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Valley Center sophomore Sammy Boese shoots in the second half against Newton March 24. The Hornets dropped the game, 1-0, on a goal in the second half. The Hornets will host Salina South March 26 and Buhler March 31.

Hornets start with 1-0 loss to Newton
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: March 26, 2015

The Valley Center High School soccer team had one hiccup in its March 24 season-opener at Newton, and it cost the game.

The Hornets played Newton evenly for 54 minutes until Brookelynn Entz broke away in the middle of the Valley Center defense, made a couple of quick moves and scored what stood as the game-winner midway through the second half.

"It was our mistake on how to deal with a good play," first-year head coach Steen Danielson said. "We didn't play team defense."

The Hornets had chances to even the score in the second half. Two corner kicks came up empty.

Sophomore forward Mikayla Vega hit a short shot in the middle that Newton's keeper, Megan Akers, saved, and junior forward Kennedy Weaver missed wide on a long shot from the right side with seven minutes left in the game.

"Newton is a good team," Danielson said. "We had to work to stay where we were at."

A short-handed defensive backfield stepped up in the final minutes to stave off any more damage from Newton.

Fullback Sydney Martens left the game with a rolled ankle, forcing Danielson to play three on the back line in the second half.

Martens, Jadyn Eddy, Hannah Arneson and Ariel Wolff frustrated Newton's strikers the entire first half.

Newton's best chance to score in the first 40 was a shot in the middle by Katelyn Zinn on a pass by Entz. Valley Center keeper Bethany Reeves gobbled up the shot.

The Hornets made runs at the Newton net in the first half.

Weaver had a shot in the opening minutes that was saved. Weaver took a pass from Abbie Lawrence and shot on goal with 18 minutes left in the half. Vega and Emma Girtz had shots in the first half that failed to connect.

The best executed offensive play for Valley Center, however, came with five minutes left in the first half, when Weaver passed to Evann Shelton to the right of the Newton net and Shelton crossed to Vega in the middle. Vega's shot was saved by Akers.

"When we're clicking, our chemistry, how we build up from the back and build an attack, is good, but you could see that as we went through the game, we got more tired and our build-ups were more lackadaisical," Danielson said. "Not everyone was moving off the ball, which is something we'll address throughout the season. Our conditioning will improve."

Valley Center will have two non-league home games in the next six days — March 26 against Salina South and March 31 against Buhler.

"It's unfortunate we didn't get the win tonight, but it's not the end of the world," Danielson said. "I think this is a good wake-up call for our team."

Junior varsity — The Valley Center JV squad fell to Newton 2-0. Coach Bryan Heinz said he was pleased with how his team played for its first game. He said he could see players improving through the entire contest.






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