Girls Soccer: Neuqua Valley Too Much for Naperville North

The Neuqua Valley girls soccer team has so many offensive weapons that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

Midfielder Alexa Wilde and defensive stopper Megan Oyster, who takes most of the Wildcats’ free kicks, are Division I-bound players. Sophomores Gianna Dal Pozzo and Zoey Goralski are nationally known talents.

Naperville North did a good job of containing those threats Wednesday night, clogging up the middle of the field.

But the problem with that was it left junior forward Meghan Kelley open on the right wing. Kelley made the Huskies pay, scoring her first goal of the season with 23:07 remaining in the first half to lift the Wildcats (2-0) to a 1-0 victory at North Central College.

“We pretty much just passed the ball around and I was wide open,” Kelley said. “They left me wide open the whole game. Maybe they underestimated we could play the ball that big, so [the Wildcats] got it over to me and I shot it and scored.”

Kelley’s goal was set up by a pass from sophomore midfielder Hope D’Addario, whose pass from the middle of the pitch found Kelley with plenty of room on the right wing. Her 20-yard shot from just outside the penalty area sailed over the head of Naperville North goalie Abby Green into the top left corner of the net.

“We talked about getting crosses off and Meghan did that,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “She got a cross off and the wind pushed it a little bit to our advantage.”

Though the Wildcats outshot the Huskies 15-4, they weren’t able to increase their lead because Green came up with nine saves, mostly on long shots from outside the box. But while Naperville North (3-2) hung tough defensively, Neuqua demonstrated why it will be tough to stop this year.

“I honestly think we’re going to have multiple scorers,” Kelley said. “Everyone is capable of putting the ball in the back of the net, so I think it’s going to be scattered all around.”

Although Moreau, whose club dressed just three reserves due to a number of minor injuries, was not entirely pleased with his team’s performance, he was impressed with the Wildcats’ defensive effort.

Freshman goalie Courtney Keefer had to make just two saves thanks to a back line led by Oyster and fellow seniors Sydney Tappin and Lauren Noonan.

“Defensively we played very solidly,” Moreau said. “We have to play a little smarter soccer. That wasn’t a very smart soccer game on our part. There are some decent things that happened in the second half but we’ve got to put a better effort out there.”

Noting that the Wildcats have beaten two quality teams in Barrington and Naperville North to open the season, Kelley said she has high expectations for her squad.

“We haven’t even come out full force yet, so I’m excited,” she said. “[The win] just gives us a good idea of what we can do. It’s only our second game so there’s a lot of things we need to work on, but we’ve played two really good teams and come out on top of both. It just shows how good we can be.”