McFarland senior Ava Dean used her head in a girls soccer showdown between the Spartans and Oregon on Friday.
Dean scored on a header in the 64th minute off a corner kick by teammate Elise Freeman, giving McFarland a 1-0 victory.
“Ava has been extremely solid all season for us,” McFarland coach T.J. DiPrizio said.
McFarland entered the match fourth-ranked in Division 3 in the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association poll, while previously undefeated Oregon was No. 2 in Division 2.
Dean also has been a standout in girls volleyball and basketball for the Spartans.
She was named one of 32 girls and boys WIAA scholar athletes, selected as a scholar athlete in Division 2. She became the first girl from McFarland to receive the WIAA scholar athlete award, Spartans athletic director Paul Ackley said.
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McFarland’s victory over Oregon was its third consecutive 1-0 triumph, all against stiff competition. The Spartans defeated Belleville/New Glarus (Sugar River), then edged Mount Horeb last week.
Elyse Snortum key player for DeForest’s defense
DeForest has used a stout defense in its strong start this season.
Senior center back Elyse Snortum is one of the key components of the Norskies’ defense, DeForest coach Tim Esser said.
DeForest improved to 9-2-2 with seven shutouts after recording a 2-0 victory over Madison Memorial on Monday and a 7-0 victory over Fort Atkinson on Tuesday.
Those results followed an 8-0 victory over Beaver Dam on May 1, as the Norskies remained among the Badger Large Conference’s top teams, along with Oregon and Waunakee.
“Elyse is our premier senior leader,” Esser said. “She’s the most vocal player on the field for us in games and in practice. She keeps us driven as a team.”
Esser said center backs don’t fill the traditional stat sheet, but he said Snortum (who entered the week with a goal and two assists) and junior center back Mya Hanson are poised players who “are the heart and soul of our stingy defense.”
Snortum plans to attend St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and play soccer, Esser said.
Sonoma Bever sparks Madison Edgewood’s attack
On the offensive end of the field, Madison Edgewood junior Sonoma Bever is a persistent threat.
“Sonoma, obviously, is an amazing goal scorer,” Crusaders coach Chris Martinelli said. “She is an extremely dangerous player.”
Bever, who is committed to Wake Forest, scored on a penalty kick at the 42-minute, 45-second mark for Edgewood’s first goal in a 2-0 victory over Stoughton on Saturday.
She later made a run on the left side and crossed the ball to the right to freshman Lauryn Matenaer, who scored at 67:14, as Edgewood won its seventh consecutive game.
Bever scored for the Crusaders in a 1-0 victory over Reedsburg last week. She said she scored twice, including once on a penalty kick, and again had an assist to Matenaer in a 3-1 victory over Belleville/New Glarus in a meeting of state-ranked teams. The assist was an almost identical play as in the Stoughton game.
Bever typically takes penalty kicks for the Crusaders.
“I like it,” she said. “It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but it’s fun.”
Her teammates have confidence she will deliver in that situation.
“I know she’s going to make it every time,” Edgewood senior Lily Olson said.
Olson said Bever draws considerable defensive attention.
“A lot of the games, they are putting two or three people on her, so it’s really challenging for her to get shots off,” Olson said. “She still finds ways around them. She is trusting the runs (by teammates) will be there.”
Bever, who credited her teammates for their help, didn’t seem fazed by the defensive focus on her.
“I’ll just keep shooting it,” she said. “I just do my thing.”
Katelyn Studebaker strikes often for Oregon
Senior forward Katelyn Studebaker is a finisher for the Oregon girls soccer team.
Studebaker, who plans to play soccer at UW-La Crosse, has a knack for scoring. That’s been true her entire high school career, including scoring the winning goal in the 2022 WIAA Division 2 state title game.
Studebaker had two goals in a 10-0 victory over Beaver Dam last week, then opened the scoring with a goal in the Panthers’ 3-1 victory over Madison West on May 1 in a showdown of state-ranked teams.
Studebaker, while cutting across the field from right to left, took a long free-kick pass from Delaney Hoelker, volleyed it out of the air and booted it into the net only 2:37 into the match.
“That was a killer,” Oregon coach Bobby Nichols said. “When you score that fast, it’s hard to recover from that. It developed out of a set play we run. Delaney put it on her foot. We have the speed and power at forwards to do a lot of things. … That was a good win.”
Mia Ozanne soars for Madison West
Madison West sophomore midfielder/forward Mia Ozanne, whose two-goal performance against Verona and goal against Shorewood were among earlier-season highlights, added another highlight against Oregon.
She scored on a header off a corner kick from senior Emi Anderson at 73:07 against Oregon.
“At the start of corners, I try to raise my hand so they can see me and it’s easier to put the ball on my head,” the 5-foot-7 Ozanne said. “Emi did a great job of that, serving it in just perfectly for me to tip it right above the goalie and put that in.”
Ozanne’s ability to direct headers off corner kicks will be an effective play for the Regents moving forward.
“Emi played a nice ball into the area and Mia has been doing a good job of getting up and winning balls in the air,” said Regents coach Brandon Brown, whose team is leading the Big Eight Conference standings.
A discussion about family bragging rights took place after the match between Ozanne and Nichols, who is her uncle. Shiloh Ozanne is a freshman for the Regents and her father, Ismael Ozanne, is the Dane County District Attorney.
Vote for our supernova
Congratulations to Madison Memorial’s Delaney Weier, who received 65.5% of the vote in last week’s poll.
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Here’s the scene of Madison Edgewood girls soccer punching its ticket to state championship game