Girls soccer: Metea Valley's Rohm ends drought with goal vs. West Aurora

Sydney Rohm had received some playful ribbing from her Metea Valley teammates because she hadn't scored this spring.

She finally did Friday and added an assist to lead the Mustangs to a 3-1 nonconference win over West Aurora.

"I really don't know why it took me so long to get one," she said. "I've had so many chances. I even had a (penalty kick attempt) one game."

Consistent scoring has humbled many teams and its made things difficult for Metea Valley (7-7-2) at times this spring as the Mustangs have been shutout nine times already and had scored just one goal in their prior four games coming into Friday.

"We are really good at combining, but sometimes in the final third we're not getting the last touch," Rohm said. "So finishing is something we need to work on because we're getting really close so often. We've had so many games where we're right there. We just need that final finish."

Kayla Hurst initiated that elusive first goal of the spring for Rohm. Hurst took the ball down the left sideline and crossed it in to Rohm, who finished it.

Rohm then set up Ella Johnson for a goal before halftime to give the Mustangs some breathing room.

They'd seemingly break the game open with 22:44 left to play when Alexa Paraham found an open net from 20 yards away for a 3-0 lead.

"If we're connecting and getting chances in the box then the ball is eventually going to go in," Mustangs senior Morgan McCrary said. "It's going to happen."

Hurt, McCrary, Sarah Davies, Kaiya Hansen, Kiley McKee and Delaney Putnam were the six seniors Metea Valley recognized on Senior Night.

"This was a lot of fun," McKee said. "The juniors decorated so pregame was good and I think all that energy we had tonight was big with everyone playing for the seniors."

West Aurora (11-5-1) wasn't necessarily looking ahead, but the game really didn't mean much, especially with a huge conference game at South Elgin next week to finish its regular season.

"This is to help get us ready for the playoffs," Blackhawks coach Laura Wagley said. "We'll see this high caliber of teams when we get in the playoffs. This game means nothing so we sat a couple people with injuries just to be ready for the conference championship on Wednesday."

The Blackhawks, who won their 100th game with Wagley at the helm earlier in the week, broke the shutout with 6:24 left when Sarai Munoz scored her third goal of the season.

"It came straight to my head and I didn't think of it, I just headed it and it went in," Munoz said. "It was a really good goal. It's nonconference so not a big game, but it was good to get that against a good team."

Gracie Prather and Kiara McPherson had scoring opportunities after Munoz's goal, but neither could deliver the finishing touch to make it a one-goal game.

"We started out slow but calmed down and got back into it," Wagley said. "But getting down 2-0 to a very good team it's hard to come back."