Kingsley comes through for Neuqua Valley

Schylar Kingsley had been looking forward to playing in a cross-town rivalry game.

The Neuqua Valley junior finally got that opportunity during Tuesday's DuPage Valley Conference girls soccer match at Waubonsie Valley and made the most of it as the Wildcats beat the host Warriors 2-1.

"It was awesome to play in this kind of game and to get a win against them," Kingsley said. "I looked into the crowd at one point and realized how cool this was with so many people here for just a girls soccer game."

This wasn't just a girls soccer game, though, but one of the better matchups that is on the schedule every spring, something that Kingsley realized as the match wore on.

"This is a pretty big win for us against a good team," she said. "I was just able to get it past the goalie and for me, that was pretty big since it got the crowd going and it was just my second high school goal. I just told my teammates let's keep it going and get another one."

Kingsley scored in the first 10 minutes to give the Wildcats an early lead.

Neuqua Valley (3-2-2, 2-0-0) extended its lead with 35:07 left in the second half after Kinglsey and Haley Singer teamed up to send a pass to Alyssa Bombacino, who finished to make it 2-0.

"Sky (Kingsley) cut in and made a nice run and I just took a shot and that was it," Bombacino said. "It was nice. We needed that extra goal. We're happy with where we're at now. We're a really good team and it's jut been tough at the beginning learning to play together and having a tough schedule, but we think we're getting ready for the rest of the season."

Waubonsie Valley (5-3-0, 2-1-0) sliced its deficit in half with just under 11 minutes remaining to make thing interesting. Sarah Griffith deposited a penalty kick with 10:46 remaining to make it 2-1.

"I just tried to be confident with it and not hit it as hard as I can but to just place it," she said. "It gave us a lot of momentum and I think we worked our hardest after that goal. We did amazing but we had some injuries in the last couple minutes but we worked out butts off."

The Warriors didn't create many scoring opportunities and a lot of that was due to this strong defensive effort by the Wildcats.

"Erin Sweda doesn't get much recognition as a holding mid and I thought she did a great job," Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. "She's got one of those jobs where no one notices you unless you're not doing a good job and she was very solid for us."