Redhawks settle for tie on record day for Garza, Prince

By Eddie Burns

On a night where Naperville Central should have been celebrating some milestones, the Redhawks were left pondering several questions.

Naperville Central travelled to Plainfield Central and came away with a 1-1 decision on Monday afternoon.

"If you don't finish, you don't win," Redhawks coach Jay Konrad said. "That is how this game works."

Central midfielder Colin Rook felt the Redhawks had done enough for the win but they didn't find the back of the net when it counted.

"We definitely felt we should have won," Rook said. "To score a goal midway through the first half was definitely a boost and we kept having chances, but we missed some quality chances to score and that was frustrating."

The Redhawks (11-3-2) came out strong and took the attack to the Wildcats (12-4-2). Their efforts paid off in the 11th minute when Art Garza set up Chris Prince for his 20th goal of the season.

Garza's assist tied him for first all-time in the program in career assists with Matt D'Ercola, who graduated in 2000.

Prince's goal also allowed him to become the program's all-time points leader with 84, passing Kevin Bigart's 83 points.

"That is really neat that Art helped set up Chris' goal and they both were for a record," Konrad said. "But outside of that, there were very few positive things to take away from the match."

A few minutes after giving the Redhawks the lead, Prince was sent to the bench after receiving a yellow card.

Prince's absence was glaring and it allowed the Wildcats to turn the field of play in their favor.

Plainfield Central pulled even with 11 seconds remaining in the first half when Logan Spidle sent a restart into the Redhawks' penalty area where Tyler Gill collected the ball and shot it past goalie Andrew Erickson.

"We gave up a lot of dumb restarts and dumb fouls and they ended up scoring a goal off of that," Konrad said.

Redhawks freshman midfielder Connor Allen almost got the lead right back, but his shot with one second left hit the goal post.

The second half featured a number of quality chances for Prince and the rest of the Redhawks, but their shots went wide or were stopped by Wildcats goalie Giovanni DeLira and other members of the Plainfield Central defense.

"I thought our defense was fairly well organized," Wildcats coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "I thought we were much quicker to the ball. I thought we moved it nicely at times.

"We have a tendency to play better as the game goes along, which is nice because you finish fast, but that doesn't help you in the first 20 minutes and we saw that today because that is when they scored."

Konrad also expressed his displeasure in the Redhawks' ability to remain consistent. Konrad said he is tinkering with his lineup way too much at his juncture of the season and that includes in goal where he played both goalies for a half.

Erickson was in net during the first half and Cam Thulin was in goal during the second half.

"The unfortunate thing about us is that we are where we are at in the season and we have two games left and we have not solidified a starting lineup and we have not solidified our rotation," Konrad said.

"We are desperately trying to find people who will fill holes for us and nobody wants to step up and be the guy with their actions on the field. That has been a frustrating piece. We are close, but we're still trying to get over the hump."

Rook said it's a matter of the players not being familiar with each other. The Redhawks did add several new players midway through the season.

"The new guys have been great, but I don't think they are used to playing with the quality of player that Chris and Art are," Rook said.

"I think that they might be making that run or be expecting that pass to make it to them and get caught off guard and that has made things difficult at times, but they've been progressing throughout the season."

The Redhawks are off until an October 13 date at Wheaton Warrenville South and Konrad hopes to use that time to fill some of the holes.

"We have lots of time to work on things and that works out good because we have a lot to work on," Konrad said "We have not reached our maximum potential. We're not there yet. We know there are players who have not turned the corner for us yet.

"We have players who have not recognized their roles yet and they are trying to do too much or they don't try to do enough. We'll have a couple of good, hard practices and we'll see what happens."

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