WINNECONNE – Winneconne’s Harper Neace was a goal scoring machine in her junior season.
“The atmosphere of our team, they encourage me to take those shots, they encourage me to be like a little bit selfish and if I’m open, then shoot it,” Neace said. “Or if I have someone covering me then pass. I’m always looking for my teammates as well.”
Neace finished the season with a team-best 33 goals and 14 assists and helped guide Winneconne to an appearance in sectionals. For those reasons she’s been named the 2026 Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
“She had a really good season overall. Very solid player, really knows how to move off the ball well, knows how to read the defense and find the gaps to create the passing lanes and that’s how she was able to create so many goals,” Winneconne coach Chris Guido said. “There were games that she could have easily scored in, and she decided to pass the ball off.”
As a sophomore, Neace had a solid season with 19 goals and eight assists but took her game to another level as a junior. She became an even more feared attacking player and it came with how she positioned herself on the field.
“The biggest improvement was her movement off the ball and being able to read the defensive line to create the passing lines for herself and then our other forward as well,” Guido said. “She wasn’t making just north and south runs, straight line runs, she was moving horizontally and diagonally across the field.”
Goal scoring is an obvious way to impact the game to help the team win. Neace did a lot of that as the team’s leading scorer and leader in assists.
But her impact on a season that finished with a 19-3 record went beyond how many times her shots reached the back of the net. When one watches her play, they can notice an edge to her game which comes from what Guido said is a competitive mindset.
“I think the competitive mindset, coupled with her ability to read the field and understand where to go is really what makes her tough to defend,” Guido said.
Neace scored a goal in 15 different games and had a season high of five goals in a win over Shawano. Her season high in assists was three and came in a win over Marinette where she also scored two goals.
But Guido said she really stood out when Winneconne played in the Eau Claire Invitational against New Richmond and Ashland.
“She was dynamite in our Eau Claire tournament,” Guido said.
Neace played with senior Suri Hottmann and the combo each presented something different as Neace is tall and fast and can score with her head while Hottmann is fast, but not as tall as Neace. Hottmann finished the year with 30 goals and 11 assists in her own right.
“It was almost like how people call it lighting and thunder. I think Suri is lightning, but I don’t really know what you call Harper because she was just more than Thunder and she had every characteristic you want in a soccer player,” Guido said.
With one more year of high school soccer left for Neace, there’s still some room for her to grow as a player, and she has big goals.
“I know she’s going to score a lot of goals, but I think she’s going to be a definite leader on the team,” Guido said. “I think her intensity on winning, getting into the sectionals, getting down to state, I think is going to rub off on the team.”
Ripon’s Emerson Pier the Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Reader’s Choice Girls Soccer Player of the Year
After a final total of 8,365 votes, Ripon’s Emerson Pier is the Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Reader’s Choice Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Winnebago Lutheran’s Annie Heinzelman finished second with 4,606 votes and Winneconne’s Ainsley Tate finished third with 2,206 votes.
Pier finished the season with 21 goals which tied a single season school record and had five assists.
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Winneconne’s Harper Neace is Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Girls Soccer Player of the Year
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern | USA TODAY Network
