beck blasted a shot from the right side that crossed past Central junior goalie Giovanni DeLira into the upper left corner with 22:19 to play.

That fired up the Huskies, who narrowly missed adding on almost immediately afterward. But a shot hit the crossbar and senior defender Creighton Goss also had to make a non-goalie save for the Wildcats.

Naperville North basically put the game away when senior midfielder Andrew Menendez, who assisted on Beck's goal, converted a penalty kick with 19:12 remaining. All the Wildcats could muster after that was a send-in by Spidle and a long shot by Dinardo, who missed half the game with a leg injury.

"It hurts right now, but I'm proud of them," Fitzgerald said. "We had 15 wins and a conference championship. I'd like to where we could be if we were in a different sectional, but we'd run into them sooner or later.

"I feel bad for the five seniors (defenseman Alex Berg, Robbie Burke and Goss, and midfielders Connor Gerding and Tyler Mitchell) and the other guys have 10 months to get ready for next year."