Minnier’s hat trick pushes Downingtown West past Great Valley

By Bryan Davis
bdavis@medianewsgroup.com
@btdavis25 on Twitter

DOWNINGTOWN >> Great Valley already had one major name on its victory wall, when they surprised West Chester Henderson, and was looking for another against Downingtown West.
But, Ava Minnier wouldn’t hear of it. The senior midfielder scored the first of her three goals early in the second half as the Whippets went on to post a 3-1 soccer victory over Great Valley on a warm, sunny Monday afternoon at DiSerafino Stadium.
“That was a tough one for us today,” said Great Valley coach Jen Michewicz. “We had a gameplan and we didn’t execute it. We just had trouble getting into our style of play. We knew who we had to watch on Downingtown West and she got a hat trick.”
A scoreless first half didn’t stay that way for long. Just 45 seconds after the break, Ella Jahromi sent in a cross that found Minnier alone at point-blank range and didn’t need to use her 6-0 frame as she made no mistake, heading it past Great Valley goalie Megan Stairs to open the scoring.
Minnier was denied a second about 10 minutes later, as she broke in one-on-one, but was stopped by the feet of an onrushing Stairs.
The second did come with a little over 35 minutes left, and it was a near carbon copy of the first. This time, it was junior Lanie Klapac supplying the service that found the head of Minnier, who turned it in for a two-goal advantage.
“I had two great balls coming from out wide and I was lucky to be in the right space and was able to get my head on it and put in in the corner,” said Minnier.
“We finished in the second half. We didn’t finnish in the first,” said West coach Megan Brophy.
The Whippets did a terrific job limiting Great Valley’s talented forward Maggie Peterson and her ability to create offense in a blink of an eye.
West had one major defensive breakdown and the Patriots pounced to get on the board. Peterson drove the right endline to send in a cross that deflected off two players right into the path of Gillian Yonce. She fired it into the back of the back of the net to reduce the deficit to one.
“I think we started to feel hopeful at that moment as we generated some offense,” said Michewicz. “We had a good offensive gameplan trying to get through balls wide to our outside forwards. But, Downingtown held us from doing that.”
The goal that sealed it came from a brillant piece of skill from Minnier, who was able to get some space on her defender and fired a 25-yard shot that hit off the underside of the crossbar and settled into the net for a 3-1 lead.
“I saw an opportunity to turn against her (defender),” Minnier said. “So I took one touch and took a quick shot and fortunately, it went underneath the crossbar, I couldn’t be happier.”
The Whippets held a decided 24-3 advantage in shots, Stairs recorded eight saves, while Kylie Seckinger was only called on for one save for West.
Illness and injuries have forced the Whippets to play a lot of youngsters who would be counted on as the drive for the Division 1 playoffs reaches its apex.
“Technically, we’re in a pretty precarious postseason position, so we’re kind of fighting for our playoff lives,” said Brogan. “They know that every game is critical. We just want to try to get better from game to game.”

Downingtown West 3, Great Valley 1
Great Valley 0 1 — 1
Downingtown West 0 3 — 3
Great Valley goal: Yonce.
Downingtown West goals: Minnier 3.