Girls Soccer: Metea Valley tops West Aurora
West Aurora entered Wednesday’s regional opener against Metea Valley with high hopes for springing a surprise, but the Mustangs scored in the opening five minutes and continued deflating that balloon for a 5-0 triumph.
The visiting Blackhawks (14-9-1), who had won eight of their last nine coming in, trailed by three at halftime and had trouble getting the offense going. Metea Valley, which struggled late losing three of the last five in the regular season, improves to 16-4-0 and advances to Friday’s 5 p.m. title contest where the Mustangs hope to avenge their single worst loss of the year, a 4-0 whitewash by No. 5-ranked Plainfield North.
Just 4:47 into the match, Metea’s McKenzie Sheesley put a left-footed 16-yard blast from right of center in for her seventh goal of the year.
“The first goal is always important for momentum and one of our goals each time out is to score in the opening 10 minutes,” Sheesley said.
“Giving up that first goal always hurts, but this one coming so early really deflated us,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said. “We came in pumped up and knew their game plan and I thought we shut their top combination down, but a team like Metea always has more scorers. As things went on, our defense got a little jumbled and we started to over think things.”
The Mustangs’ usual one-two punch of Kristina Tomaras and Jenna Kentgen didn’t hook up until the second half, but in the meantime, Kentgen used an Alyssa Fox assist to make it 2-0.
Rachel Stoffergan’s through ball found Holly Krol in position for a 32-yard blast that sailed under the crossbar 3:19 prior to halftime.
Only 2:11 into the second half, Tomaras set up Kentgen for her 18th goal of the season. It also marked the 12th time Kentgen used a Tomaras assist while Tomaras has finished on passes from Kentgen eight times.
“We’ve been working on that,” Kentgen said. “We both try to play smart and look for each other and ways to get open to help the other.”
“Jenna is so fast, I know I can always count on her to run into open space,” said Tomaras, who leads the team in assists (16), goals (20) and points (56). Kentgen is next in line with 48 points off 18 goals and 12 assists.
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