Girls soccer: WW South takes step past Metea Valley in DVC
Wheaton Warrenville South and Metea Valley played Tuesday night as if their place in the DuPage Valley Conference girls soccer standings was on the line.
Which, of course, it was.
The Tigers (12-4, 4-1) remained in the DVC race after a 2-1 victory in Wheaton thanks to a pair of Paige Miller goals. Neuqua Valley and Naperville North also have just one DVC loss.
"We still have some tough games ahead of us, but we're pretty excited," Tigers goalkeeper Abbie Brennan said. "This is huge."
"Conference game, and we wanted to win conference," Mustangs coach Chris Whaley added. "They came on our field last time (in the Pepsi Showdown) and got one on us. We just wanted to obviously come here and get one on them."
Miller opened the scoring in the 51st minute. Collecting the ball around midfield, Miller started on a 30-yard run down the middle of the field, winding her way through a pair of defenders before scoring from 20 yards out.
"It was actually kind of challenging because I didn't know which way to go with it," Miller said. "When one defender was coming across right I made an impulsive decision to cut right into her but I got lucky that it got just barely past her and I was able to get around her. That one was a tough one and I was a little nervous."
The Mustangs (10-6-1, 3-2) evened the game with exactly 10 minutes left when Nicole Dawson's 32-yard free kick from near the left sideline found net, her first goal of the season.
The Tigers avoided overtime when Miller scored again in the 78th minute, putting her head to Allie Anderson's free kick from about the same spot but on the other side of the field as Dawson scored for the Mustangs. It was Miller's 13th goal of the season.
"Allie placed it perfectly and I just had to take a step back and drive into it," Miller said.
An apparent Mustangs goal in the 76th minute was disallowed for a foul.
The Tigers outshot the Mustangs 15-6 for the game, a function of their willingness to shoot from distance, especially with a strong wind at their backs in the first half.
"I was concerned about that layer in front of our defense, with the wind at their back, that they would go to goal more often, but they didn't," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "They tried to find that seam, they tried to find that last pass. We were able to close that out most of the day."