WEST SALEM — Players and coaches for the West Salem High School girls soccer team were confident that they could enjoy a good spring season in the MVC.
They also knew they’d understand a lot more about what they could bring to the field after playing just a few games to prepare for a challenging conference schedule.
Baraboo, Rice Lake and Madison Edgewood all had winning records a year ago. The Warriors were WIAA Division 3 state semifinalists, and the Crusaders were Division 3 sectional finalists. Both posted 12 victories.
So when the Panthers won two of those three games — they knocked off the Thunderbirds and Warriors and lost to Edgewood — it was apparent that positive things could happen.
“I told the girls we were starting out with a very, very tough schedule,” West Salem coach Lionel Karyea said. “We got a lot of the results we wanted.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted against Edgewood, which is a very good team, but we saw that we could play with those teams. Those games, especially the Rice Lake game, were important for us when we played Onalaska and Central.”
The Panthers are 6-1-1 overall and 4-0 in the MVC after shutting out Sparta 4-0 on Thursday.
That victory followed a 3-1 win over the Hilltoppers and a 1-0 victory over the RiverHawks in the previous week. Onalaska (6-2, 3-1) and Central (6-1-1, 3-1-0) are traditionally the two hardest teams to beat in the conference, and the Panthers had used their early-season experience to their advantage.
The Panthers had lost all six games played against the Hilltoppers and RiverHawks in 2023 and 2024 and scored just one goal in those contests.
“Onalaska is always a good team, and we know they lost a lot of pieces from last year,” Karyea said. “They are young but still very good and scored a very nice goal against us.
“We got a really good break on them to get a goal early. As the game went on, we started to feel like we could beat them.”
Beating a team that Karyea acknowledged “has been on top of the conference for forever” was quite a feather in the Panthers’ cap. So was the victory over Rice Lake.
And they set up West Salem for a big performance against Central at Fields for Kids 10 days after the RiverHawks played to a scoreless tie against River Falls, which is ranked eighth by state coaches in Division 2 after climbing as high as fifth in the second poll of the season.
“We played the ball out wide more and crossed it in to score,” said West Salem senior Brynlee Kelly, who has seven goals and five assists. “We also pressured high, but Central has some faster players, so we had to keep our faster players on the field to defend that.”
The Panthers finally scored when junior Emily Graham punched a ball past the keeper in the 88th minute, and the performance gave them the first of two straight shutouts.
Defense is what the team thought could make a difference in the level of success the team enjoyed, and allowing one goal of the past three games suggests that side of the ball is performing well with senior Kayla Olson and junior Maya Hoff — Karyea refers to Hoff as a Swiss Army knife — leading the way.
“Defense is definitely what brings us together,” Kelly said. “We are good at moving the ball. Our defenders are good with the ball on their feet and can pretty much do it all.
“It’s nice to have that.”
Karyea agreed with the bonding effect good defense has had with the Panthers. It’s a group that does a lot of things well and understands what’s needed.
“The IQ of the game is what you see,” said Karyea, whose team has posted a winning record in each of the past three seasons. “They listen, they know when to move in on a spot when somebody leaves it, and they talk a lot to each other.
“That’s something they’ve really picked up as the season keeps going on. They are really working for each other.”
As far as the offense taking advantage of that, the Panthers have used many players to beat the opposing goalkeeper. Kelly and Graham have accounted for the most official production — goals and assists — but juniors Addy Ferguson and Brisha Brisenso and seniors Emily Fell and Samantha Niemeier have also scored goals.
West Salem continues its season by playing Aquinas (4-1-1, 1-1-1) at Fields for Kids on Tuesday. That game kicks off at 7 p.m.
