Girs Soccer: Neuqua Valley Downs Downers South for DGS Tournament Title

Freshman goalie Courtney Keefer hasn’t been called on to make many saves for the Neuqua Valley girls soccer team this spring, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t ready.

Keefer was tested for the first time in Saturday’s championship game of the Downers Grove South Invite, and she passed with flying colors. Her stop on a breakaway by Keri Kujawa 10 minutes into the second half preserved the Wildcats’ 2-1 victory over Downers Grove South.

“Huge save,” Neuqua Valley defender Megan Oyster said. “She came up big and that’s what we needed. If one of us breaks down in the back, it kind of leaves an opening there. So she stepped up and saved it, and it was huge play for her.”

The Illinois State-bound Kujawa, who scored 24 goals last year, had a clear path to the goal after being sprung by a pass from Flo Beshiri. Neuqua Valley (5-0) dominated much of the match, but if Kujawa scored the game would have been tied 2-2 and the talented Mustangs could have used that as momentum.

But Keefer came off her line and dove to her left as Kujawa fired. The rookie managed to change the ball’s direction just enough so it rolled about a foot wide of the right post.

“I saw her and I just read it at the right time, and I knew that nobody was probably going to get there, so I thought then that it’s just my time to come out,” said Keefer, who finished with two saves. “I got there and I got a piece of it and it felt good. When I tipped it I kind of knew [she saved it] because I got my hand on it and I just pushed it as much as I could, and I knew that it was going to go out.”

The save felt like redemption for Keefer, who blamed herself when Downers South’s Jessica Bronke scored on a 35-yard shot from the left wing that deflected off the inside of the right post and into the net at the 30:54 mark of the first half. Keefer didn’t really have a chance at stopping the shot, the first goal given up by the Wildcats this season.

“The wind was taking it all over the place,” Keefer said. “I thought I could get it, then I thought I couldn’t, and that’s one of the things as a goalie – you can’t hesitate. You just have to go after it.

“The games we’ve had there hasn’t really been a lot of shots on me. That was my first goal [allowed], so I knew after the goal I just needed to come back and really help out my team.”

Bronke’s goal was impressive because it came just 33 seconds after Oyster had given Neuqua a 1-0 lead by ripping a 30-yard free kick past Downers South goalie Amanda Meyers. The shot was hit with such force that the ball whistled before settling into the net.

“I felt it,” Oyster said. “I just saw the opening, and I hit it as hard as I could. It was pretty close, too. That was a huge wall and if I was going to hit the wall I was going to take one of them out, too.”

The Mustangs (5-1-1) spent much of the rest of the contest chasing the Wildcats in a futile bid to gain possession. Despite several scares, they were able to hold Zoey Goralski, who had scored six goals in her previous two matches, off the scoreboard. But the effort left them with little effort to mount an effective attack and they were outshot 28-6.

Gianna Dal Pozzo tallied the decisive goal for Neuqua with 2:36 left in the first half when she buried her own rebound from five yards out a split-second after Meyers had knocked her point-blank attempt into the right post.

“It’s a good start to our season, first off, [and] it’s a [good] lead into what we have coming because [Downers South] is a great team,” Neuqua's Oyster said. “We’ve been doing really well in the previous games, but this is the first one where we had to actually step up and play, and having [to face Downers] in the beginning of the season was helpful because we’ve got some hard games coming, too.”

Neuqua Valley travels to face District 204 rival and reigning state champion Waubonsie Valley on Tuesday night, while hosting Proviso East in a West Suburban Conference Gold Division opener the same night.