Juan Ponce de Leon obviously was headed in the wrong direction when searching for the Fountain of Youth in 1513.
Instead of heading to an area that would become Florida, he should have been traveling west on Ogden Avenue toward Aurora.
Today that’s where anyone can find the nation’s No. 1 girls soccer team with three of the youngest and most talented players in Illinois.
Waubonsie Valley is unbeaten (27-0-1) and headed to the Class AA state finals thanks in large part to the efforts of sophomores Bri Rodriguez, Claire Hanold and freshman Vanessa DiBernardo.
For their impact this season, all three have been named to the Tribune’s 2007All-State Girls Soccer team.
The disappointment of last season’s early exit in the state playoffs served as a constant reminder for the Warriors.
“We played with much more heart this year,” Rodriguez said. “We know we didn’t play our best last year and we could’ve played much better.”
Rodriguez fought off the double- and triple-teams to prove her point. She scored 16 goals—including an overtime game-winner against Naperville North on April 27. More impressive were her 22 assists.
“We have 11 great players, and if they’re going to mark me, someone else on my team is going to step up,” she said.
She talked about the valuable role played by Meagan Lynch, one of Waubonsie’s eight seniors. Then Rodriguez, whose senior sister Kylee has 11 goals, turned to the subject of DiBernardo.
“If people worry about me and don’t worry about Vanessa, then that’s a mistake,” she said.
The freshman had only one goal in Waubonsie’s first seven games. But DiBernardo wound up leading the team in scoring with 17 goals to go along with 13 assists.
She admitted being nervous in the supersectional final against St. Charles East.
“I’ve never played in front of that many people in my whole life,” said DiBernardo, referring to the crowd of 1,500 at Benedictine University on Monday.
The 15-year-old daughter of Waubonsie boys coach Angelo DiBernardo, who played for the New York Cosmos with Pele, apparently got over her nervousness: She scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
Goalkeeper Hanold has played every minute of all 28 games for the Warriors, has given up only seven goals and notched a school-record 22 shutouts with the help of a defense headed by senior Christen Schuler. But Hanold doesn’t feel young.
“When I play, I don’t feel any age difference at all,” she said.
Fremd was the only other program with more than one player on the All-State team, landing senior forward Caroline VanAcker and senior Janina Locascio.
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