Waubonsie Valley gets upper hand in UEC race
The Waubonsie Valley girls soccer team seized control of the Upstate Eight Conference on Tuesday night, defeating visiting St. Charles North 2-1.
In order to do so, the Warriors had to do something that only one other team in Illinois had been able to do - score against the North Stars. Heading into the contest, the North Stars had yielded only 5 goals all season, 4 of which came from teams in Missouri and Wisconsin.
On the flip side scoring hasn't come easy lately for the Warriors, The team only scored a pair of goals last week in a win against Evanston, sandwiched between a pair of 0-0 ties.
Waubonsie Valley (11-1-3, 6-0-1) handed the North Stars their first loss of the season by coming from behind late in the opening half and carrying the momentum for the remainder of the contest.
St. Charles North (12-1-1, 6-1-1) took a 1-0 lead midway through the opening half off a corner kick. Paige Dusek fired a shot and Sammy Gage helped its cause, sending it past goalkeeper Allison Fox.
The Warriors knotted the match at 1-1 in the 34th minute when freshman Rachele Armand delivered a rebound shot from Hannah Klancic.
"We were really having difficulty playing our game," Armand said. "Tying it up kind of gave us courage and the will to continue to step it up, work hard and try to get another goal."
That additional goal came in the 59th minute when Megan Green scored her third goal of the season. Green took control of the ball a little left of the goal and beat North Stars goalkeeper Kristen Manski, who came up with several huge saves in the contest but couldn't stop this one.
"She's been a dynamite keeper," St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. "It's unfortunate she had to make so many (saves)."
Fresh off defending its title in Iowa's Tournament of Champions last weekend, the North Stars' lack of fight disappointed Vostal.
"We came ready to play for the first 20 minutes and we had the ball and were playing well and then we stepped back," she said. "We talked in halftime about picking up the intensity and getting the first goal, but it never came."
The Warriors certainly had something to do with that.
"We really stressed that we had to start marking up better and calming down and playing our game," Armand said. "We weren't playing our game, but we realized what we needed to do, marked up, connected our passes and played our game."