Malia Shen has great concentration.

The Naperville Central senior caught a pair of touchdown passes that deflected off the hands of Glenbard West defenders on Wednesday night and the Redhawks shut out the Hilltoppers 25-0 to win the Naperville Central regional championship.

Naperville Central (16-3) advances to Monday’s South Elgin sectional semifinal against Willowbrook.

“(Quarterback) Lyla (Hope) picks out who’s open and does a really good job with that,” Shen said. “When it got deflected I just had to think for a split second and then just tried my best to just react as fast as I could.”

Hope’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Shen on the first play of the second quarter proved to be the only scoring the Redhawks would need.

“The defense locked down,” Redhawks coach Caroline Schwartz said. “We had a good game plan. We’d seen them because they were here (on Tuesday) and we made a bunch of adjustments and it proved to work out in our favor.”

Glenbard West (17-2) was piecing together a nice drive just after Naperville Central scored, but it stalled when Bella Eaves intercepted a Shelby Bobroff pass.

The Redhawks capitalized on the turnover, taking a 13-0 lead with 3:09 remaining in the first half on Hope’s 2-yard pass to Mena Bartolucci.

“As you could see, the offense struggled tonight,” Hilltoppers coach Stephanie Brezwyn said. “We had a good night (a 20-7 win over Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday) but we struggled to get things clicking and moving, and they’re a very good team. Have to give them that. They have a lot of speed, a lot of general athleticism. Things didn’t go our way and unfortunately you have those nights and tonight was not our night.”

But what a fantastic season it was for the Hilltoppers.

“I think as a program we did a nice job of evolving and changing and growing with it this season,” Brezwyn said. “I just hope to keep doing that and keep building our program and getting better every year.”

A deflected pass from Hope that Shen hauled in and turned into a 31-yard score with 8:53 remaining in the game made it 19-0.

“Malia is just so amazing,” Hope said. “Her hands are so good and she’s so fast. She literally can do anything and she just saves me from some worries and stress.”

The Redhawks put the game away after an interception from Nicole Smith and a 1-yard touchdown run from Hope just two minutes later.

“Credit to coach because she did a lot of scouting beforehand so we definitely knew kind of how they played,” Smith said. “It feels good. We’re excited for what comes next. The girls are just great, the coaches are great. We just all work really well together.”