Geneva rallies to tie St. Charles E.
The Geneva boys soccer team was running out of time on Thursday night.
The Vikings trailed St. Charles East 1-0, but scored the equalizer with 5:51 remaining, and the two squads settled for a 1-1 draw in a Tri-Cities Challenge/Upstate Eight Conference River Division match at Batavia.
The nightcap between host Batavia and visiting St. Charles North was postponed after a bullet was found at St. Charles North forcing the cancellation of afternoon classes and all after-school activities.
Geneva senior Davin Ayarzagoita had a shot carom off St. Charles East sophomore goalie Mike Novotny with under six minutes remaining and Colin Carley collected the rebound and pounded it into the net to draw Geneva even at 1-1.
“We looked stagnant and (St. Charles) East controlled the game for large portions,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “We juggled the lineup in the second half to get more energy. We were able to draw even but couldn’t get the game-winner.”
Geneva (5-5-2, 1-1-2) had a few other chances after scoring the equalizer but couldn’t get any into the back of the net. Senior Sean McGrath had two such opportunities in the final minute for the Vikings.
“Once you get that first one the chances seem to keep coming,” McGrath said. “We moved (Kevin) Higgins out of the back up to the top in the second half and that gave us more chances.”
St. Charles East (4-6-2, 0-2-1) took a 1-0 lead at the 37:36 mark of the second half.
Novotny got the offense going by sending a beautiful long kick deep into the other end of the field. Sophomore James Myall took possession and sent a cross to senior Luke Cooper who fired it toward the opposite post for the score.
“I saw an opening and no one was marking me,” Cooper said. “I was pretty confident when I hit it that it was going in.”
The teams battled in extremely windy conditions. The Saints appeared to win the possession game in the first half, while it evened out more in the second half and resulted in far more scoring chances for the Vikings than they had in the first 40 minutes.
“We went 1-nil and I said to myself we need to put another one in during the next five minutes,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “It was just one of those games, unfortunately. It wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”
The Saints came awfully close to going ahead 1-0 at halftime as Michael Macek hammered a shot off the crossbar with 7:31 remaining. Another great chance came with 22:22 left in the second half when Daniel DiLeonardi lined a rising shot that Geneva keeper Steven Soderstrom somehow managed to snag with a two-handed grab.
“Both teams didn’t have their best games,” Cooper said. “But the conditions definitely evened things out.”
Including the final score.