Belleville West, Naperville Central battle to scoreless tie

As baseball great Yogi Berra would have said “It was like deja-vu all over again” on Friday at Belleville West Stadium.

With a cold rain falling for much of the night, the Belleville West Maroons had a pair of scoring chances come up short in the final 10 minutes and settled for a scoreless tie with perennial suburban power Naperville Central in its opening game of the 2016 girls soccer season.

Traveling to Belleville for the second year in a row to battle the Maroons, the Redhawks looked like a team that had already played two games as it had the better of the scoring chances in the first half. A shot by Caitlin Reice off a dead ball just missed the cross bar and junior midfielder Maggie Hillman also had a scoring chance come up short.

But after getting of the normal opening-game nerves, the Maroons looked like a different team in the second half. Only a good play by the Redhawks defense with 10 minutes left and the left goal post which prevented a shot by West senior midfielder Amelia Coyne’ from going in with just over five minutes created a second straight scoreless tie between the two schools.

“We were a little nervous early with this being our first game. But for the most part, I thought we had the better of play and had the better of the scoring opportunities,’’ Maroons coach Jason Mathenia said. “It would have been nice to have been able to score on one of those chances late in the game. But (Naperville) Central is a high quality program from an area where excellent soccer is played.

“I just told the staff that all of the hard work we have done since January and all the time we’ve put in the last two weeks paid off tonight. It was a good effort.’’

A long trip for a tie

Naperville Central, making its second “southern trip,” will take on Granite City at Belleville West on Saturday before returning home. With Reice having the best scoring chance, and junior goal keeper Kinzly Dressler active in the net, the Redhawks were able to provide the Maroons and a large group of fans, which weathered the contest with umbrellas, with 40 minutes of high level soccer.

But no goals.

“I thought it was only supposed to by rainy and cold in the Chicago area this time of year. It’s supposed to be warm in Southern Illinois,’’ a smiling Redhawks coach Ed Watson said. “But in all fairness, the weather was beautiful when we came down last year.

“Belleville West has a nice team and they played well today. This is a great facility and we appreciate them letting us play Granite City here tomorrow (Saturday). Riding in a bus for 4  1/2 hours and then playing a game... that’s difficult to do. We played pretty well.’’

Up next

Naperville Central will take on Granite City at Belleville West on Saturday. Belleville West will host Carbondale on Monday at 6:30 p.m.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Belleville West, Naperville Central battle to scoreless tie."