MILWAUKEE − The Muskego girls soccer team’s defense was as good as advertised in its WIAA Division 1 state semifinal match against Kimberly.
The Warriors limited the Papermakers (17-4-2) to four shots on goal and rode an early lead to a 3-0 victory June 19 at Uihlein Soccer Park. Muskego advances to play either Madison West or Arrowhead in the D1 final June 21.
Muskego entered the game with just seven goals allowed all season.
“I think the frustrating thing for us as a team, we’re so good at moving the ball against most teams, that this was probably the first game, I think, in 23 games that we struggled to find feet, to get to the next pass,” Kimberly coach Andrew Sutton said. “It was panicky. I thought we settled down a little bit more in the second half, but even when we had moments in the first and second half, we just really struggled to sometimes make the right decision with the ball at her feet or it was a bad touch, because there was a defender coming.
“So I think of all the games, you know, the one to not find feet and to not play the way we play, I think this is not the best one to do it, but kudos to. … I mean, they made our lives miserable for really 80 minutes.”
Muskego (20-0-2), which is in pursuit of its fourth consecutive D1 state title, scored a pair of goals in the first half — both off corner kicks. Senior forward Bella Mittelstaedt got the first goal off an assist from junior defender Elsa Maurer in the 16th minute, with Maurer scoring her own goal about 10 minutes later.
The Warriors’ Jess Fernau completed the game’s scoring with an unassisted goal in the box in the 65th minute. Muskego outshot Kimberly 14-4 and also had a 7-0 advantage in corner kicks.
Sutton said the offense was in position a few times in the game.
“We talk about in practice and in games sometimes, a pass being off the mark by a yard is huge if she has to step to her right when she wants to go forward and that was critical today, and you saw it a lot where maybe we made the right pass, but it was off by just a little bit,” he said. “It puts pressure on the girl receiving the ball now to make … maybe she had a decision in her mind before it got to her, and then it’s a bad pass, and now she has to change on the fly.
“And we like to use Marie Van Zeeland to stretch the field and we just couldn’t. It just didn’t work today.”
Van Zeeland, a senior forward, said the Warriors changed up their backfield to counter Kimberly’s long game.
“It was hard because when we played first week, they had a three-back (alignment),” she said. “Then today they brought another person back and had a four-back. So it was hard for us overall to get the ball up the field.”
Kimberly was making its fourth appearance at the state tournament and for the second consecutive season. The team says goodbye to three seniors — Van Zeeland, Grace Peters and Melisa Piotrowski.
Sutton thinks the Kimberly program is at a level where the expectation is to reach sectionals with an opportunity to reach state every year.
“We’ve been to a handful of sectional finals in the last seven to 10 years, and so that’s something that we kind of strive for,” Sutton said. “I told them you can’t take this for granted. It’s so hard to get down here for any sport, right? And so to be in the final four, the final eight in some sports, to make that run is tough. We talked right as we ended here, we have the makeup, we have the kids. I think we have some pretty good coaches.
“As those seniors depart, the kids coming up, they know what the expectations are. And I don’t want to say state should be an expectation, but I think we definitely should be the type of program that at least is thinking about state most years.”
Van Zeeland said the state experience was special for her and her fellow seniors.
“I’m so glad to be a part of it,” she said. “I played with some of my best friends out here and I’m sad to leave them. But I think it’s awesome that I could go last year and come this year as well, because it’s such an accomplishment to make it through our sectional.”
Peters said the memories she made the past few seasons will stay with her a long time.
“All the friends and all the family I’ve made on this team, it’s just a great opportunity to be here,” she said. “Maybe when my kids are here someday, I can tell them about the memories.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: ‘They made our lives miserable’: Muskego defense shuts down Kimberly in Division 1 soccer semifinal
Reporting by Ricardo Arguello, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
