Girls soccer: Naperville North gets past Metea Valley

There were no goals scored in the first half, yet the Naperville North girls soccer coaches sensed that sophomore Katelynn Buescher was ready to deliver something special.

The Huskies midfielder proved her coaches right when her 30-yard blast broke the scoreless draw with 23:11 left in the second half and proved to be the game-winner. Naperville North knocked off host Metea Valley 2-0 in the Class 3A sectional championship game in Aurora.

Buescher, who plans to play at the University of Illinois in a couple years, had some solid chances in the first half on Friday only to be turned away by Mustangs goalkeeper Amy Ahern, who made 14 saves while doing her best to keep the hosts in the contest.

But the second half was dominated by the top-seeded Huskies, who advance to Tuesday's supersectional against ether Hinsdale Central or Glenbard East, who will play Saturday morning. Buescher opened the scoring with her third goal of the season. Alexis Dandridge sealed the sectional crown for the Huskies with a goal that made the score 2-0 with 10:02 left to play, before a 35-minute weather delay.

"We got two good goals," Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said after his team improved to 21-1-1 on the year. "Katleynn Buescher today was by far, I think, the best player on the field. And that says something for a sophomore. Her jump from freshman to sophomore year this year has been … I've never seen anything like it.

"She's been so important to us. Tonight it was so fitting that she got that goal because she really was the one that made us go tonight."

The Huskies midfielder said the coaches told the players at the half to just keep shooting. In the first half Naperville North had 4 shots on goal compared to 2 for the Mustangs. After halftime it was a 12-0 advantage for the Huskies in shots on goal.

"His halftime talks are always the best," she said of Goletz. "He really got us fired up. He told us that we needed to keep our heads up and that we had the game. That we just needed to keep pushing. Get as many shots on goal as we could because one of them was bound to go in."

It was Goletz and an assistant coach who told Buescher at the break that she was going to be rewarded if she kept on attacking.

"It was one of those things, we kept telling her at halftime, one of the things that Jim Konrad, my assistant, said, 'Just keep shooting. I know you're going to get one,' " Goletz said. "She had a couple (chances) in the first half that (Ahern) made great saves on."

Ahern was not the only Mustang on top of her game. Goletz said Metea's first-half team effort was top notch.

"That's an awesome team," he said of the 12-9-4 Mustangs, who dropped their third straight sectional final match. "I thought the first half they were about as good as anyone we played all year. They moved the ball on us and they had us on the ropes."

Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley had hoped for a quick strike, but when it didn't happen the Huskies picked up their game in the second half and played like the top-ranked team in the state.

"We put the ball off the crossbar, and I told one of the coaches, I think we're going to get an early one and put some pressure on them," Whaley said. "It just didn't quite happen. Yeah, it was definitely a turn of events in the second half … we couldn't get out of our end and that's a testament to them and their high pressure."