Waubonsie Valley trips up Naperville North

Naperville North has ended Waubonsie Valley's season the past two years en route to winning back-to-back Class 3A titles.

Perhaps, now it's the Warriors' turn.

Waubonsie Valley senior Kristen Dodson scored the go-ahead goal early in the second half and the Warriors held on for a 3-2 victory during Wednesday's Class 3A Naperville North sectional semifinal. The game was played at Metea Valley in Aurora due to Naperville North's field being unavailable due to graduation.

"I told the team that they're not going to kick us out again," Dodson said. "I just wanted to go hard and win."

Dodson's game-winner came after a first half that went back and forth with both teams scoring twice.

"I knew we were going to have chances to score tonight, but I didn't know if we could do enough on defense, though," Huskies coach Steve Goletz said. "We were good enough defensively except for three key moments, and a team like that is going to punish you, and they had plenty of opportunities outside of that."

Waubonsie Valley (20-1-3) needed just 58 seconds to jump ahead 1-0 on a Mackenzie Fuller goal.

"We definitely wanted to start out strong and get a goal in the first minute to be able to take control of the game," Fuller said. "But they got one back and we had to go harder and harder after each goal and maintain our pressure."

Olivia Stapleton scored off a corner kick with 25:02 remaining in the first half to make it 1-1, but Dodson, an Auburn recruit, answered just 40 seconds later to incite a "SEC," chant from the Warriors' student section.

The Huskies were able to send the game into the intermission at 2-2 thanks to Abbie Boswell's penalty kick with just less than eight minutes remaining.

"We knew they weren't going to let up, so even when we got our first one, and then our second one, they were going to come back," Dodson said. "They're a good team so we couldn't give up. We had to keep putting pressure on them or they could back and win."

Dodson's game-winner came a little more than 12 minutes into the second half.

While pursuing a loose ball, Dodson, teammate Maggie Roe and Naperville North keeper Fiona Baezinger appeared to be on a crash course. As the ball rolled free, the opportunistic Dodson didn't pass up the opportunity to deliver the difference maker.

"I just knew I was falling and the ball was right in front of me," she said. "I was just trying to get a touch because the goalie was out too. I just had to get something on it and just got a toe on it."

Both teams certainly know about winning. The loss snapped Naperville North's 16-game postseason winning streak. The Huskies finished 12-6-3.

Waubonsie Valley extended its unbeaten streak this spring to 23 matches.