Girls soccer: Naperville Central edges Metea Valley in regional final
With less than 10 minutes remaining in Saturday’s Class 3A regional championship match against Metea Valley and her team up 2-1, Naperville Central’s Rebecca Ruggerio had a decision to make as she maneuvered the ball up field.
Pass it off or take a shot on goal.
Keeping the ball, the junior scored what ended up being the decisive goal in the Redhawks’ 3-2 win.
The victory earned Naperville Central (10-5-1) a berth in the Plainfield North sectional. The Redhawks, seeded seventh, will face crosstown rival and third-seed Naperville North (14-5-4) in the second sectional semifinal Tuesday. In their previous meeting on May 2, it ended in a 0-0 time.
Metea Valley, seeded second in the sectional, finished the season with a 14-4-1 record.
Ruggerio’s decision paid off in the waning minutes of the match.
At the 1:34 mark, Metea Valley’s Lilly Senese converted a 30-yard free kick for the Mustangs’ second goal.
“After Emma (Russell) passed me the ball, I started dribbling. I heard a lot of people say pass it to Bella (Brozek) out wide and I was thinking about it,” Ruggerio said. “Then I saw an open seam. I just took the defending player on, and then I took the shot.”
Ruggerio buried the 30-yard shot into the left corner of the net.
Both the offense and defense contributed to Naperville Central’s win.
“All of our goals were on quick combinations, the ability to find the open player and being selfless,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “The back was disciplined. (Metea Valley) had chances, but a lot of times they didn't come from run of play. I thought that we did a very good job of controlling and containing probably five of the best attackers that you're going to see in a given year.”
“I think definitely being more aggressive in the air was working for us,” said Redhawks defender Eleanor Kane. “Three (Senese) is one of their best goal scorers and she's really good in the air so she was a challenge to defend.”
“They make it hard for you all over the field. We tried to play our game and at times I thought we did, and looked pretty good,” Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley said. “We created plenty of chances, just didn't quite finish them.”
Brozek scored Naperville Central’s other two goals. The first strike was in the third minute of the match on a shot from the left corner of the penalty box.
The Redhawks’ 1-0 lead held until the start of the second half. In the 42nd minute, Metea’s Cydnie Bayless corralled a Lucy Burk cross just outside the right post and redirected the ball into the back of the net.
Brozek broke the tie in the 69th minute. The junior took possession of a loose ball inside the box, and her shot bounced off the left post into the net.
Although the lower seed, Adams did not consider the win an upset.
“We would not. I think everybody else in the state would. We dropped a couple of one-goal games that I thought we played well,” the Redhawks coach said. “We just didn't get the result we wanted and that dropped us in the seeding. I didn't think we were that low, but. OK. It is a sectional where it goes 10 deep.”