AURORA — Lily Senese has shown she could score.

On Thursday night, she welcomed the opportunity to talk about it.

The Metea Valley junior scored twice to lead the Mustangs to a 4-1 victory over Wheaton North in an opening round match of the round-robin Wheaton North Kickoff Tournament that saw the no. 2 ranked Mustangs host the no. 33 ranked Falcons.

“I haven’t been interviewed before,” Senese revealed. “Honestly, they were great goals. I just went to the ball, and it was there. I just needed to put it in the back of the net because we needed to get the lead.”

To be fair, the forward has been scoring goals well before joining the team a year ago -- last spring she scored nine goals and had six assists. However, her interview opportunities were somewhat stymied due to now-graduated Chicagoland Soccer all-staters Jordan Lange and Tyra King.

“She deserves all the credit in the world tonight,” Mustangs coach Chris Whaley said. “She just outworked everybody. She has a lot of energy. She’s an aggressive kid, and we love that. We’re just trying to get it channeled where it’s super productive, and tonight it was.”

Wheaton North (1-1-0) struck first when sophomore star and returning all-stater Jane Rogers sent in a long ball in the box to junior Talia Kaempf, who connected with 22:31 left in the opening half.

“We played when we were younger so we’ve had a lot of connections,” Kaempf said. “She knew where I was running.”

Metea Valley (2-0-0) didn’t waste time in responding, tying things up with 18:17 left in the half after they got the ball out wide to Lucy Burk who sent in a cross to Senese.

“I honestly didn’t know if it was going to come through but ran anyway,” Senese said. “We just needed the goal to get back in the game.”

With a strong crosswind playing a factor for both sides, Burk adjusted her attack to get the ball into the box for her teammate.

“I knew that with the wind going this way, it was going to go over,” she said. “I followed the ball out and made a little move and kind of realized that the ball on the floor, cutting the ball on the back on the floor wasn’t working,” she said.  “So, I figured I would chip it up, because we’ve got players that can get their head on the ball like Lily (Senese) and Jess (Terada) and Sydney (Phillips). Like they all can get their head on the ball and are not afraid of it. So, I thought I’d sent it in that way.”

The Lily to Lucy and/or Lucy to Lily connection should be a fun one this spring for the Mustangs.

"Last year was (Senese’s) first year on varsity and me and her we automatically clicked off the field which translated on the field,” said Burk, who earned all-state recognition as a junior last spring. “And especially this year because there are major attacking roles that need to be filled from last year missing Tyra (King) and missing Jordan (Lange). I think Lily is doing a great job of filling that in.”

The only thing that prevented Metea Valley midfielder Mckenna Wigfield from giving the Mustangs a 2-1 lead going into halftime was time.

Wigfield got to a ball ahead of Wheaton North goalkeeper Leah Roe and sent it into the back of the net but couldn’t get it there within the nick of time required for it to count.

“That was such a good play, too,” Whaley said. “The linesman said she was on the line, and she heard the buzzer go off before it crossed the line. I was watching her and able to hear the horn. It seemed like it was at the same time, so I was surprised they didn’t count it, but I’m not going to argue about it. It’s a close call.”

The scoreboard operator punched a “2” on the home side, but it was ultimately wiped away and the two sides congregated during the break tied at 1-1 after 40 minutes.

“It was a shocker for sure, because even if (Wigfield) didn’t get the ball off, she was right there,” Burk said. “I feel like it’s the effort, and she deserved it.”

It could’ve been a letdown.

“We kind of realized that, and that we deserved it so we said we might as well go get three or four more now that that one was taken away from us.” Burk said. “We might as well keep building. It was kind of our feel going into the second half.”

Senese scored the go-ahead goal barely five minutes into the second half on a rebound After junior midfielder Olivia Hernandez blasted in a shot that Roe knocked down, but couldn’t contain, Senese swooped in and followed the rebound, quickly sending it home for a 2-1 lead with 34:28 left to play.

“I just saw an open opportunity to get a finish in and sprinted as fast as I could to it and I then I got it in,” she said. “Honestly, our team has been working really well together from the start. We’ve been able to connect to feet really well, and everyone has a positive attitude no matter what and is very supportive of each other.”

Burk extended the lead to 3-1 after launching a bomb from nearly 40-yards away with 17:15 left.

After nine goals and 11 assists a year ago, Burk is looking for a strong finish before she takes her talents to Northern Michigan. One way she’s gotten better is by getting bigger and stronger which was apparent Thursday.

“I’ve always been more of a dump behind type of player and just run straight onto it, but I started lifting a little bit more sophomore year and been kind of been doing it consistently from here on out.” she said. “It’s making me slower but making me stronger, and I think that’s really a powerful skill to have to be strong on the ball.”

Junior forward Isabelle Leofanti finished the scoring with 15:40 left. Leofanti had a couple goals and assists a season ago.

“The other night we had a couple different girls step up. Tonight we had a few more step up, and I’m happy,” Whaley said. “I think we’ve shown a lot of progress in just a short period of time. The girls are clicking, and we’re pretty organized. We’ve given up two goals in two games, which we’ll work on, but yeah pretty happy. When we shut down Jane (Rogers). who scored 20 goals last year, that’s a pretty good sign. Defensively we’re doing ok.”

Wheaton North is expecting to do more than okay this season. Coming off a 14-6-2 season and with all-state selections in Rogers and Zoey Bohmer back, the Falcons are expected to be quite competitive again this year.

Bohmer (Loyola Chicago), who had 12 shutouts and a 0.95 GAA, is expected to return to the net shortly while Roe had the daunting chore of trying to shut down the second-ranked team in the state, according to Chicagoland Soccer’s First 50 preseason poll.

“The difference (in the second half) was a couple of mistakes,” Falcons coach Tim McEvilly said. “Those last two goals were killers. We put (Roe) in a tight spot. She’s just coming back from an ACL injury, and Zoe (Bohmer) is recovering right now, taking some time off. 

“Leah (Roe) hasn’t been in goal too much for the past 12 months but she’s got great potential. This is a lot of pressure to feel here in your first two games of your varsity career and to play against Metea. It was just momentary lapses, but I think she’s the kind of kid that can play at the next level for sure.”

Wheaton North senior defender Addison Falco recognizes that it’s a long season and tough matchups can ultimately help the team in the long run.

“I mean this is a really great team,” she said. "They’re solid. We just need to keep our work ethic and keep the team chemistry up and keep those connections building. Obviously, we still got to get in shape as always. It’s the second game of the season, but I just think we just got to keep working, and we can be a really good team.”

So far, strides are being made even when the desired results aren’t met.

“We have so many key newcomers, and they’re all really stepping up,” Falcons senior Mira Spillane said. “(Sophomore) Casey (Kenny) and (junior) Grace (Kuczaj), the wings, are really taking people on, and the backline we have (freshman) Emily Mack coming in strong and also (freshman) Shayne (Berner, a defensive midfielder). 

“I’m really proud of our team for stepping up even all the girls from JV and the freshmen. They’ve been great so far and are really communicating with us and working well with us, so super proud of them.”

Tough challenges will be par for the course for the Falcons. Their next four matches are against Glenbard West, no. 22 Benet, no. 35 Boylan and no. 15 St. Charles North.

“All this stuff right now, we have a tough tournament that we set up on purpose with quality squads that are going to challenge you all the time,” McEvilly said. “We have some quality players ourselves and also half of our squad is new to the varsity level. 

“So if you can measure yourself against the best and just kind of grow from there, that is really the goal for this time of the year for us. I like a lot of things about what we’re doing. We have to clean up our possession of the ball to give ourselves more chances to be successful. We’ve got to look to challenge people behind the defense instead of just playing it into feet for Talia (Kaempf) and Jane (Rogers), but we’ll get to that point.”

Now in his 24th season, McEvilly continues to love the opportunity of coaching girls soccer at Wheaton North.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “It’s been great. I’ve been coaching high school now for 30 years and have always thought of each season as one in-and-of itself. It’s not about last year’s team or last year’s record or anything I’m doing, it’s just about what we’re doing and if you can enjoy each other and the experience and challenge yourself to get better. It’s a great place to be. I’m fortunate to be here for sure.”

Starting lineups

Wheaton North
GK: Leah Roe
D: Addison Falco
D: Kylee Gosling
D: Mira Spillane
MF: Chloe Keating
MF: Annie Pyykkonen
MF: Calah Strong
F: Talia Kaempf
F: Casey Kenny
F: Grace Kuczaj
F: Jane Rogers

Metea Valley
GK: Alyssa Gluting
D: Kyleigh Jannish
D: Sydney Phillips
D: Jessica Terada
MF: Kaylee Hansen
MF: Olivia Hernandez
MF: Emma Strcic
MF: Mckenna Wigfield
F: Lucy Burk
F: Isabelle Leofanti
F: Lily Senese

Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Lily Senese, jr., F, Metea Valley

Scoring summary

First half
Wheaton North: Talia Kaempf (Jane Rogers), 17’
Metea Valley: Lily Senese (Lucy Burk), 21’

Second half
Metea Valley: Lily Senese (Olivia Hernandez), 46’
Metea Valley: Lucy Burk (unassisted), 63’
Metea Valley: Isabelle Leofanti (unassisted), 65’