When Tori DellaPeruta started her high school career at West Forsyth, she said her main goal outside of a state championship was to score 50 goals in one season.
In Wednesday night’s 7-1 victory over Parkview in the Class 7A Elite Eight, DellaPeruta achieved her goal of 50 goals and added her 51st for good measure.
“It’s an awesome feeling” DellaPeruta said. “Though it’s awesome, I could not have done it without my teammates. They’re the ones that are finding me.”
DellaPeruta added her 51st goal at the end of the first half, but Courtney JeBavy led the team with a hat trick, her final two goals coming in the last eight minutes of the game. Her final goal was directly off of her corner attempt, the fourth time she’s done that this season.
“Once you get two, I feel like why not try and go for three?” JeBavy said after the game. “It was all about getting to have fun there at the end.”
DellaPeruta’s 50th goal came 14 minutes into the game as she rushed forward past the goalie for the score. Between DellaPeruta’s two goals, Bennet Beisbier came forward on a corner kick and sent a beautiful header to the left of the Parkview goalie.
“Once we went up by three, that’s a number where I can get comfortable,” West head coach Jason Galt said. “Then I start moving girls around and they start becoming creative with what they’re doing and having more fun. A lot of the stress is gone.”
The half ended 3-0 after a screamer by DellaPeruta to the top of the net. After the halftime break, JeBavy wasted no time starting on her hat trick. Her first handful of shot attempts in the second half were blocked, but 14 minutes in, she scored her first after a series of passes across the field.
JeBavy scored her final two goals, but the most impressive of all West’s goals tonight was from Savannah Booker, her first of the season. From the 20-yard line, Booker collected the pass from DellaPeruta with her left foot and sent a chip shot over the keeper's head and into the back of Parkview’s net.
“For us, when we get the first goal, we become sharks in the water,” Galt said. “As a coach, it’s fun to watch these girls execute the plan you put out in front of them.”
JeBavy said that the team put an emphasis on starting the game with a quick pace. She added that she thought her team started off slowly against Mill Creek when the Hawks started off quick, catching the Wolverines off-guard.
“I think everyone on the team has learned that the way you start the game truly sets the pace for the rest of the game,” JeBavy said.
Galt told his team at the end of the game that practice was canceled so the Wolverines could scout their next opponent Thursday in a matchup between Harrison and Roswell. West played Roswell in their season-opening scrimmage and won 4-1.
West is one of two Region 6-7A teams remaining in the state tournament, with undefeated Lambert on the other side of the bracket and playing its quarterfinals match Thursday against Brookwood.
West’s only region loss was against Lambert in a penalty-kick thriller, and the Wolverines want their revenge in the state championship.
“That’s what I want,” DellaPeruta said. “For Lambert to go the entire way to the state championship and then we destroy them.”