Batavia blows out St. Charles East
The meaning of the first name Cody is helper.
After Tuesday night’s Upstate Eight Conference River Division boys soccer clash between Batavia and St. Charles East, perhaps scorer should be added to the definition.
Senior forwards Cody Balogh and Cody Witkowski netted 2 goals apiece while leading the host Bulldogs (2-0, 1-0) to a convincing 6-1 victory over the Saints (1-1, 0-1).
“Scoring goals makes things easy,” said Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco. “We have the type of team that is going to keep attacking, and we’ve got a lot of guys who are capable of scoring.”
Batavia, which has scored 12 goals in its first two games, began applying pressure right from the outset, as Witkowski’s blast was turned away by Saints keeper Nick Novotny just 20 seconds into the contest.
Eleven minutes later, the Bulldogs struck first when Cam Callipari took a feed from midfielder Anthony Torres, and with a defender draped on him, lofted a shot past Novotny.
It was a sign of things to come, as the Bulldogs added 2 more goals within a 5-minute span midway through the opening half.
Balogh notched his first goal of the game off a steal and pass from Torres to make it 2-0 before Witkowski launched a 30-foot free kick into the upper left-hand corner of the net for a 3-0 halftime lead.
“Anthony stole the ball and one-touched it right through,” Balogh said of the Bulldogs’ second goal. “We have real good distributors in the middle in Anthony (Torres), Cody (Witkowski) and (Eduardo) Cuautle. They put it there and we finished.”
The defending UEC River champion Saints got on the board in the 52nd minute when Austin Jackman converted on a penalty kick after getting pushed down just inside the box.
Despite giving up their first goal of the young season, the Bulldogs answered almost immediately as Balogh’s sliding shot off a corner kick from Cuautle snuck past reserve keeper Mike Novotny for a 4-1 lead.
“I liked the way we came back after they scored their first goal,” said Gianfrancesco. “We weren’t rattled at all.”
Cuautle, who finished with 3 assists and had a couple near-misses on long left-footed blasts that were deflected over the crossbar, helped set up Nick Barstatis and Witkowski for the Bulldogs’ final 2 goals of the night.
“When we were up 3-0 at halftime, we told ourselves that we needed to come out and get a couple more (goals) and put them away,” said Balogh. “That’s what we did.”
Saints coach Paul Jennison took the loss in stride after watching his team get outshot 19-7.
“What can you say? They’re a good team,” Jennison said of the Bulldogs. “The last three years we’ve played them, I think we’ve controlled the middle and we’ve been strong enough on the outside to get two wins over them.
“Tonight, you could tell it was a group of seniors up against a very young team. It’s the second game of the season. It’s not like it was the regional final and we’re out. We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve taken worse knocks than this and come back. We’ll be all right.”