Wildcats post 4th straight shutout in win over Metea
By Matt Le Cren

Neuqua Valley’s Gianna Dal Pozzo is one of the top midfielders in the state.

Metea Valley’s Megan Geldernick is one of the best goalies in the state.

The two seniors play on the same club team, so they rarely get a chance to face one another.

But Tuesday afternoon brought a treat to soccer fans who watched Metea Valley travel to Naperville for Neuqua Valley’s home opener. They got to see a rare one-on-one matchup between Dal Pozzo and Geldernick and the play ended up deciding the match.

It happened with 23:31 remaining in the first half when Dal Pozzo scored on a 27-yard cracker that went off the fingertips of the leaping Geldernick and just under the crossbar. That was all the Wildcats needed to beat Metea Valley 1-0.

The decisive play seemed to come out of nowhere as Neuqua’s Hope D’Addario won a ball at midfield and quickly sent it ahead to Dal Pozzo, who found herself unguarded with her back to the goal.

The Miami signee turned and took two dribbles forward before opening fire with her right foot.

“We had the wind so I knew we had to take shots and then there was just no pressure,” Dal Pozzo said. “I was looking around and I was like, ‘hey, why not?’ Then it was a good strike and it went off Meghan’s fingers. I was just looking for a shot on goal and that’s what I got.”

Of course, when facing Geldernick you can’t just settle for any shot. Placement has to be perfect and the pace must be considerable. Dal Pozzo was well aware of this.

“She’s on my club team and she’s amazing and she always comes up with big saves,” Dal Pozzo said. “She’s really good in the air so I knew it had to be a good shot and it just got over her fingers. I knew she was mad, but she got a good attempt at it.”

The Ohio State-bound Geldernick, who finished with 10 saves in yet another brilliant outing between the pipes, wasn’t surprised to see Dal Pozzo tee it up from distance, only dismayed that the Mustangs gave her the space to do it.

“I play with her on my club team. I know she can shoot,” Geldernick said. “She’s a fantastic player. It’s just unfortunate that we let down a little bit.”

Ironically, Metea Valley (2-2, 0-2 Upstate Eight Valley) was markedly better defensively than it was in Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Waubonsie Valley. Neuqua Valley (4-1, 1-0) controlled much of the action but didn’t get much space to work with in the final third.

“The other day at practice I was telling our defense we struggled a little bit with that against Waubonsie,” Geldernick said. “We were just letting them dribble in front of us and we weren’t putting pressure on, so I felt [today] we did a great job. We didn’t do it in that one shot and that’s how it works in soccer.”

As good as the Mustangs were defensively, they weren’t able to put much pressure on Neuqua’s defense. The visitors mustered only five shots and Neuqua goalie Courtney Keefer made four saves to record her second clean sheet and her team’s fourth consecutive shutout.

Metea’s best chance came with 17:15 to go in the first half when Alyssa Fox sprung Jenna Kentgen into the box with a through ball, but Kentgen rolled a 12-yard shot just wide of the left post after Keefer charged out to cut down the angle.

The Mustangs actually got a little more going toward the end of the match, retaining possession at times, but the only shots were a pair of 40-yard free kicks from Rachel Warnock that Keefer handled easily.

Despite being shutout for the second straight match, the Mustangs felt good about their effort.

“I think it was definitely a better result [than against Waubonsie],” Geldernick said. “Our coaches said we’ll back this team any day. We came out and worked hard. It was just good to see after Waubonsie was a disappointing loss. I know we had our heart out there on the field. It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t get the win.”

The Mustangs are still shorthanded after four starters – Kentgen and fellow juniors Rachel Stoffregen and Megan Buchanan and sophomore Katie Kennedy – were injured last Wednesday in a car accident in which another car turned in front of them. Their car was totaled but none of the girls were seriously injured.

Stoffregen and Buchanan are still nursing bruises from the crash, while Kentgen gamely took the field despite a sprained ankle and Kennedy played limited minutes.

“The doctors told them to take a week off,” Metea Valley coach Pat Feulner said. “So we’ve had some people move around and Waubonsie and Neuqua are not the two teams you want to be moving people around on, so I give the kids credit because we have had a lot of people playing that haven’t played, and they stepped in and tried and fought hard.’

“We’ll be fine,” he added. “We’ve just got to get some people healthy again.

“Warnock and [Rachel] McCoy both played well in back and I give Jenna Kentgen credit. She played real hard even though she’s playing on one ankle. And Geldernick kept us in the game.”

As for Neuqua, the Wildcats were pleased yet far from satisfied with their victory, which avenged last season’s 4-3 loss to the Mustangs. The hosts put plenty of pressure on and had 19 shots and a whopping 11 corner kicks, but didn’t have much to show for it.

“I was happy with how we played,” Dal Pozzo said. “We can always do better but we had possession of the ball. We just needed to clean it up in the final third.

“We got so many corners and we couldn’t capitalize on them, but I think we did pretty well with the [grass] field, especially our first home game. We were keeping the possession and moving the ball quickly.

“I think we’re a really athletic team and even if we do have a bad touch we can make up for it with our speed, so that helped out a lot. Towards the end we got a little tired and they started getting some more chances but overall we did a pretty good job.”

Seven different Neuqua players had shots in the contest, with the usual suspects Dal Pozzo, D’Addario and Katie Ciesiulka figuring prominently, but Brooke Ksiazek and Kiley Czerwinski also put two balls on frame and Talise Romain, making her season debut after recovering from back spasms, had one shot and created angst in the Metea defense by making several dangerous runs down the right wing.

“She’s really important because she can recover quickly,” Dal Pozzo said of Romain. “She’s a big part of our game.

“I think Kylie, she barely played any minutes last season and this year she’s really stepping up making plays really close to the goal. She’s a really fast forward and outside mid, so if you play a long ball she’ll get to it. She’s working really hard.

“I’d say even the backs are finding feet and they’re not getting goals obviously because they’re in back but they are helping us connect.”