Girls soccer: Shumate up to task for Naperville North
Naperville North loses great girls soccer players to graduation every spring, but the Huskies always seem to find more great ones.
Sometimes it's the already really good ones who seem to keep getting better and better.
Leah Shumate is one of them, and behind her goal and 2 assists, the Huskies defeated Waubonsie Valley 3-1 during Tuesday's DuPage Valley Conference opener for both teams.
"We were super excited today," Shumate said. "These games are a lot more important and it's always more fun to win. I think we had more energy and it stinks to lose at home."
She certainly did her part to make sure that didn't happen.
"She was fantastic tonight and I praised her so much after the Fremd game and said it was her best game I'd ever seen her play, but tonight was even better," Huskies coach Steve Goletz said. "If we can consistently get that from her, then we're a different team in the attack with her and Hannah (Martin) and some of our new players around them."
Naperville North (2-2-1, 1-0) struck first in the 24th minute when Shumate was able to find senior Northwestern recruit Reilly Riggs on a corner kick.
"Leah's first two corner kicker weren't quite getting there," Riggs said, as Waubonsie Valley junior Grace Setter proved to be the major obstacle on the Huskies' set piece. "We had to get it over her so actually this one was a super-high kick and I was struggling to get it, but I wanted to get on the end of it, so I got to it and ended up getting it to go over the goalkeeper, which was awesome. We got the momentum going."
Waubonsie Valley (2-1-1) battled back, drawing even on a beautiful finish from junior Megan Burling before the end of the half.
"That was an amazing turn back by Megan and a nice cross from Grace Setter," Warriors senior Jessica Wallace said. "We definitely could've had more chances up there, but we couldn't get them on frame. I think we need to be more risky in taking more chances and shots and hopefully we can do that next time."
The Warriors, who were trying to beat the Huskies for the first time since 2014, gave up the go-ahead goal midway through the second half as Shumate, an IUPUI recruit, found Hannah Martin for a 2-1 advantage.
That didn't stop the Warriors from fighting. They pushed ahead trying to net the equalizer the rest of the evening.
"They were sending numbers at us," Shumate said. "They were playing three in the back and four up front so it was tough, but other than their one goal, we were able to bounce back. We never gave up. It was a good team effort."
The Huskies sealed the victory, their fifth in a row against the Warriors, when Shumate buried a free kick from just outside the penalty area with a little over two minutes remaining to play.
"This was by far the best game for us from start to finish," Goletz said. "To beat a good Waubonsie Valley team to start the DVC is huge. You can't really afford to drop games in five-team conference and stay on top if you have aspirations to finish as the champion."