Waubonsie Valley wins 2nd consecutive Class AA title

There was junior Rachel Bostick, hoisting a girls soccer state title trophy high over her head. There were senior sisters Jessica and Hillary Blake, walking off the field side by side with their arms around each other's shoulders.

And there was Waubonsie Valley junior Bri Rodriguez, grinning and limping around the mad, postgame celebration of a state title win she couldn't play in due to a torn ACL suffered Friday.

"I'm extremely proud of them. They all played awesome," Rodriguez said of her teammates after the Warriors won their second consecutive Class AA title at North Central College on Saturday.

"Next year we'll try for the three-peat."

Naturally, as it is after a team state title win in any sport, there was hugging. A whole lot of hugging.

"It's just a different kind of good," said Jessica Blake, in comparing Saturday's 3-0 win over Belleville Althoff with the way she felt after last year's state title win.

"It feels great to repeat it, and it feels so awesome to do it going out as a senior."

Five minutes into the game that ultimately kept Waubonsie Valley (26-0-1) unbeaten in 58 consecutive games over two full seasons, junior Kiki McClellan pounced on a ball 10 yards out and scored the game's ever-important first goal.

"It gets you pumped up, but then you have to keep in mind that you can't get lost in that," McClellan said. "You can't get too excited or too cocky."

Warriors sophomore Vanessa DiBernardo -- a two-year starter who has yet to feel the sting of a single loss through the first two years of high school -- gave her squad a 2-0 lead with a perfectly placed shot inside the far post from 20 yards out.

Megan Green nailed the door shut on Althoff in the second half, running down a through ball from Jessica Blake and going far post in the 48th minute.

In the three games of the tournament, which included 1-0 wins over Maine South and Normal West, the Warriors earned a 54-15 edge in shots, showing an attack that might have been lacking the state's best playmaker in Rodriguez but didn't lack bite.

"We knew that if we played as a team, we'd be fine," Blake said.

Fine is also the word that describes the blue-collar work of outside midfielder Ali Stahlke this year, as well as the defensive threesome of Jessica Price, Hillary Blake and Mary Wright.

And anchoring it all this weekend was junior goalkeeper Claire Hanold, who posted 3 shutouts, made a pair of pivotal saves in 1-0 wins over Maine South and Normal West and posted her 64th shutout, putting her fourth all-time in Illinois.

When it was over, there was Bostick, who was a force on the field this season, reaching for words to describe the girls in back.

"I can't say enough about Claire Hanold," Bostick said. "And I don't have words to express how good our defense played this year."