As the Waterford soccer team marched to the Class 2A soccer championship, it became clear almost immediately that the backbone of the team was defense.

Prior to the championship game with St. Joseph's, goalkeeper Jeannie Woller lay on the ground and enjoyed a few moments of visualization and relaxation. She imagined herself stopping everything, blocking anything close and putting the skids on a five-game losing streak to region rival St. Joseph.

As she did in each of her previous playoff games, Woller pitched a shutout, helping the Ravens get another title with a 1-0 win. For her efforts, Woller is The Salt Lake Tribune's 2A soccer Most Valuable Player.

"This team believed from the beginning, and there was never any doubt that we could beat St. Joseph's," said Woller. "We didn't want to be cocky, so we were humbled but that also helped instill a passion that there was no way we were going to lose this game."

It was freshman Grace Sponagle who headed home the winning goal, but Woller and her defenders made scoring against them an impossible endeavor.

"Irreplaceable and invaluable" is how Waterford coach Tim Doblin described his keeper.

The whirlwind season started for the Ravens with three straight losses. Doblin was forced to switch up his lineup until the very end of the season in order to find the group that played the best together.

"We probably weren't super confident about our defense until the regular-season finale when we held Wasatch scoreless, including two extra periods," he said.

Woller tends to be a talker from her position. She said the back line communicates when they're having problems, a big contributor to the seven consecutive shutouts.

"We trained very hard, but we knew we had to have 12 players that were capable of playing the whole 80 minutes," said Dolbin.

On playing such an integral part in her team's defense, Woller attributes much of her success to her back line but said a goalie must step back and look at the whole picture.