By Bobby Narang –
The DuPage Valley Conference race is starting to take shape in high school girls soccer. In a key mid-season battle Tuesday, May 2, Wheaton Warrenville South High School pulled off a mild upset with a 2-1 victory over highly-ranked Metea Valley.
In addition, Naperville North’s 4-3 victory over Naperville Central pushed North’s record to 5-1-0, and Neuqua Valley and Wheaton Warrenville South were 4-1 in conference play. Metea Valley, 10-6-1 and 3-2, was undone by the solid play of the Wheaton Warrenville South Tigers’ Paige Miller.
“No question Paige took the game and us on her back,” Wheaton Warrenville South head coach Guy Callipari said. “This win keeps us in the driver’s seat. Although we have the toughest road, we control most of our own destiny.”
The Tigers, 12-4, played a key match Tuesday this week against Naperville North, but, fell, 2-1, before playing at Neuqua Valley Thursday, May 10.
“Maybe having one of the easier routes (Metea), really needed this one,” Callipari said. “Not getting over us showed in how they were really disappointed.”
Metea Valley’s loss to the Tigers really hurt their chances to win the conference championship, forcing the Mustangs to win their remaining games while receiving some luck.
“Being a crucial conference game, we wanted it and to win conference,” Metea head coach Chris Whaley said. “They came on our field (in the PepsiCo Showdown) and got one on us. We wanted to obviously come here and get one on them, but they got another.”
Miller said it was a big victory for the Tigers, especially because they beat Metea Valley earlier this season. The Tigers will be playing in the new DuKane Conference next season with seven other teams, three others from the DuPage Valley.
“We knew it would be a tough game,” Wheaton South’s Miller said. “We played super hard and knew we had to have the same mindset this time. In the second half (Metea) did come out tougher but we responded.”
