Offensive woes slowed Benet down the stretch

By Curt Herron

Henry Wind liked a lot of the qualities that this season's Benet squad possessed.

But one thing that the veteran Redwings boss was concerned about was his team's lack of offensive productivity.

Unfortunately for Wind and his group, that point was driven home during the late part of the season.

The Redwings closed regular season play with three straight losses, struggling to score goals in each match.

After getting blanked by Wheaton Academy and Saint Viator, Benet scored one goal against Lyons Township.

Postseason play opened on a high note following a 6-0 triumph over East Aurora on Tuesday.

But in Friday's Class 3A Bolingbrook Regional finals, the Redwings dropped a 1-0 decision to Wheaton Warrenville South.

Benet only had a few scoring opportunities in the first half when it had the wind and did even less in the final 40 minutes.

WW South scored a goal early in the second half and made that stand to advance it to Wednesday's Naperville North Sectional.

The defeat prevents the Redwings from advancing to sectional play for the second straight season.

"We didn't move the ball as well as I wanted us to," Wind said. "It was so hard with the wind so you had to keep the ball on the ground and run off of it and they did a better job of that than we did.

"The kids just tried to take it upon themselves but they did too much individual stuff and you have to play as a team. We didn't do the things we needed to to get the ball into the attacking third.

"That was disappointing, but I'm not disappointed in the kids' effort since I thought they gave everything they had but we just didn't play very smart. We would have done better if we had played smarter."

Benet finished the season with an 11-8-2 mark, which was hampered by the squad's 1-4 finish.

The Redwings were shut out four times, with three of those coming in their final five matches.

In addition, Benet scored just one goal six other times, giving it 10 of 21 matches where it scored no more than one goal.

Wind loses 11 seniors to graduation, including six players who started in Saturday's regional finals.

That group includes Matt Stopka, Alex Senetar, Connor Miller, George Elliott, Matt Dickey and John Bagnuolo.

Players who started and will be back are Ryan Reilly, Sean O'Hara, Sean Mogan, Hunter Miller and Joe Mahoney.

"We had a great group of seniors, one of the better groups we've had," Wind said. "Connor and George both did a nice job today. But we put Ryan into trouble and how he escaped that was incredible."

Redwings Schedule

Postseason play