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Girls soccer: Senese's second-overtime goal gives Neuqua Valley win against Waubonsie Valley

Leah Senese has seen Neuqua Valley teammate Alison Dovalovsky play soccer enough to know Dovalovsky has a hard shot. And on a cold day like Tuesday, hard shots on goal often produce rebounds.

When Dovalovsky's shot in the second overtime against Waubonsie Valley produced a rebound, Senese was ready.

"I was just there for the rebound," Senese said. "I was just waiting for it to pop back out because there was a lot of us there in the box."

Senese's goal in the 94th minute brought the DuPage Valley Conference game to an end in a 2-1 Neuqua Valley victory.

"It was a great run by (Dovalovsky) to cross," said Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau. "The keeper (Sarah Young) makes a nice save. We talked about getting in position to finish, and Leah was in for a rebound. That's the kind of stuff we talked about. It was a nice play all around, offensively and defensively, and all of a sudden we put in a little scrapper."

It's not the first time Senese has scored the game-winner in DVC play this season. She did it against Metea Valley also.

"It was very exciting. Because of the work of my team I was able to put it away," she said.

The Wildcats (3-3, 2-0) had to be patient. They outpossessed the Warriors throughout the game, which could be seen in the stats.

Neuqua Valley took 15 shots to Waubonsie Valley's 5. Corner kicks were 8-0.

"For the most part we possessed the ball very well," Moreau said. "Finally got in behind the back line a little bit. Those are things we talked about. We've got to get in behind the back line. I thought Waubonsie did a great job of defending against us in the final third of the field especially. It's a good team. They have some individuals that are really pretty strong."

Waubonsie Valley (5-1-2, 2-1-0) scored first, just a minute after a Neuqua Valley goal was disallowed for offside. Grace Setter scored from about 4 yards out off a Kennedy Metzger assist.

"It was a cross in from Kennedy and I was playing center mid, so I ran in and at the front post I kind of just tapped it in with the outside of my foot, like redirecting it into the goal," Setter said.

The Waubonsie Valley defense frustrated Neuqua Valley until the 69th minute. That's when Dovalovsky took advantage of a Warriors turnover and scored from 22 yards out.

"We were feeling pretty confident," Setter said. "I think ultimately it was just a couple of mistakes and just overall playing for that long, just our bodies kind of slowing down and not holding up as well as we would've liked."

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