Girls Soccer: MacKenzie Fuller propels Waubonsie Valley past Metea Valley

Updated: March 31, 2012 5:06PM

There’s more to a soccer team than just practicing and playing the game.

The Waubonsie Valley team, with 25 of the roster spots filled by freshmen, spent the past week team-building by zorbing, rafting, horseback riding and indoor skydiving in Tennessee, before returning home and participating in a fundraising event at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora.

On Saturday, the No. 10 Warriors created several opportunistic scoring chances in the first half, finished one, and held on to beat Metea Valley, 1-0, in the Upstate Eight Valley opener for both squads.

“We went on our team building trip out of state and it’s always nice in high school to get some practice in,” Warriors coach Julie Bergstrom said. “We get back and the schedule has so many back-to-back games and it’s hard to adjust to this team or that team, or change things around. It’s tough to learn on the fly and having practice has helped.”

Waubonsie Valley (4-1-1, 1-0) created the only goal it would need with 16:58 remaining in the first half. Senior Shannon Donelson, who shrugged off a kicked ball to her face earlier in the contest, dribbled down the sideline before sending a cross to sophomore MacKenzie Fuller.

Fuller’s shot was partially deflected by goalkeeper Megan Geldernick, but it had enough mustard on it to roll on the man-made surface and into the net.

Geldernick had made a tremendous save of a Kristen Dodson shot seven minutes earlier, but Fuller wasn’t thinking about beating who was in the net, but simply about execution.

“It doesn’t matter who’s back there,” she said. “It’s all about finding the corner so they don’t have the opportunity to save it.”

Metea Valley (7-1-0) struggled throughout the contest, namely in maintaining possession.

“Our movements were so slow and we weren’t on the ball like usual,” Mustangs coach Pat Feulner said. “Normally we’ve possessed very well this year. The time of possession in most games, we’ve been running 60-70 percent of the time. Today we couldn’t possess anything.”

The Mustangs had four corner kick opportunities in the second half to net the equalizer, but they never answered.

“I felt like we penetrated the side more and had more possession on the outside wing,” Metea Valley junior Jenna Kentgen said. “We just couldn’t finish our corner kicks.”

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