Ark Valley News - Hornets advance to state semis

The Valley Center High School girls' soccer team won a regional title and will play in the state semifinals.

Hornets advance to state semis
By Randy Fisher and Matt Heilman
Last Updated: May 23, 2013

It didn't come easily, but the Hornets are still dancing. The Valley Center High School soccer team sent one of the state's best teams packing and is now one of just four left standing in Class 5A.

Valley will play in the state semifinals at 5 p.m. May 24 in McPherson. If the Hornets win May 24, they'll play for a state title at 2 p.m. May 25. If they lose May 24, they'll play for third the next day at noon.

They got to this point by taking down the team that ended their season in the regional championship game last year.

With an unbeaten record going into its state quarterfinal match May 21 at home, the Valley Center High School soccer team has had an atypical season. But its 1-0 victory over postseason nemesis Kapaun Mt. Carmel was achieved in typical fashion: play strong defense and squeeze out a goal.

"My defense was solid; they bend, but don't break. My goalkeeper was awesome," Valley coach Jeff Burger said. "Then the passing that got us the goal — just boom, boom, boom. We don't have the girl who we can give it to and say, ‘hey, go get a goal for us.' We manufacture goals and we have all year long, just with nice, little passes."

The Hornets used a series of nice, little passes to generate the goal in the 61st minute. Running full speed across the face of the goal and toward the end line, Hanna Shelton scored off a crossing pass from Madison Wedekind.

"We had a lot of momentum going into that play because we had plenty of chances to score, but none of them really worked out," Shelton said. "So we were ready to make it happen."

The girls created that opportunity by working the ball downfield with crisp passes and smart ball handling.

"It's basically pass it to Hanna, and she passed it back to me, and I passed it to space, and she ran and got it and scored," Wedekind said of the goal.

Easy as it may sound, there was more to it.

"We are really big on getting the last pass," Shelton said. "Madison had made the goalie come out and commit to her, so she was looking for Madison to shoot and she passed it off to me."

As Wedekind was passing the ball, Shelton was getting around the Kapaun sweeper. She used her speed and quickness to run down the ball and punch it toward the empty goal with a shot across her body.

"Both of those girls at any time during that run probably could have shot it," Burger said, "but they just kept looking for the best shot. It was awesome."

Although there was a lot of back-and-forth action from end line to end line throughout the game, there was only eight shots on goal combined. Nonetheless, Hornet keeper Elayna Coleman came far out of the net many times to either save, deflect or alter shots.

The play of Coleman and the defenders — in particular, Shannon Crow, Brittany Thorne, Holle McQuitty and Bailey Hogan — enabled the Hornets to record their 15th shutout of the season.

"I think they just came out ready to play," Coleman said. "We've been waiting for a game like this. We knew it was going to be hard; we knew we were going to have to scramble at times. We were just really pumped."

The play of the defense did not go unnoticed by their teammates.

"The defense and Elayna were awesome," Shelton said. "Elayna, the best game she has ever played. She was flawless."

Among what has to be one of the largest crowds ever to see a soccer game at Valley Center was a boisterous student section. They rushed the field to congratulate the players after the game.

"It was really fun," Wedekind said of the student section. "It kept us pumped up whenever we got tired."

The Hornets will play Mill Valley in the semifinals May 24 at McPherson College. Bishop Carroll and St. Thomas Aquinas round out the final four. No matter the opponent, the girls are thrilled to be making the trip for the second time in three years.

"It's awesome," Coleman said. "We went two years ago when I was a sophomore but I was playing JV. I'm excited."

"It feels really good. I'm really excited," Wedekind said. "I feel like our team is such a strong team, and we've done so well this year that we should be going to state."

Burger is pleased with the season and looks forward to this weekend.

"I just can't say enough about the team and what they've accomplished this year," he said. That's 15 shutouts, 19-0. We'll be ready to play on Friday."

To get to the state quarterfinal round and the final eight in Class 5A, the Hornets had to grind out its second game of the season against Andover May 16 in the regional championship. After the 2-0 win, Burger said his team "played pretty good," but should have won by more than two goals.

"I felt like we left a few goals on the table there, especially in the second half," Burger said.

Despite struggling to convert on its goal-scoring chances, the Hornets were more dominant than in their first meeting with Andover when they managed one goal on just four shots.

On May 16, the final score wasn't indicative of how much the Hornets dominated Andover.

Valley controlled possession and kept most of the action at midfield or attacking Andover's defense.

Andover had one chance to make things interesting with about 25 minutes left in the game. For the first time in the contest, Andover was able to catch Hornet goalkeeper Coleman out of position and had a look at the open net from the left side of the attack. McQuitty wanted no part of seeing a 2-0 lead cut in half. McQuitty hustled to deflect the shot attempt and retain possession for the Hornets.

"I think sometimes the defense gets a little overlooked" Burger said. "That's the 14th shutout of the season."

After crediting McQuitty for preserving the shutout, Burger recognized junior defender Brittany Thorne for being "a monster" on the corner.

"They could not do anything against her," Burger said. "She played really well."

The Hornets scored on a first half header from freshman forward Kennedy Weaver and an opportune second-half goal from Shelton less than a minute after the teams took the field after halftime.

Shelton scored by taking an opportunity of a mistake by Andover goalkeeper Lexi Weddington. Weddington bobbled the ball and Shelton was in position to steal possession and kick the ball into the back of the net.