Vanderkooi brace powers Delhi to 2-0 win in Waterford

Delhi Raiders’ Kaitlyn Vanderkooi, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring her second goal in a 2-0 win against Waterford.

Chris Abbott

Editor

Norfolk County’s high school soccer season is not a marathon – the regular season is a two-and-a-half-week sprint.

On Thursday, April 30, Delhi District Secondary School Raiders girls soccer team shut out Waterford 2-0 at WDHS.

It was already Waterford’s third game of the AABHN season. The Wolves had opened with a 1-0 win over Cayuga, followed by a 2-1 win against Holy Trinity. On Monday, May 4, the Waterford girls tied Valley Heights 2-2 at Valley Heights, with two games to play later in the week.

Delhi girls had a slow start to their season with a 5-1 loss to Simcoe Composite and a 4-0 loss in an injury-shortened game against Hagersville.

The win in Waterford had the Raiders smiling as they broke a scoreless tie early in the second half, then added insurance with about seven minutes left to play.

Kaitlyn Vanderkooi scored both goals for the Raiders, knocking in a rebound for her first goal.

“The second one, I got a cross and went from that,” said Vanderkooi, who won the race to a through ball and redirected it past the Waterford goalie while narrowly avoiding a collision inside the 18-yard box.

Waterford had its second-half chances, but the Raiders were able to take advantage of their opportunities.

“I thought we focused more on passing and saying who was going to take it,” said Vanderkooi. “That really helped us to know who was going to get it… because in the first half, we weren’t really talking and passing and looking, and the second half we were. So that helped us a lot.”

The team goal, she said, is to continue passing and talking.

“Really become a family on the field and be there for each other.”

Defensively, the Raiders were strong, closing gaps and quickly coming to the aid of Grade 9 goalie Ruby Hoover, who was named Delhi’s player of the game.

“They did great! They’re definitely doing great,” said Vanderkooi. “We’ve improved a lot in our last games. Lots of practicing paid off.”

“Today was a great day, the girls played really, really well today,” said Delhi coach Brandi Arthur. “They are a young team – we lost 11 players from last year. So we have 15 girls, and we only have one Grade 12 player – we’re very young.”

Players have shifted into new positions to fill key roles, so there’s been a lot of learning, said Arthur.

“Today it really came together which is nice to see. It was a good game overall and we’re happy with that. We needed to get some points.” The coach said the Raiders are fortunate to have Hoover in net.

“She plays rep soccer outside of school… so we hope to have her for four or five years, that’s for sure. That’s a big game changer, too, because we’ve been missing an actual soccer-trained goaltender for a lot of years.”

Going forward, learning and building are two main goals, said Arthur, and doing it together as a team.

“Never getting down on ourselves or on each other as a group… because we are learning and growing. We have to realize we are going to make mistakes, it’s OK, but we just have to keep moving forward.”

Coming into the season, the Raiders aimed to play in the AABHN quarter-finals.

“Typically we have a good showing in quarter-finals… but it’s never quite enough. We never end on that top end, but we have shown progression and improvement. I’m hoping this year we can win some games there. We’ll see how it goes.”

Arthur noted that Vanderkooi, one of three rep soccer players on the team, also scored Delhi’s goal in the season opener against SCS. “It’s funny – she typically plays a defensive role on her other team… and I don’t see her as a defensive player. She is offence,” Arthur smiled.