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Evann Shelton directs traffic while Emma Girtz leads an attack against Ark City April 30.

Valley Center soccer team splits league games
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: May 07, 2015

With four games left in the season, and one left inside Division II of the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League, the Valley Center High School soccer team has fallen just short of a share of the league title. The girls performed well in their last two outings, facing a couple opponents of drastically different calibers in Ark City and Maize South.

On April 30, the Hornets traveled to Ark City.  This game figured to get ugly pretty quickly, as the Bulldogs, who have a small and somewhat new program, haven't won a game this season.  The result was a 10-0 rout by the Hornets, with goals from seven different players. The only unusual aspect of this match was that the girls found themselves without one of the most important members of the team — coach Steen Danielsen.

During the previous game against Eisenhower, Danielsen received two yellow cards. The first came on a call Danielsen thought was obviously botched by the referees in the close match. The second came in a similarly understandable fashion, as the referee missed a foul that left a member of the Hornets' team injured and crying on the ground. Danielsen was visibly displeased, but was awarded the second yellow card without saying anything, forcing him to leave the contest.

Danielsen voluntarily opted to sit out the game against Ark City following the incident. This left the team in the hands of assistant coach Bryan Heinz.

"My message to them," said Heinz, "from the very beginning was ‘don't go into this game like we're going against Ark City.' We needed to go into the game and fix the little mistakes to get us prepared for [Maize South]."

The Hornets responded to Heinz and performed just as they would for Danielsen; they didn't let down one bit.

"They played our game," said Heinz. "They stayed wide, they didn't get caught forward and they got off the ball a lot quicker than we've seen in the past. I was really impressed with all of that. It wasn't just ‘let's cram all 11 people into one spot and start hammering them.'  We were playing good quality soccer."

It didn't take long for the girls to get it going in this one, scoring just 21 seconds into the game after taking the opening kick. The goal came off a lightning quick attack, in which the girls moved the ball back and forth between the mids and the wings with ease.  Sophomore Mikayla Vega found junior Evann Shelton for her first goal of the contest. If you blinked, you might have missed it.

"I watched the build up," said Heinz, "and as she crossed it, something caught my eye. When I looked back, it was already in the back of the net."

The next goal for the Hornets didn't come until midway through the first half. The goal was scored by Shelton, again, and was assisted by junior Kennedy Weaver. With six minutes remaining in the half, Weaver got her second assist of the game, hitting Vega for her first goal. With less than two minutes to play in the half, sophomore Sammy Boese got another goal for the girls, which was assisted by sophomore Hannah Arneson.

The Hornets were even busier in the second half. Again, wasting very little time, they got their first goal just three minutes in. It was another spectacular shot, this time from freshman Sydney Martens, off a corner kick from Weaver for her third assist of the game. Seven minutes later, sophomore Ariel Wolff scored on an assist from freshman Emma Girtz. Just one minute later, Boese got her second goal of the game. Two minutes after that, Vega got a second goal of her own. The next goal came a little bit later, when junior Chloe McNiel scored on an assist from freshman Rachel Binau. The final goal of the game was scored by Weaver.

On May 5, the Hornets played a tough Maize South team at home, who is ranked fourth in the state and has only lost two games all season. The Hornets lost 1-0. Conditions weren't ideal, as it rained through most of the game, making both the ball and the turf pretty slick and tough to deal with.

In the first half, possession went back and forth. The only miscue of the game occurred when a hard kick snuck into Hornet territory on the ground. The two deepest defenders were shadowing a Maverick wing and got caught off guard as the opposite wing came sprinting out of nowhere to take possession of the ball with some free space in dangerous territory. She took advantage of the opportunity, scoring on a shot that was well-placed and well-kicked.

"We need to do a better job watching the runners build up," said Danielsen. "We need to either have someone running with the through-runner or have someone pressure the ball so they can't even deliver a service to the runner. I think we fixed it and the rest of the game they didn't have an opportunity like that again."

The second half started off a lot like the first, with teams changing possession frequently. Maize South got off a few more shots in traffic, but sophomore goalkeeper Bethany Reeves had another solid performance, stuffing the rest of the Mavericks' opportunities with help from her defense. Danielsen said he was pleased with her performance and that she rarely makes mistakes.

The Hornets are now 8-3-1 overall and 2-2-1 in league play heading into their final league matchup against Goddard on May 7. They are scheduled to play at Augusta May 11 before finishing with home games against Rose Hill May 12 and McPherson May 14.

Junior varsity — The Hornets won a tight game at Ark City 1-0. The winning goal came with just 25 seconds left in the game, when freshman Rachel Binau flat out beat the entire field to a ball that poked into Bulldog territory.

The girls lost 3-2 to Maize South. Emma Girtz scored the first goal to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead at halftime, before the Mavericks came roaring back. Freshman Alexis Wolff had the other goal for the girls.

The Hornets are now 8-3-1 overall and 3-2 in league play.






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