St. Charles East blanks Batavia
Senior Daniel DiLeonardi scored twice and St. Charles East beat up on host Batavia, 5-0, on Thursday in the Upstate Eight River Conference opener for both squads.
St. Charles East (2-0, 1-0) jumped to a 2-0 lead midway through the first half.
The Saints received a header from sophomore Evan DiLeonardi as it eluded Batavia keeper Jon Faraone with 22:23 remaining before halftime. Exactly three minutes later it was Daniel DiLeonardi’s turn as he blasted a highlight-worthy goal from the top of the box.
“My teammates had been crashing and getting cleared out by the defense in front of the box and since they didn’t have anyone up there I decided sit on top.” Daniel DiLeonardi said. “When it came to me, it’s one of those strikes you visualize in warm-ups — perfect upper 90. One of those goals you hope always happens.”
The two back-to-back strikes seemingly deflated the Bulldogs.
“The second goal was a fantastic strike and it just took the wind out of their sails,” Saints coach Paul Jennison said. “Those guys were a little bit demoralized after that and I think our lads kind of picked up on it and played.”
Batavia (1-1, 0-1) created a handful of opportunities during the final 15 minutes of the first half, including a few corner kick chances, but still came up empty at halftime.
Things got worse less than three minutes into the second half when Tyler Robbins scored off a rebound for the Saints.
“We’ve got to learn how to clear the ball,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “You can’t give good teams like that opportunities right in front of the goal.”
Daniel DiLeonardi netted his second goal with 23:13 remaining in the contest while junior Sam Shelton made it 5-0 with under five minutes before the final horn.
Mike Novotny recorded the shutout for the Saints, who have yet to surrender a goal and head into an intriguing non-conference match at Wheaton Academy Friday night.
“Preserving the clean sheet, that’s the most important thing about today,” Jennison said. “Five (goals) was nice but not letting anything in, that was the main goal, and no goals for the week, in two games, is very positive.”
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs did some things well which they’ll try to take into their next match.
“We had a lot of nice combinations of dropping the ball back to our mids and looking through,” Gianfrancesco said. “I thought the last 15 to 17 minutes of the first half we really dominated them and had some good chances on corners and stuff that we didn’t finish. We have some good things going on but have to put it together.”