Waubonsie Valley 5, Neuqua Valley 1
Neuqua Valley knew it had to account for Waubonsie Valley junior Bri Rodriguez and sophomore Vanessa DiBernardo if it wanted to advance out of Thursday's Class AA Waubonsie Valley sectional final.
The Wildcats never thought Catherine "Kiki" McClellan would have the game of her life.
The junior scored 3 first-half goals from her defensive midfielder spot, and the Warriors (22-0-1), ranked third nationally, earned a 5-1 victory. They will play St. Charles North at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Benedictine University for an Elite Eight berth.
"What a great game for her," Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said of McClellan. "I thought we did a nice job of slowing down Bri and slowing down Vanessa. Those were some good goals."
"She's my best friend and I'm so proud of her because she played amazing," Warriors goalkeeper Claire Hanold said. "It was great that she got a hat trick and she scored the first goal and it was awesome.
"She's really good, and she just turned it on tonight. I'm not surprised at all."
McClellan didn't waste much time, scoring in the fourth minute from near the penalty spot off a DiBernardo square pass, then again in the eighth minute off a Rodriguez assist. Almost before it could get its bearings, Neuqua Valley was chasing two goals.
"We didn't feel out of it at all," Moreau said. "To be honest with you we didn't feel out of it at halftime. What we said was if they could score 4, why can't we score 4? We didn't feel out of it because we did have some chances."
"It was so nice," Hanold added. "It was a huge relief. To get the first goal is always a good thing.
"It definitely got us going more. After the first goal we definitely wanted to get another goal and another goal and another goal. It definitely helped us."
Rodriguez made it 3-0 in the 28th minute, dribbling in from midfield, stopping about 25 yards in front of the Neuqua goal, turning to let a defender pass and calmly putting a shot in the upper right corner where no goalkeeper could have touched it.
"That's a great goal," Moreau said. "What are you going to do? Brenna (Vogel) did a great job marking her. That's an incredible goal."
Neuqua Valley (17-6) seemed to get some momentum back with a Courtney Ksiazek goal off a 30-yard free kick in the 31st minute, but McClellan had an answer for that too. A minute after Ksiazek's goal, McClellan hit a 25-yard left-footed blast just inside the left post to make the score 4-1.
"I knew they'd come out hard, but we came out wanting to win," McClellan said. "It's always a good game against Neuqua because our fans are so great and it's a big rival."
What makes the margin of victory even more impressive is who it came against. Neuqua Valley is one of the state's best teams and would have been a threat to go to the state finals out of most other sectionals. But the Wildcats didn't have an answer for McClellan and her teammates.
"I guess tonight was her game," Hanold said.