Redhawks hold on to edge Vikings

By Curt Herron

When you're playing in the Best of the West tournament, you'll take any sort of victory that comes your way.

That's how Naperville Central coach Jay Konrad felt after his squad eked out a win in its tournament opener against Fremd on Tuesday.

The Redhawks got a goal from Chris Prince in the final minute of the first half and made that stand as they claimed a 1-0 victory over the Vikings in Aurora.

"We were absolutely awful in the second half," Konrad said. "We connected on maybe four passes, made a lot of fouls and gave them 15 or 20 throw-ins deep and you can't do that.

"We did so many things poorly and part of that was a credit to Fremd since it played much better in the second half. But we also lost our mental discipline in that half.

"There were a lot of really bad things and it was a tough 40 minutes to watch. But the bright side is that even though we didn't play well, we found a way to get a win."

Fremd (2-2) had more opportunities after the break than did Central (4-0) but coach Steve Keller's squad wasn't able to finish on its chances.

They had a variety of free kicks and corner kicks down the stretch but few led to good chances as the Redhawks secured their third straight shutout.

So after equaling last year's victory total with triumphs in their first two matches, the Vikings have now dropped back-to-back 1-0 defeats.

"I was pleased with our second half effort," Keller said. "But it just seems like it's a mental block for us because these kids still need to learn how to win.

"I think we're a little bit afraid right now to take some risks like you need to get wins. A lot of these guys were with us last year when we were a very young team.

"We had our opportunities and we created plenty of corners. We just have to get something out of them. And we had the one mental mistake and that was the game."

In a first half that didn't feature very many good scoring opportunities, Central had the upper hand and capitalized on a late break for the game-winner.

After A.J. Seaman sent a corner that was deflected by Viking keeper Eric Ciura about 11 minutes into the match, neither team seriously threatened for awhile.

One of Fremd's few first half chances came with about 15 minutes left in the half when Mike Heika sent a long free kick to Redhawks keeper Cam Thulin.

Central followed up on that with a few good chances of its own in the next eight minutes, beginning when David Ilavsky got free and was stopped on a short shot.

Right after that, Andy Miltonberger put a shot on goal and a few minutes later Ciura corralled a header attempt by Jimmy Altosino.

It looked like the match would remain scoreless at the midpoint but the University of Wisconsin-bound Prince had other ideas.

With 37 seconds remaining in the first half, Prince capitalized on a defensive breakdown and fired in a shot that found the lower corner of the net.

Altosino set the score up when he put pressure on the ball, forced a steal and then sent a pass to Prince, who has now scored in each of his team's matches.

The Redhawks kept on the pressure at the start of the new half as Prince got off another shot and Altosino had another header try deflected away.

Fremd put together its first good scoring threat of the second half with about 27 minutes to go, which was started on a corner kick by Ryan Kreis.

After the loose ball bounced around in front of the net for a time, Lorenzo Savino got a touch on it before the ball was cleared by a Redhawk defender.

A few minutes later, Central collected its last good scoring threat until the final minutes when John Franzese got off a short try that was deflected.

The Vikings possessed the upper hand during the final 20 minutes of the match, even though they didn't necessarily have a whole lot to show for it.

Spencer Filosa and Heika both set up numerous chances on corner kicks and free kicks but the Vikings couldn't put much together to threaten the net.

Perhaps the best opportunity came with about 10 minutes left as Filosa sent in a corner that was halted by Thulin, who recorded his third shutout.

Helping the Redhawks keeper by cleaning things up in front of the net were defenders Colin Rook, Peter Beasley, Chris Bedell and Connor Cunningham.

"There were some positives today," Konrad said. "We're looking to move forward in the tournament and Chris Prince has now scored for us in four games in a row.

"We're a young team so there's going to be days like this. It's great to get a win in this tournament so I'm happy about that but we have a lot of growing to do."

Starting lineups

Naperville Central Redhawks

Fremd Vikings