By Bobby Narang
The Ed Watson Naperville Invitational lived up to the hype this season.
The invite featured some of the top high school girls soccer teams in Chicagoland, concluding with Barrington and Naperville Central meeting in the championship game May 4.
Oddly, the two teams were unable to determine a single champion due to a lighting delay at halftime of the scoreless game, which led to the game being called off. The host Naperville Central Redhawks (13-0-1) remained unbeaten, while Barrington (12-2-1) as the two teams were named co-champions.
It marked just the second time since the tourney kicked off in 1998 that co-champions were named. Overall, Naperville Central claimed its fifth title and Barrington notched its fourth.
“I thought we had some quality chances we just didn’t put in, and they’re a good defense,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “You’re not going to get a ton of them, so as I said to (the Redhawks).
“We can’t control the weather. And here’s the thing, there’s nothing that says a state tournament game won’t have something like this happen, where we have to take a little bit of an extended break and then come back refocused.”
In total, the invite had 24 teams and eight pools. Waubonsie Valley had a strong showing in the tournament, but lost 3-2 to Libertyville in a quarterfinal last Thursday in Aurora.
Before Thursday, the Wildcats had surrendered just six goals, highlighted by allowing just one to top-ranked New Trier in a 100-minute battle. But Waubonsie Valley scored two goals in the defeat to nearly pull of a quality win.
“I thought it was a tough game,” Waubonsie Valley coach Julie Bergstrom said. “I thought our team played well and adjusted and the players did what we asked. They got the goal and we didn’t. I thought our team did well with the adjustments, and they did well.”