Metea Valley makes corner deliveries, serves Neuqua Valley loss
Practice results in fine execution for Metea Valley
By Chris Walker
AURORA -- At practice on Monday, Metea Valley worked on set pieces.
On Tuesday, the Mustangs scored on them.
Metea Valley saw its discipline and repetition in practice pay off during game time when it converted a pair of corner kicks late in the first half and carried the momentum into the second half with three more goals in a 5-0 victory over Neuqua Valley in DuPage Valley Conference play.
“We focused a lot on those corners in practice,” said Mustangs junior Addison Wargo. “Literally yesterday at practice we had the first set piece we played where Leanne (Barrett) scored off of a header. That was a new set piece that we practiced, and we’ve just been focused on the corners and stuff like that.
“I think that we thrive off of those set pieces, and we were able to score and finished our chances in the final third off of those.”
Metea Valley (8-5-1, 5-2-0) jumped ahead 1-0 on Wargo’s corner kick to Barrett with 8:18 remaining in the first half.
“In previous games we’ve had a frustrating year with corners,” Barrett said. “Addison will play a perfect one, but no one will get to it. So, we’ve been working on them, and tonight it worked. Everyone wants it.”
Although Wargo and Barrett have only been teammates so far this season and two years ago on the freshmen squad, the two have quickly become friends and their chemistry on the field has a lot to do with that.
“I just think that I’ll check into a space, and she’ll read my run. She knows when to send a pass to me,” Barrett said. “She knows if I run and knows when to go over my head too.”
Wargo praised Barrett’s activity without the ball, something she noted early on when the two first started sharing time on the field together.
“Her movement off the ball is fantastic,” Wargo said. “I can always rely on her to get those balls that I play, and I know how she moves. She’s just always there and checks for the ball. We just work really well together.”
When the Mustangs increased their lead to 2-0 with just 1:35 remaining before half, Wargo looked for Barrett and her teammates. It ended up she didn’t need them. Her pass curved inside the near post and got behind Neuqua Valley keeper Tara Tesmond.
“The first goal was a beautiful play,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “I thought we were with the runner so it was a nice goal and the second goal went through Tara’s hands. And there were no black-jersey players around, and a ball like that is tough for a goalkeeper to handle sometimes.”
Wargo was as surprised as the rest of her teammates when she realized her kick eluded her teammates as well as Tesmond. The unlikely score game Metea Valley an early insurance goal and a great deal of momentum at the break.
“I wish I could say that I tried to do that, but it just kind of curved in,” she said. “I tried to play it to the six right in front of the goalie so my teammates could get a head on it and finish it, but I ended up curving it on which was big.”
Neuqua Valley (4-8-1, 2-6-1) didn’t back down from the 2-0 deficit, but the Wildcats struggled to create dangerous opportunities to get back into the game. While the Wildcats scored three times in Saturday’s nonconference win against Wheaton Academy, they only scored twice in their previous three games.
“Metea is a good team and they had a couple nice head-in goals, but I don’t think they’re five goals better than us,” Moreau said. “We settled for some distance shots rather than working it in the box, and we can’t do that. But, we play another game Thursday.”
The Wildcats travel to Waubonsie Valley on the aforementioned Thursday Moreau alluded to, Neuqua Valley hopes to avoid being swept by both Indiana Prairie School District 204 foes. Waubonsie Valley won a 5-4 thriller in two overtimes when the teams played on May 4.
Moreau said the girls will turn their attention towards the Warriors, but he’s really eyeing the outlook a week from now. The Wildcats haven’t had any time off, and he thinks a break will be quite beneficial for a squad that competes but doesn’t get the results it believes it is capable of getting.
“The good thing is we have games on Monday and Tuesday and then we have a week off and we haven’t had a week off,” he said. “We’ve gone three days a week, which is way too many games to be playing with tired legs. Giving them a week off will hopefully be a good thing going into the playoffs.”
The final score really wasn’t indicative of how close the game actually was. Metea Valley didn’t break the game open until midway through the second half when they scored twice in a 16-second span to double their lead to 4-0.
Tyra King delivered a gorgeous cross to Barrett with 19:04 remaining in the game. Barrett, the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, headed it home for her second goal of the game.
“Sometimes when I’m in the middle I like to switch the way I run, and it will give Addison space to play a ball through,” Barrett said. “I just knew someone was going to play it wide because that’s normally how we play it. We play it wide and get a cross. When I saw it was going to Tyra (King) I know she’s great as crosses so I just ran my heart out to the goal, and I got a touch on it.”
Before the bulbs in the scoreboard had transitioned from “2” to “3,” King made it “4” with her unassisted goal with 18:48 remaining.
Senior forward Livvy Toole joined in on the scoring fun with 2:59 remaining when she displayed some nifty footwork to send in a shot on a nice ball from senior Lauren Wardell.
Toole’s goal was the 17th by the Mustangs in their past four games.
“Against all the other teams it’s been like one or two goals, but against (Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley) it’s like they have their own rivalry and forget about Metea,” Wargo said. “We want to be known. We want to fight. We want to do all this. We probably could’ve been satisfied with the three goals, but we still wanted more. We wanted another one and another. We didn’t let up. It feels so good to beat your rivals.”
Barrett wholeheartedly agreed.
“I’m not going to lie – this feels good,” she said. “There is not a better feeling than beating those teams.”
Metea Valley had dropped four straight to Neuqua Valley coming into this season. The Mustangs won 2-1 at Neuqua Valley on April 29 to end that slide. The Wildcats beat the Mustangs three times in 2018 including in the state series, but if the two were to meet again this postseason, it would be the Mustangs who would be looking to knock off its Eola Rd. rival three times in one season.
Starting lineups
Neuqua Valley
G – Tara Tesmond
D – Lauryn Adamski
D – Maddy McGrath
D – Kassie Salviola
D – Maya Stone
M – Frannie Keen
M – Arohi Mehta
M – Lauren Milani
M – Brooke Miller
M – Katelyn Nardulli
F – Abby Michalczyk
Metea Valley
G – Julia Straub
D – Kaylee Bannack
D – Zoe Kirkman
D – Katy Flanders
D – Alyssa Parrilli
D – Addison Wargo
M – Ella Johnson
M – Riley Strcic
F – Leanne Barrett
F – Lucy Burk
F – Jordan Lange
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Leanne Barrett, jr., F, Metea Valley
Scoring summary
First half
Metea Valley – Leanne Barrett (Addison Wargo), 31st minute
Metea Valley – Addison Wargo (unassisted CK), 38th minute
Second half
Metea Valley – Leanne Barrett (Tyra King), 60th minute
Metea Valley – Tyra King (u/a), 61st minute
Metea Valley – Livvy Toole (Lauren Wardell), 76th minute
Practice results in fine execution for Metea Valley
By Chris Walker
AURORA -- At practice on Monday, Metea Valley worked on set pieces.
On Tuesday, the Mustangs scored on them.
Metea Valley saw its discipline and repetition in practice pay off during game time when it converted a pair of corner kicks late in the first half and carried the momentum into the second half with three more goals in a 5-0 victory over Neuqua Valley in DuPage Valley Conference play.
“We focused a lot on those corners in practice,” said Mustangs junior Addison Wargo. “Literally yesterday at practice we had the first set piece we played where Leanne (Barrett) scored off of a header. That was a new set piece that we practiced, and we’ve just been focused on the corners and stuff like that.
“I think that we thrive off of those set pieces, and we were able to score and finished our chances in the final third off of those.”
Metea Valley (8-5-1, 5-2-0) jumped ahead 1-0 on Wargo’s corner kick to Barrett with 8:18 remaining in the first half.
“In previous games we’ve had a frustrating year with corners,” Barrett said. “Addison will play a perfect one, but no one will get to it. So, we’ve been working on them, and tonight it worked. Everyone wants it.”
Although Wargo and Barrett have only been teammates so far this season and two years ago on the freshmen squad, the two have quickly become friends and their chemistry on the field has a lot to do with that.
“I just think that I’ll check into a space, and she’ll read my run. She knows when to send a pass to me,” Barrett said. “She knows if I run and knows when to go over my head too.”
Wargo praised Barrett’s activity without the ball, something she noted early on when the two first started sharing time on the field together.
“Her movement off the ball is fantastic,” Wargo said. “I can always rely on her to get those balls that I play, and I know how she moves. She’s just always there and checks for the ball. We just work really well together.”
When the Mustangs increased their lead to 2-0 with just 1:35 remaining before half, Wargo looked for Barrett and her teammates. It ended up she didn’t need them. Her pass curved inside the near post and got behind Neuqua Valley keeper Tara Tesmond.
“The first goal was a beautiful play,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “I thought we were with the runner so it was a nice goal and the second goal went through Tara’s hands. And there were no black-jersey players around, and a ball like that is tough for a goalkeeper to handle sometimes.”
Wargo was as surprised as the rest of her teammates when she realized her kick eluded her teammates as well as Tesmond. The unlikely score game Metea Valley an early insurance goal and a great deal of momentum at the break.
“I wish I could say that I tried to do that, but it just kind of curved in,” she said. “I tried to play it to the six right in front of the goalie so my teammates could get a head on it and finish it, but I ended up curving it on which was big.”
Neuqua Valley (4-8-1, 2-6-1) didn’t back down from the 2-0 deficit, but the Wildcats struggled to create dangerous opportunities to get back into the game. While the Wildcats scored three times in Saturday’s nonconference win against Wheaton Academy, they only scored twice in their previous three games.
“Metea is a good team and they had a couple nice head-in goals, but I don’t think they’re five goals better than us,” Moreau said. “We settled for some distance shots rather than working it in the box, and we can’t do that. But, we play another game Thursday.”
The Wildcats travel to Waubonsie Valley on the aforementioned Thursday Moreau alluded to, Neuqua Valley hopes to avoid being swept by both Indiana Prairie School District 204 foes. Waubonsie Valley won a 5-4 thriller in two overtimes when the teams played on May 4.
Moreau said the girls will turn their attention towards the Warriors, but he’s really eyeing the outlook a week from now. The Wildcats haven’t had any time off, and he thinks a break will be quite beneficial for a squad that competes but doesn’t get the results it believes it is capable of getting.
“The good thing is we have games on Monday and Tuesday and then we have a week off and we haven’t had a week off,” he said. “We’ve gone three days a week, which is way too many games to be playing with tired legs. Giving them a week off will hopefully be a good thing going into the playoffs.”
The final score really wasn’t indicative of how close the game actually was. Metea Valley didn’t break the game open until midway through the second half when they scored twice in a 16-second span to double their lead to 4-0.
Tyra King delivered a gorgeous cross to Barrett with 19:04 remaining in the game. Barrett, the Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, headed it home for her second goal of the game.
“Sometimes when I’m in the middle I like to switch the way I run, and it will give Addison space to play a ball through,” Barrett said. “I just knew someone was going to play it wide because that’s normally how we play it. We play it wide and get a cross. When I saw it was going to Tyra (King) I know she’s great as crosses so I just ran my heart out to the goal, and I got a touch on it.”
Before the bulbs in the scoreboard had transitioned from “2” to “3,” King made it “4” with her unassisted goal with 18:48 remaining.
Senior forward Livvy Toole joined in on the scoring fun with 2:59 remaining when she displayed some nifty footwork to send in a shot on a nice ball from senior Lauren Wardell.
Toole’s goal was the 17th by the Mustangs in their past four games.
“Against all the other teams it’s been like one or two goals, but against (Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley) it’s like they have their own rivalry and forget about Metea,” Wargo said. “We want to be known. We want to fight. We want to do all this. We probably could’ve been satisfied with the three goals, but we still wanted more. We wanted another one and another. We didn’t let up. It feels so good to beat your rivals.”
Barrett wholeheartedly agreed.
“I’m not going to lie – this feels good,” she said. “There is not a better feeling than beating those teams.”
Metea Valley had dropped four straight to Neuqua Valley coming into this season. The Mustangs won 2-1 at Neuqua Valley on April 29 to end that slide. The Wildcats beat the Mustangs three times in 2018 including in the state series, but if the two were to meet again this postseason, it would be the Mustangs who would be looking to knock off its Eola Rd. rival three times in one season.
Starting lineups
Neuqua Valley
G – Tara Tesmond
D – Lauryn Adamski
D – Maddy McGrath
D – Kassie Salviola
D – Maya Stone
M – Frannie Keen
M – Arohi Mehta
M – Lauren Milani
M – Brooke Miller
M – Katelyn Nardulli
F – Abby Michalczyk
Metea Valley
G – Julia Straub
D – Kaylee Bannack
D – Zoe Kirkman
D – Katy Flanders
D – Alyssa Parrilli
D – Addison Wargo
M – Ella Johnson
M – Riley Strcic
F – Leanne Barrett
F – Lucy Burk
F – Jordan Lange
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Leanne Barrett, jr., F, Metea Valley
Scoring summary
First half
Metea Valley – Leanne Barrett (Addison Wargo), 31st minute
Metea Valley – Addison Wargo (unassisted CK), 38th minute
Second half
Metea Valley – Leanne Barrett (Tyra King), 60th minute
Metea Valley – Tyra King (u/a), 61st minute
Metea Valley – Livvy Toole (Lauren Wardell), 76th minute