Waubonsie Valley 2, New Trier 0

Having just tried, unsuccessfully, to defend against Waubonsie Valley's exceptionally creative attack, New Trier girls soccer coach Jim Burnside tried to explain it.

"It's creative, and it's," he said, pausing to consider the question, "they know each other so well. They're one step ahead, and you're always reacting. They're always, always moving off the ball. And that's what you have to play against. That's what the good teams do.

"And so it's not a question of how do you defend it. You have to defend it. There is no magic recipe for that."

Waubonsie Valley looked every bit the defending state champion and No. 6-ranked team nationally, dominating a very good New Trier team 2-0 Thursday night in Aurora to advance to the Naperville Invitational semifinals Saturday morning. The Warriors will play Naperville Central.

Waubonsie Valley (10-0-1) outshot New Trier 20-4 in the game.

"I'm real surprised that the shots were that big of a difference," Waubonsie Valley forward Jessica Blake said. "We came in figuring this game was going to go down to the wire, so it was good to get 2 goals."

Blake got the first one, heading in Bri Rodriguez's corner kick in the 21st minute.

"It was a beautiful ball by Bri Rodriguez. She curved it in, and I was right there, front post," Blake said.

The Warriors put the game away in the 66th minute when Vanessa DiBernardo's 12-yard shot over goalkeeper Kelsey Atkinson grazed the bar and dropped in.

"Both their goals hit the crossbar. You know what? There's nothing (Atkinson) could do about that," Burnside said.

In fact it could've been worse for New Trier if not for 9 very good saves by Atkinson on a very wet night.

By the time DiBernardo's goal sealed the win, it was easy to forget that for the game's first 10 minutes, New Trier (13-2) looked like the stronger team.

"We came out here and we were with them, rain coming down, we're getting some chances," Burnside said. "But as I said to the girls we didn't show as well as we could've because we were a little bit nervous about the defending state champs. We let them come after us a little bit and they take advantage of it, and that's the type of team they are. They're a good, strong team."

"The first 10 minutes or so we were kind of crazy, but then we started getting our rhythm and we picked it up," Blake added.