Hope D’Addario scored a goal and added an assist to her star teammate Gianna Dal Pozzo as No. 7 Neuqua Valley cruised past No. 9 Hinsdale Central 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the Naperville Invite Thursday night at Naperville Central.
The Wildcats (10-2-1) advance to meet defending Class 3A state champion and top-ranked Naperville North in the second semifinal on Friday. Neuqua Valley lost all three meetings last season, including a sectional semifinal, against the Huskies.
“We’re excited about it,” D’Addario said.
Her goal in the 36th minute pushed the Wildcats to a 1-0 lead at the break.
“Talise [Romain] played a great ball, and I knew all I had to do was get a body part on the ball because of my momentum and running forward, and ironically, it hit off my thigh, but that’s all it needed,” D’Addario said.
Keefer’s save two minutes later preserved the crucial momentum.
“Courtney made a great save, and it just got everybody going,” she said. In the 63rd minute, D’Addario broke down the right wing and made a beautiful left-footed through ball that Dal Pozzo smashed into the right corner for the 2-0 advantage.
“At first I thought Hope was going to take it and I was just going to go in for the rebound, but then I yelled to her to ‘Play it,’ and she made a great pass,” Dal Pozzo said.
The Wildcats wore the Red Devils (8-2-2) out with their relentless pressure and dissected a defense that had been stellar. The four goals Neuqua Valley scored equalled the number of goals the Red Devils had surrendered coming into the game.
“We did some little things wrong out there and they did a good job of exploiting them,” Smith said.
Junior forward Sabrina Georgeff punched in a short ball off a beautiful drive and cross from sophomore forward Kiley Czerwinski. Senior forward Shannon Donlan turned the game into a rout by scoring in the 76th minute.
