Two Dal Pozzo goals get Wildcats win over rival Waubonsie

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By Matt Le cren

Neuqua Valley found itself behind for the first time this season when freshman Kristen Brots scored in the 16th minute for host Waubonsie Valley Tuesday night in Aurora.

But the Wildcats didn’t trail for long.

Gianna Dal Pozzo tied the game just 1:36 later on a 15-yard header off a cross from Zoey Goralski. The sophomore tallied again 10 minutes later and that turned out to be the game-winner as Neuqua prevailed 2-1 in the annual battle of District 204 rivals.

“We’ve been doing a lot offensively as a team, so a lot of people are getting opportunities, including me,” said Dal Pozzo, who now has five goals. “We’re just working on a lot of finishing, so we’re being able to finish those and get goals off of them.”

Dal Pozzo’s second goal wasn’t a work of art, but she wasn’t complaining. Hope D’Addario sent a corner kick in from the right side and the ball caromed off a defender to Dal Pozzo in front and a second later the Wildcats (6-0, 1-0 Upstate Eight Valley) had a 2-1 lead with 11:04 left in the first half.

“Someone hit it,” Dal Pozzo said. “It just came to me. I was like two yards off the line so I thought I’d get it in the goal, so I chested it and just kind of spun around and hit it and it just went in.

“My play wasn’t the best, but we just needed the goal them. [The goals] were kind of sloppy, but we got them in.”

Dal Pozzo’s first goal wasn’t sloppy and it took some starch out of the host Warriors (2-2, 1-1), who were riding high after taking the lead.

A pair of rookies teamed up to open the scoring as freshman Kristen Dodson, who scored twice in Waubonsie’s victory over Metea Valley on Saturday, crossed from the right wing to Brots, who finished from six yards out.

Then came Dal Pozzo’s header, which went sailing just under the crossbar to the right of Waubonsie goalie Jordan Myers.

“I was very excited [about taking the lead],” Myers said. “I really wanted to keep that momentum going but they just had a nice cross and a nice finish in the upper 90.’

Neuqua, which has given up just two goals so far, wasn’t threatened after that, as Waubonsie’s only chance came seven minutes into the second half when Megan Green’s shot in the box was saved by Wildcats goalie Courtney Keefer, who finished with three saves.

Though the Wildcats controlled the possession through much of the contest, their play left much to be desired, according to Neuqua coach Joe Moreau.

“It wasn’t a pretty game. I’ve seen better fourth grade kickball games at times than what we saw today,” Moreau said. “Hand it to Waubonsie – defensively they played very sound and I thought we were just whacking the ball rather than playing to feet. But it’s a rivalry. The girls are kind of wound up and everything.”

The Wildcats put a lot of pressure on the Warriors, but Waubonsie’s back line of Michelle Filipek, Mary Wright, Kerri Skotnicki and Mackenzie Fuller worked hard to keep the visitors contained and when they couldn’t, Myers came up with eight saves.

“We all just stayed on our marks and stepped to the ball really well and just got it out,” Filipek said. “They get to the ball really well and they move the ball really good. They work really hard and we have to match that and work as hard, too.

“I think we all tried as hard as we could. We have a lot of new girls so they’re not used to this pressure. So we’ll keep getting better.”

Filipek and Myers teamed up to stop one Neuqua rush in the 51st minute. The Wildcats quickly moved the ball across the field twice with passes from Dal Pozzo to Meghan Kelley to Noelle Leary. Leary broke into the box 1-on-1 with Filipek, who blocked her initial shot.

The rebound went right back to Leary, who fired a dipping 15-yard shot that Myers leaped to tip over the crossbar.

That led to corner kick, which resulted in a Waubonsie player being called for a dangerous play in the goalie box. Neuqua was awarded an indirect kick just two yards in front of the left post, leading to the bizarre site of all 11 Warriors standing on their own goal line.

Kelley tapped the ball to Megan Oyster, who tried to blast through the wall only to see the shot blocked. D’Addario then fired the rebound over the pipe.

“I think we did a good job cleaning it up because they had some very quick girls up at the top especially and I think we did a good job of staying with them,” said Myers, who made two diving saves on Goralski in the first half. “We just needed to win the balls in the air. I think that was the biggest thing and at the end staying composed, too.”

Neuqua has set a high bar with its overall play in recent matches, so Moreau wasn’t satisfied even though his club controlled the midfield for much of the contest.

“You can’t lower that bar,” he said. “You get to a level, your next level should be up a level. You don’t want any going up and down. You’ve got to step it up more, especially when you’re playing your rival. You can’t come down a notch, but that’s what happened a little bit today.”

His players agreed.

“As a team we’re doing well, just today we kind of went in a slump,” Dal Pozzo said. “Against Waubonsie it just gets to our heads I guess. We just need to think it’s any other team.”

But Waubonsie is not any other team. The Warriors are the reigning state champions and they intend to fight hard to keep their crown.

“Out of the four teams we’ve played, I’d say that they were the best competition, but I think we can take it still,” Myers said. “I think we can stay in it. I think we can move forward from here because that’s only our fourth game and I think there’s so much that we can improve on, and we will improve.”