Waubonsie Valley wings its way past Fremd

Fremd's girls soccer team found out the hard way why you shouldn't let Waubonsie Valley play freely on the wings.

The Warriors handed the Vikings a 3-1 defeat in the Naperville Invitational at Naperville North on Thursday, generating all their goals from wide play.

"I think we came out really hard from the start, which helped," said Waubonsie Valley senior Sarah Laws. "We just focused on getting shots off and finishing, and I think we were able to connect and do that really well. We really focused on getting wide and I think what helped us the most was to start wide and build the run in to get through and get the shots off."

Laws on the right wing and sophomore Maggie Roe on the left seemed to have as much time as they needed on the flanks and could have helped put the Warriors (7-1-3) up early had it not been for the heroics of Fremd sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Stone.

In the first 10 minutes Stone had three really good saves to keep the game scoreless. She ended up with 15 in the entire match for Fremd (5-5-1), with about six extremely acrobatic stops.

"She was phenomenal," said Fremd coach Steve Keller. "Obviously in the beginning kept us in the game. Made some spectacular saves, and she's a good goalie."

About 20 minutes into the first half a nice long ball from midfielder Morgan Kemerling sprung Laws on the wing and the senior took her touch in stride and buried her shot to break the deadlock for Waubonsie.

Just four minutes later, Fremd's best attacking play of the match helped tie the game.

Senior midfielder Katie Zara did some great work in the corner to beat her defender and put in a low hard cross to find Katie Muraukis, who fought for position and poked the ball into the net.

With less than eight minutes to go, Laws got on the ball again on the wing and sent in a low cross that ended up in an easy tap in for junior forward Paige Filipek to put the Warriors up 2-1.

Filipek added her second goal just two minutes into the start of the second half.

Again from the wing, Roe found an onrushing Filipek, and though she had some work to do after Fremd's Stone poked the ball loose, Filipek buried her shot in the corner for a 3-1 lead, which Waubonsie Valley held onto comfortably.