North tops Central in Naperville thriller
Naperville C. rallies 3 times but Dudas’ late goal wins it for North
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North senior Shaina Dudas has played in a lot of games against crosstown rival Naperville Central over her four-year career.
None have been as dramatic as Tuesday’s key DuPage Valley Conference match.
In fact, it’s safe to say that no one has witnessed a crosstown classic quite like this one.
Dudas had two assists and the game-winning goal with 3:48 remaining in regulation to lead the host Huskies to a wild 4-3 victory that kept them firmly in the hunt for the DVC title.
Click here to see updated DuPage Valley Conference standings
The game was expected to be another physical, defensive-minded struggle that has characterized the rivalry. It was anything but.
“As I shook hands with (Naperville Central coach) Ed (Watson) at midfield I said, ‘If anybody bet in Vegas on seven goals (being scored) in North vs. Central, they would have won a lot of money tonight,’” Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said. “You throw the records out when we meet.
“The wind tonight changed the game, not only when you had it but also when you were going into it, because you got weird bounces and balls that hang up.”
Indeed, there were a lot of weird occurrences. Naperville Central rarely scores three goals and loses and Naperville North rarely gives up three goals and wins.
Yet that is exactly what happened. The visiting Redhawks (7-10-0, 1-4-0) are in the midst of one of their toughest seasons in recent memory, plagued by injuries and missing senior leader Sarah Avery. But they rallied three times to tie it.
But the Huskies, ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, withstood each blow, which included a penalty kick, a 35-yard shot off the underside of the crossbar and a brilliant strike from Naperville Central sophomore Hannah Bradley-Leon, to move into sole possession of first place in the DVC with 15 points.
Dudas, the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, got the last lick in when she got in behind the defense on the left side of the box and ripped a 15-yad shot inside the far post to give the Huskies the lead for good.
“Shaina Dudas tonight was outstanding,” Goletz said. “That’s what we know she’s got in her, and we all expect from a four-year starter and a senior captain. This was just a fantastic performance by her.”
Dudas, an Illinois State signee who now has six goals and nine assists, has been heating up of late. She scored the game-winner in Naperville North’s last two wins.
Yet she dished off some of the credit for the decisive strike.
“That was Megan Benmore,” Dudas said. “We’ve really been working on connecting up-top, and the fact that she was able to hold the ball and run across was really key.
“We’ve been working on that a lot in practice, so that was a really good team goal, not just because we won but because that’s what we’ve been wanting to do.”
Fellow senior co-captain Katelynn Buescher, who also played a starring role in the win, got excited as she saw the play develop just as everyone thought the game was going to overtime.
“I thought that, too, and I did not want that to happen,” Buescher said. “When (Dudas) was running on the side I saw her and I was like, 'Meg, play Shaina.’
“Then Shaina got it and in my head I was like, ‘Please, Shaina, finish it. You got this.’ As soon as I saw it hit the inside (of the net), it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, and I was so grateful. It was so amazing to see that ball go in the net.”
Everyone was amazed to see so many balls go into the net. The Huskies scored on their first and last shots of the match, as did the Redhawks, who converted three of their four shots.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was seeing the offensively-challenged Redhawks come from behind three times. The last came when Bradley-Leon received a ball in traffic on the left side of the box, turned and rolled a perfectly placed shot inside the right post to tie it at 3-3 with 14:48 remaining.
“Abbey Hillman sent the ball in on the ground,” Bradley-Leon said. “It went behind a defender and then I took a touch, and I put it in the bottom far corner.
“It wasn’t so much power. I was trying to place it where the goalie couldn’t get it.”
That’s hard to do against Naperville North goalie Maddie Hausmann, but the Redhawks did it twice more.
The second time came when freshman Emma Irle blasted a 35-yard shot top shelf to tie the game at 2-2 at the 34:39 mark of the second half. Hausmann leaped and got her hand on the shot, but the ball glanced off the underside of the crossbar and hit the top netting.
But the game didn’t stay tied for long.
Just three minutes later, the speedy Dudas turned the left corner and sent a cross in tight toward Benmore, who was wrestling with a defender. The ball went off the defender and into the goal for a 3-2 North lead.
“I got around the girl, and I knew people were somewhere in the box, so I just tried to get it to someone,” Dudas said. “I kicked it really hard on the ground, and it just happened to go off the girl’s foot, but a goal is a goal.”
A curious thing happened after Bradley-Leon scored her game-tying goal. Both sides’ intensity went up, but North sustained it for longer.
“It certainly got us a lot of momentum, made us more intense,” Bradley-Leon said. “Then the fourth goal happened and we kind of dropped. It was a hard battle going back and forth.”
When the game was deadlocked at 3-3, Naperville North needed to have a short memory.
“We knew that we had made a mistake, so there was nothing that we could do about the past,” Dudas said. “We wanted to get it back, not just because it was (against) Naperville Central, but for us to get the DVC we knew we had to win.
“So I think it brought some extra fire out of us.”
There was plenty of fire coming from both squads. Naperville North's Leah Shumate opened the scoring at the 31:50 mark of the first half when she snuck an 18-yard shot in between Redhawks goalie Erin McHugh and the right post.
McHugh, a senior, then made three of her four saves over the next 15 minutes to keep the visitors close.
A hand ball call in the box gave the Redhawks a penalty kick, which Maddie Redeker converted in the 28th minute.
The Huskies regained the lead at the 4:28 mark on another great play. Dudas passed to Buescher, who used a cutback move to get free in the box before launching a 15-yard rocket off the diving McHugh for her team-leading 11th goal of the season.
“Our girls battled tonight,” Watson said. “That was the no. 1 priority, that we were going to come out and compete, and I thought we played pretty well.
“It was just every time the ball dropped in an area where they could score, they did. When they found opportunities, they buried them.”
So the Redhawks missed a golden opportunity to pull an upset.
“You can’t give up four goals and expect to win the ballgame,” Watson said. “I think the wind played a big role in the game.
“We get the goal to tie it (at 1) and then we can’t hold on. If it’s 1-1 at halftime you’ve got to feel pretty good.”
Despite the loss, the Redhawks do have things to feel good about and not just because of their production. Freshman midfielder Sullivan Schubel, who was called up to varsity two weeks ago, made her first start and nearly scored.
With the game tied at 1-1, Schubel got loose in the right side of the box and lofted a 15-yard shot that sailed over the head of Hausmann, who raced back across the crease and tipped the ball into the left post.
Hausmann then punched the ball out of danger just before she was knocked over by a charging forward.
“(Schubel) played a nice game tonight,” Watson said. “Imagine starting your first varsity game as a freshman, and it’s against Naperville North.
“And she didn’t know she was starting until she’s standing in line for the national anthem, because I didn’t want her to freak out before the game. She played very well.”
So did the Redhawks, but Naperville North played a little better.
“I was very happy with the response of the girls because talk about a range of emotions tonight; playing Central, knowing that you’ve got to win to stay in the DVC race,” Goletz said. “We gave up the lead three times. Obviously, that’s not a great thing but a fantastic thing for the group to get a win in regulation.”
And a memorable evening for those who witnessed it.
“Coming out here for the crosstown classic, DVC (on the line), we’re tied for first,” Buescher said. “We had to win, and they knew that all they had to do was beat us by one and then we’re out of the running for DVC.
“Everybody knows each other from the different teams, so that adds another layer, and we’re on our home field and we’re playing for our coaches and our teammates in our senior year.
"It was just a great night.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK Erin McHugh
D Emma Irle
D Sarah Scoles
D Abbie Hillman
D Caroline Giannone
M Jessica Sonner
M Maddie Mills
M Hannah Bradley-Leon
M Sullivan Schubel
F Maddie Redeker
F Caroline Reedy
Naperville North
GK Maddie Hausmann
D Paige Sylvester
D Reilly Riggs
D Jessica Siebers
D Sarah Stokes
M Alyssa Siebers
M Katelynn Buescher
M Leah Shumate
F Hannah Martin
F Megan Benmore
F Shaina Dudas
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Game – Shaina Dudas, sr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
1st Half
Naperville North – Leah Shumate (unassisted) 31:50
Naperville Central – Maddie Redeker (PK) 12:00
Naperville North – Katelynn Buescher (Shaina Dudas) 4:28
2nd Half
Naperville Central – Emma Irle (Abbey Hillman) 34:39
Naperville North – Megan Benmore (Dudas) 31:34
Naperville Central – Hannah Bradley-Leon (Hillman) 14:48
Naperville North – Dudas (Benmore) 3:48
Naperville C. rallies 3 times but Dudas’ late goal wins it for North
By Matt Le Cren
NAPERVILLE – Naperville North senior Shaina Dudas has played in a lot of games against crosstown rival Naperville Central over her four-year career.
None have been as dramatic as Tuesday’s key DuPage Valley Conference match.
In fact, it’s safe to say that no one has witnessed a crosstown classic quite like this one.
Dudas had two assists and the game-winning goal with 3:48 remaining in regulation to lead the host Huskies to a wild 4-3 victory that kept them firmly in the hunt for the DVC title.
Click here to see updated DuPage Valley Conference standings
The game was expected to be another physical, defensive-minded struggle that has characterized the rivalry. It was anything but.
“As I shook hands with (Naperville Central coach) Ed (Watson) at midfield I said, ‘If anybody bet in Vegas on seven goals (being scored) in North vs. Central, they would have won a lot of money tonight,’” Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said. “You throw the records out when we meet.
“The wind tonight changed the game, not only when you had it but also when you were going into it, because you got weird bounces and balls that hang up.”
Indeed, there were a lot of weird occurrences. Naperville Central rarely scores three goals and loses and Naperville North rarely gives up three goals and wins.
Yet that is exactly what happened. The visiting Redhawks (7-10-0, 1-4-0) are in the midst of one of their toughest seasons in recent memory, plagued by injuries and missing senior leader Sarah Avery. But they rallied three times to tie it.
But the Huskies, ranked third in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, withstood each blow, which included a penalty kick, a 35-yard shot off the underside of the crossbar and a brilliant strike from Naperville Central sophomore Hannah Bradley-Leon, to move into sole possession of first place in the DVC with 15 points.
Dudas, the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, got the last lick in when she got in behind the defense on the left side of the box and ripped a 15-yad shot inside the far post to give the Huskies the lead for good.
“Shaina Dudas tonight was outstanding,” Goletz said. “That’s what we know she’s got in her, and we all expect from a four-year starter and a senior captain. This was just a fantastic performance by her.”
Dudas, an Illinois State signee who now has six goals and nine assists, has been heating up of late. She scored the game-winner in Naperville North’s last two wins.
Yet she dished off some of the credit for the decisive strike.
“That was Megan Benmore,” Dudas said. “We’ve really been working on connecting up-top, and the fact that she was able to hold the ball and run across was really key.
“We’ve been working on that a lot in practice, so that was a really good team goal, not just because we won but because that’s what we’ve been wanting to do.”
Fellow senior co-captain Katelynn Buescher, who also played a starring role in the win, got excited as she saw the play develop just as everyone thought the game was going to overtime.
“I thought that, too, and I did not want that to happen,” Buescher said. “When (Dudas) was running on the side I saw her and I was like, 'Meg, play Shaina.’
“Then Shaina got it and in my head I was like, ‘Please, Shaina, finish it. You got this.’ As soon as I saw it hit the inside (of the net), it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, and I was so grateful. It was so amazing to see that ball go in the net.”
Everyone was amazed to see so many balls go into the net. The Huskies scored on their first and last shots of the match, as did the Redhawks, who converted three of their four shots.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was seeing the offensively-challenged Redhawks come from behind three times. The last came when Bradley-Leon received a ball in traffic on the left side of the box, turned and rolled a perfectly placed shot inside the right post to tie it at 3-3 with 14:48 remaining.
“Abbey Hillman sent the ball in on the ground,” Bradley-Leon said. “It went behind a defender and then I took a touch, and I put it in the bottom far corner.
“It wasn’t so much power. I was trying to place it where the goalie couldn’t get it.”
That’s hard to do against Naperville North goalie Maddie Hausmann, but the Redhawks did it twice more.
The second time came when freshman Emma Irle blasted a 35-yard shot top shelf to tie the game at 2-2 at the 34:39 mark of the second half. Hausmann leaped and got her hand on the shot, but the ball glanced off the underside of the crossbar and hit the top netting.
But the game didn’t stay tied for long.
Just three minutes later, the speedy Dudas turned the left corner and sent a cross in tight toward Benmore, who was wrestling with a defender. The ball went off the defender and into the goal for a 3-2 North lead.
“I got around the girl, and I knew people were somewhere in the box, so I just tried to get it to someone,” Dudas said. “I kicked it really hard on the ground, and it just happened to go off the girl’s foot, but a goal is a goal.”
A curious thing happened after Bradley-Leon scored her game-tying goal. Both sides’ intensity went up, but North sustained it for longer.
“It certainly got us a lot of momentum, made us more intense,” Bradley-Leon said. “Then the fourth goal happened and we kind of dropped. It was a hard battle going back and forth.”
When the game was deadlocked at 3-3, Naperville North needed to have a short memory.
“We knew that we had made a mistake, so there was nothing that we could do about the past,” Dudas said. “We wanted to get it back, not just because it was (against) Naperville Central, but for us to get the DVC we knew we had to win.
“So I think it brought some extra fire out of us.”
There was plenty of fire coming from both squads. Naperville North's Leah Shumate opened the scoring at the 31:50 mark of the first half when she snuck an 18-yard shot in between Redhawks goalie Erin McHugh and the right post.
McHugh, a senior, then made three of her four saves over the next 15 minutes to keep the visitors close.
A hand ball call in the box gave the Redhawks a penalty kick, which Maddie Redeker converted in the 28th minute.
The Huskies regained the lead at the 4:28 mark on another great play. Dudas passed to Buescher, who used a cutback move to get free in the box before launching a 15-yard rocket off the diving McHugh for her team-leading 11th goal of the season.
“Our girls battled tonight,” Watson said. “That was the no. 1 priority, that we were going to come out and compete, and I thought we played pretty well.
“It was just every time the ball dropped in an area where they could score, they did. When they found opportunities, they buried them.”
So the Redhawks missed a golden opportunity to pull an upset.
“You can’t give up four goals and expect to win the ballgame,” Watson said. “I think the wind played a big role in the game.
“We get the goal to tie it (at 1) and then we can’t hold on. If it’s 1-1 at halftime you’ve got to feel pretty good.”
Despite the loss, the Redhawks do have things to feel good about and not just because of their production. Freshman midfielder Sullivan Schubel, who was called up to varsity two weeks ago, made her first start and nearly scored.
With the game tied at 1-1, Schubel got loose in the right side of the box and lofted a 15-yard shot that sailed over the head of Hausmann, who raced back across the crease and tipped the ball into the left post.
Hausmann then punched the ball out of danger just before she was knocked over by a charging forward.
“(Schubel) played a nice game tonight,” Watson said. “Imagine starting your first varsity game as a freshman, and it’s against Naperville North.
“And she didn’t know she was starting until she’s standing in line for the national anthem, because I didn’t want her to freak out before the game. She played very well.”
So did the Redhawks, but Naperville North played a little better.
“I was very happy with the response of the girls because talk about a range of emotions tonight; playing Central, knowing that you’ve got to win to stay in the DVC race,” Goletz said. “We gave up the lead three times. Obviously, that’s not a great thing but a fantastic thing for the group to get a win in regulation.”
And a memorable evening for those who witnessed it.
“Coming out here for the crosstown classic, DVC (on the line), we’re tied for first,” Buescher said. “We had to win, and they knew that all they had to do was beat us by one and then we’re out of the running for DVC.
“Everybody knows each other from the different teams, so that adds another layer, and we’re on our home field and we’re playing for our coaches and our teammates in our senior year.
"It was just a great night.”
Starting lineups
Naperville Central
GK Erin McHugh
D Emma Irle
D Sarah Scoles
D Abbie Hillman
D Caroline Giannone
M Jessica Sonner
M Maddie Mills
M Hannah Bradley-Leon
M Sullivan Schubel
F Maddie Redeker
F Caroline Reedy
Naperville North
GK Maddie Hausmann
D Paige Sylvester
D Reilly Riggs
D Jessica Siebers
D Sarah Stokes
M Alyssa Siebers
M Katelynn Buescher
M Leah Shumate
F Hannah Martin
F Megan Benmore
F Shaina Dudas
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Game – Shaina Dudas, sr., F, Naperville North
Scoring summary
1st Half
Naperville North – Leah Shumate (unassisted) 31:50
Naperville Central – Maddie Redeker (PK) 12:00
Naperville North – Katelynn Buescher (Shaina Dudas) 4:28
2nd Half
Naperville Central – Emma Irle (Abbey Hillman) 34:39
Naperville North – Megan Benmore (Dudas) 31:34
Naperville Central – Hannah Bradley-Leon (Hillman) 14:48
Naperville North – Dudas (Benmore) 3:48