Girls soccer: Verona’s Noelle Rauwolf nets four goals against Waukesha West

Despite breaking in nine new players, the Verona girls soccer team showcased its talent the first week of the season.

Verona (1-1-1) had a big shot advantage, but tied Mount Horeb 0-0 on Monday, April 8, at the Verona Area Soccer Stadium. The Wildcats were coming off a 7-1 win over Waukesha West on Saturday, April 6, in Verona. The Wildcats opened the season with a 7-1 loss to Kimberly on Friday, April 5, in Verona.

More than half the team are new players. Verona made a run to a WIAA Division 1 sectional championship and lost to Kettle Moraine 1-0 last year. Despite a young team, Verona has the same goals.

“The bar is high,” junior right outside midfielder Eily Duffy said. “That (state) will always be our goal. We have a high bar and I think that just makes us work harder as a team. You can’t get there on one player. You have to do it together as a team to get there.”

The only two games the Wildcats lost last year were to Division 1 state champion Muskego and state runner-up Kettle Moraine.

“It’s our third game and we have gotten better every time we have got on the field,” Verona coach Jen Faulkner said. “That’s what we ask from the girls. To be coachable and learn from our mistakes.”

Verona will play Kettle Moraine on Thursday, April 11, before a road test at Oregon on Saturday, April 13, at Huntoon Field.

“We have some really skilled returning players and new players,” Faulkner said. “They haven’t played together before. We could see that in our game against Kimberly. We hadn’t been outside and on the turf in a week and hadn’t played together except in the gym and it showed. On Saturday, we made some adjustments and it showed.”

Verona 0, Mount Horeb 0

For Duffy, the missed opportunities in a scoreless nonconference game against Mount Horeb can be invaluable learning lessons.

The Wildcats outshot the Vikings 14-1.

“I think composure on the ball is huge,” Duffy said. “When we get in the final third we are kind of new there and we are getting kind of nervous…We are learning how to play with each other, learning our skills and how we play and succeed as a team in the final third.”

Verona senior forward Izzy Plesac had a shot off the post in the 52nd minute. Only a minute later, Plesac fired a shot over the crossbar.

It appeared like Duffy had scored the go-ahead goal at 61 minutes, 19 seconds off a rebound from a corner kick. The referee waved the goal off because of an offsides call on the Wildcats.

“I was super excited,” Duffy said. “I thought it was a goal. I saw it wasn’t a goal and my first thought was get the next one and move on. My goal is to always focus on the next ball and keep moving with the play.”

Duffy fired a shot to the far post that Mount Horeb goaltender Addison Moel made a diving stop on to keep the game scoreless.

“This team is super young and what we can take away is I’m proud of all the girls who have stepped up that are new or who haven’t played on varsity yet,” Duffy said. “I’m really proud of our team play that they are doing. They are taking on huge roles. We are taking this on as a team. We lost a lot of people. We are going to win, lose together and unfortunately today we are going to tie together. We are going to come back tomorrow and keep moving forward.”

Verona freshman forward Noelle Rauwolf had a shot ricochet off the crossbar in the first half. Sophomore midfielder Tessa Poppen had a shot off the post in the second half.

Verona senior goaltender JoJo Rosenfeld had one save in the shutout.

“I thought our girls did a good job of letting the ball do the work for them, moving in and out of space,” Faulkner said. “We controlled the tempo and the pace. We built beautiful opportunities. We just couldn’t put the ball away. They have a fantastic goalie. We are super proud of the way they possessed the ball and dictated play.”

Verona 7, Waukesha West 1

Rauwolf scored four goals to power the Wildcats to a win over Waukesha West.

After a scoreless first half, the Wildcats exploded with seven goals in the second half. Plesac scored on an assist by Rauwolf at 43 minutes, 17 seconds. About a minute later, Duffy scored on an assist by sophomore midfielder Tessa Poppen. Rauwolf scored her first goal on an assist by sophomore defender Alexa Rupnow at 48:54 to give Verona a 3-0 lead.

After the Wolverines scored in the 52nd minute, the Wildcats answered. Rauwolf scored three goals in a 12-minute span. She scored her second goal of the game on a pass from Duffy at 59:28. She reached a hat trick with a goal on an assist by Duffy at 67:35. About four minutes later, Rauwolf scored her fourth goal of the game to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 6-1.

The Wildcats capped the scoring with sophomore defender Kate Zak scoring on a pass from Poppen at 77:24. The Wildcats outshot the Wolverines 12-6. Rosenfeld had five saves.

Kimberly 7, Verona 1

Poppen scored Verona’s lone goal on a penalty kick in the 42nd minute in a season-opening loss to Kimberly.

Kimberly outshot Verona 17-2. Rosenfeld had a game-high 10 saves. Kimberly’s Emily McKarthy netted a hat trick.