Wildcats blank rival Warriors but look to play better

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By Eddie Burns
All photos courtesy of LuAnne Hollingshead

Moments after Neuqua Valley won its annual Upstate Eight Conference showdown against District 204 rival Waubonsie Valley, the Wildcats took a quick moment to celebrate, but it was brief.

The Wildcats earned a 1-0 decision on Tuesday night in Aurora, but there is still concern about the manner in which Neuqua is playing the game.

The highlight of the match was Will Butler's goal that came 34.8 seconds before halftime.

Butler's goal was the end result of the Wildcats stringing together a series of quality possession ending in Blake Carson's pass through the Waubonsie defense to Butler, who finished a shot past Waubonsie goalie Sean Elvert.

"We had our best series of possession and moving the ball around," Carson said. "I saw an opportunity to go one-on-one with one of their kids and I cut the ball back and I saw Will going to the back post and I put the ball through the backline and it resulted in a goal.

"That goal was a good example of how we can play and how good we can be."

Butler said the goal was significant coming so close to intermission.

"It was helpful to score before halftime because it put us in a much better mental state heading into the half," Butler said.

"It also made them play more aggressive because they were packing it in the back quite a bit."

The Wildcats (5-1-1) did a solid job of limiting Waubonsie's scoring chances as Neuqua closed out the match.

Neuqua goalie Hunter Hollingshead made four saves to earn the victory.

But despite the win, there seemed to be concern oozing from the Wildcats' players and coaches.

"We have a higher standard than most schools and we are trying to play at a higher level and we haven't been playing too well," Carson said.

"We're just trying to get up to par. Lots of people are trying to compare us to last year, but we are a whole new team. We have to find our own identity and get into a rhythm."

This year's group, at times, has befuddled coach Tony Kees.

"Effort-wise, (this match) was a step up just a little bit (compared to Saturday's loss to Fremd)," Kees said.

"We still have trouble solving easy soccer problems. People think we're a talented team and we have three or four pretty talented players, but not overall. They kids try, but the execution has to be there."

Carson said one of the issues with the Wildcats is the lack of leaders.

"We had a lot more senior leadership last year and those seniors had a lot of playing experience," Carson said.

"We don't really have a defined leader. We have (Pat) Doody and Jacob (Brindle), who are great players, but we don't have anyone like a Bryan Ciesiulka and we lack the vocal presence that Keegan Balle gave us last year."

The Wildcats are also battling consistency issues.

"There are moments where we can play top flight soccer, so it is frustrating because we know as a staff that they can do it more often, but for whatever reason, we fall into these lapses and fairly long lapses where we're just playing average," Kees said.

"We have to some how get them to better concentrate for longer periods of time to be able to sustain how we can play – that is probably the goal for every team, but we can play a certain way and we need to play that way for longer stretches."