St. Charles E. edges Batavia
There was a lot of celebrating done by St. Charles East’s players when Anna Corirosi scored the only goal of the Upstate Eight Conference River Division match with Batavia.
While there were congratulations for those who crossed and those who took initial shots and tried to knock the ball on subsequently, at the center of the hugs and discussions was Corirosi, who capped a Saturday in which the Saints had numerous chances to score.
“It was a really good cross,” Corirosi said. “Amanda (Hilton) hit it and it kind of bounced around and I hit it and tucked it in.”
Saturday’s win puts the Saints’ record at 7-4-2 overall and 2-1 in the River Division following Tuesday’s loss to Geneva.
“It feels good to win again,” Corirosi said.
As with the Geneva match, the intensity level was at a very high level throughout the 80 minutes as players who know each other from being teammates outside of the high school season went hard at each other for regular season bragging rights.
“It was awesome,” Corirosi said. “We’re playing against our friends from our clubs. It felt good to win.”
While the first half was mostly equal in terms of chances and possession, the second half became increasingly dominated by the visitors.
“It’s another one where you come here with a job to do,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “You know they’re going to be a tough team and a physical team. It’s a conference game and it’s local rivals and the most important thing is to get the win.”
Jennison said one thing his team showed in this week’s matches is its ability and desire to play in physical matches like Saturday’s and the match earlier in the week at Geneva.
“Sometimes you can’t set the ball down and play like you want to,” Jennison said. “You have to mix it up and get stuck in, and we did today. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win and it was a conference win and a confidence booster.”
Of the Saints who covered extreme yardage in the match was Shannon Rasmussen, who raced up and down the left touchline and delivered a series of crosses into the penalty area.
“The kid’s got speed,” Jennison said. “We’re lucky on this team that we have a lot of young girls who are very quick. If we use that speed in the right way, we can be dangerous.”
Batavia (4-4-1, 1-2) watched the match drift away even before Corirosi’s goal 14 minutes into the second half. And as that half progressed, the Bulldogs struggled to keep pace with the Saints.
“We didn’t create anything in the second half,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “We didn’t link up and incorporate other players in the attack. We had maybe two shots on goal in the second half. We can’t do that.”
That diminished attack came in contrast with a first half in which the Bulldogs had some close calls offensively, including strong efforts from Alex Hanna and Paige Renfus. Grace Andrews and Hanna had the best chances in the second half.
“We’ve got to get it into space and then run off of it,” Gianfrancesco said. “We did a great job of that I the first 25 minutes. In the second half, we didn’t do any of that.”