Heading into its rivalry game against Mill Valley, De Soto's girls soccer team was able to regain some momentum and again claim a winning record Tuesday night with a 4-1 victory over Maranatha. The victory pushed the Wildcats record to 5-4-1.

Two first-half goals by Nicole Radcliffe and two second-half goals by Danielle Price were all it took to beat the Eagles. It was the Wildcats' fourth game in six days.

"The girls were a little bit worn down," coach Darren Erpelding said. "We started off slow, the wind had a factor in that, obviously. But I was talking to my assistant, and we're sitting there going, 'Man, we're controlling this game.' It may have been on our half of the field, but we were controlling the game."

Although De Soto started the game going into the teeth of a south wind, De Soto got more shots off on the Eagles than vice versa.

Julie Bray put the pressure on the Maranatha goalkeeper first with a shot on goal 6 minutes, 50 seconds into the match. Radcliffe got possession of the ball in Maranatha territory and crossed it to Bray, who pushed the shot wide.

The only near-shots the Eagles got in the early-going were a series of corner kicks between 24 minutes and 20 minutes left in the first half. De Soto thwarted each before Maranatha got a shot off.

Radcliffe got the Wildcats on the board with just under six minutes remaining in the first half when Price passed a ball into Maranatha territory and Radcliffe outran the Eagles' defense and scored.

"Things kind of turned around then," Erpelding said. "We started to possess the ball more on their end."

The score moved to 2-0 when Radcliffe scored again with 2 minutes, 25 seconds remaining in the half. This time Carly Stanley started the play with a pass to Price in the middle of the field. Price turned and got the ball to Radcliffe who again outran the Maranatha defense and put the ball past the keeper, this time with her left foot.

Maranatha's lone goal came just before the half, with about 30 seconds to play. De Soto defender Amber Laudick and Maranatha's Carly Mikuls gave chase to a ball near De Soto's goal. Laudick and Mikuls got tangled up, and Wildcat goalkeeper Jamie Zvirgdins came out of the net to try a sliding save. Mikuls got the shot off and the score was 2-1 at half.

Price scored twice in the second half, the first with 28 minutes, 46 seconds remaining and again with 16 minutes, 59 seconds to go. Radcliffe assisted one of the goals and the other was all Price's doing, on a corner kick.

It was never really in question the second half, with the Wildcats controlling the ball and taking shot after shot on-goal.

Maranatha, meanwhile, took only one shot in the second half and crossed the ball over midfield less than a handful of times.

De Soto took 35 shots on the night.

"We made their keeper look like an All-American," Erpelding said. "We hit so many just right at her. We were high, we were wide, so we were relentless on them, we just couldn't fit the ball in."

The win capped off a string of school days when De Soto had no time for practice. Wednesday was the first day off the team had since the previous Wednesday, April 9.

Last Thursday the team dropped a close game, 2-1, at Piper. Price scored De Soto's only goal off three shots-on-goal. Zvirgdins had eight saves against 10 Piper shots-on-goal.

Then the Wildcats played a talented St. James squad and lost, 5-0. De Soto was unable to get a shot off the entire game, while Zvirgdins tallied 16 saves.

"I felt good after the St. James game because, they lost 3-2 against the No. 7 team in the nation," Erpelding said. "They are a phenomenal team. I felt good about that, and so did the girls. We felt good that we stayed with them."

A 6-1 loss to Topeka Seaman followed Monday, and Erpelding was not as pleased with his team's performance.

De Soto got on the board first in the game with a goal from Radcliffe. It held the lead for about 10 minutes before Seaman scored the rest of the goals in the match.

"I didn't think we played with the same intensity. I didn't think we played with the same effort," Erpelding said. "It was almost like when it got to 2-1, the girls thought they had lost the game."

The team now gets to regroup for a day, get some rest and practice before the 6 p.m. game Thursday at home.

Mill Valley won the game a year ago, so De Soto's returning players may have extra motivation going into the game. Mill Valley also will have played two games in the early part of the week.

"If we can come out and play well Thursday, I'll feel pretty darn good about how this last couple of weeks went," Erpelding said.