By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Heading into the week, the Delavan-Darien girls soccer team had been up and down throughout the early stages of the season. At 3-3-1 overall, the Comets had conference games last week against Wilmot and Burlington, and the flashy, yet inconsistent play, continued.
The first game featured a road contest at Wilmot Union High School, which was the Comets’ first conference game of the season. In the 17th minute, freshman forward Suleimy Perez started her big night scoring her first goal and putting the Comets ahead.
Delavan-Darien never ceased control of the game, as five minutes later, Perez assisted on a goal, scored by senior forward Emily Zugay, who gave the team a 2-0 lead. The score stayed the same until halftime, but Perez got back into the scoring column once play resumed, pushing the score to 3-0.
To finish the game, Wilmot got a goal of its own, making the final score, 3-1. The win for the Comets took them over the .500 mark on the season, while senior goalkeeper Macie Hill recorded seven saves in 75 minutes of action, allowing zero goals.
Head coach Mike Marse said he knew coming into the season that the strong part of the team would be in its offense.
“I thought we looked pretty good for our first conference game,” Marse said. “It’s a little bit of a change from what we’ve done in the past, but I knew that our defense was going to be young, so I figured, let’s put some of our more experience players up top. Three of our defenders don’t have any varsity experience before this.”
In the second game of the week, Delavan-Darien couldn’t keep the momentum going, as they played the Southern Lakes Conference leader, Burlington High School. Through the first 10 minutes of play, the Demons got out in front, taking the lead 2-0 early.
Perez made the game more interesting in the 15th minute, as she scored an unassisted goal, making it 2-1. The Demons regained control though, scoring the next five goals unanswered, going on to win the game, 7-1.
Junior forward Merin Mundt scored four goals in the contest for Burlington, giving them a 6-2-2 record overall after the victory. With the loss, Delavan-Darien went back to .500 both overall, at 4-4-1, and in conference, at 1-1.
Marse said he knew coming into the game that it was going to be difficult going against the Demons.
“We figure that Burlington is going to be the team to beat,” Marse said. “So that will kind of judge what the rest of the conference is going to be like.”
The Comets were scheduled to play at Waterford on Tuesday and against Elkhorn at home Thursday.
Also rounding out the week ahead on Saturday, Delavan-Darien will be in a tournament in Cudahy in which six teams will participate.
