Seymour girls soccer off to perfect start

SEYMOUR - So far this season when teams have played against the Seymour girls soccer team they have left with a blank feeling.

The Thunder has played 10 games this season and has allowed exactly zero goals.

In other words, Seymour has blanked every opponent this season.

“It’s exciting,” Thunder goalkeeper Maddie Plinska said. “My defense has done really great. I haven’t had to make a lot of great saves.”

Part of the reason for that is Seymour has achieved its 10 shutouts by working as a team. Plinska has had to make saves, but it’s more than that.

“We have real good communication,” Tiffany Fameree said. “We work well together, our defense is strong. Maddie, our goalie, is amazing, to say the least. It’s worked so far, so hopefully it can continue.”

Now soccer success is nothing new at Seymour – the team won a combined 28 games the last two seasons – but the run the Thunder is on now can be described as only impressive.

Seymour entered the season with just two seniors, but that hasn’t mattered. The Thunder is led by juniors Plinska, Fameree, Brianna Messner and Carli Peters who were all part of the 2010 team that reached a Division 2 sectional final before losing to Grafton.

Experience is not an issue, which may be why the Thunder isn’t thinking about state just yet. It wants to win the Bay Conference title and players mention West De Pere and Hortonville, which Seymour plays Tuesday, as its key hurdles.

But the players also know what they play for is a trip to Milwaukee, where the state tournament is played.

“That’d be really huge,” said Messner about the possibility of reaching state. “My freshman year was the best season this program has had in the 12 seasons we’ve had soccer.”

“Conference is a big one,” Plinska said. “Getting as far as we can … hopefully state. Everyone wants to go to state.”

Seymour’s 10-0 record is better than any of the teams ranked in the Division 2 Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association poll, which ranks just five teams. In fact, no ranked team is undefeated.

Based on record, Seymour should be ranked, but that’s not how it works in Wisconsin. The ranked teams are almost exclusively from the Milwaukee-Madison area, but that’s OK.

“It doesn’t mean much,” Messner said, who's father Todd is the coach. “Usually the private schools are ranked really high. We just do as well as we can.”

And right now Seymour can’t be doing any better – 10 wins all by shutout. The Thunder believes if it keeps playing as well as it is, this roll can continue, at least in conference play.

The Thunder doesn’t see any team beating it when it’s at its best.

“I don’t think so,” Messner said. “If we’re doing as well as we can, I think other teams don’t have a chance to beat us. We have already got this far, so if we can keep going with that, it would awesome.”

While Seymour has played a perfect 10 games, it has room for improvement, maybe moreso on offense than anywhere else. Seymour has won six of its 10 games by 2-0 or 1-0 scores and has yet to score five goals in a game.

“We can improve so much more by the end of the year,” Peters said. “I don’t know where we’d be at if we get there.”

The state tournament?

Time will tell, but Messner knows how the Thunder can get there as she said, “As long as they don’t score, they can’t win.”

Hard to argue with that logic.

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

doug.ritchay@wluk.com