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Kerth, Naperville Central claim sectional
Updated: May 14, 2011 10:49PM
Seven emerged as the lucky number for Naperville Central in the girls water polo team’s 13-6 sectional-final clinching victory over Naperville North at Neuqua Valley.
Saturday, the Redhawks (32-1) received seven goals from cap No. 7 Abbey Kerth.
Naperville Central’s leading scorer for the game, Kerth scored twice in the first period, three times in the first half and four times in the third quarter. Her most impressive goal came with 1:09 remaining in the first quarter, when Kerth scored from near mid-pool.
“They weren’t guarding me, so I saw that I had to shoot the ball,” she said. “It went well, so I was happy.”
Naperville North (19-12) cut its deficit to 5-3 at the 1:09 mark of the second period on a Jessie Lietz goal. Lietz scored both of her goals for the game in the final two minutes of the second quarter.
From that point on, Naperville Central shut down the Huskies until Audrey Chien (team-high 3 goals) struck with a pair of goals in the final minute of the third.
The Redhawks built an 11-3 lead before Chien’s heroics, as the Huskies scored six times in the third. In addition to Kerth’s four third-period goals, Claire Wirtz (3 goals) and Allison Susin (1) also scored.
Gracie May and Lauren Gunn also scored for Naperville Central.
Julia Campbell anchored a solid Redhawks defense with nine saves and Emma Ryan made seven for the Huskies.
Sofi Prorok scored Naperville North’s final goal with 4:55 to play.
The Redhawks misfired high several times from deep, appearing somewhat affected by big-game adrenaline. That was not the case, however, according to coach Jeff Plackett.
“In all honesty, I don’t think, especially in that first half, that (you can) look at any shot as a bad shot,” he said. “For the simple reason (that) the way Naperville North works their slough defense, the only way to break the slough is to shoot from outside. So look, even if they’re off the mark a little bit, at least you’re going to establish yourself as a shooter.
“I thought they did a great job in the first quarter jumping out to a 5-1 lead,” Plackett continued. “That’s a great way to start a win.”
He said sloppy passing and rushed counter attacks accounted for a brief second-quarter letdown.
“We had to just clean up our passes and I think that really happened in our third quarter and we really put them away,” Kerth said.
For her part, she acknowledged the team was perhaps riding on a bit of an adrenaline high early in the game.
The game also marked the end of the road for the Huskies, who will look back fondly on what they accomplished this season.
“The girls came in as underdogs (and) they worked extremely hard on defense all the way through,” Naperville North coach Andy McWhirter said.
“Great efforts by all the girls on the team. Jessie Lietz getting the couple goals there really set the tone and (mentally) got Central back in the game. I think they were thinking they’d get an easy win and then they had to fight for it.”
Naperville Central advances to state competition, which begins next week at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. The Redhawks play Stevenson (25-8) Thursday in the state quarterfinal. All other competition takes place Saturday. Illpolo.com ranks the Redhawks at No. 1 and the Patriots at No. 7.
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