Geneva withstands Saints’ surge

In the last home match of his 30-year career at Geneva, Bill Koehn was staring at an unblemished run in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division.

The Vikings have finished runner-up to St. Charles East for divisional supremacy all three times since joining the league.

The Saints were the last barrier to Geneva entering the conference boys golf tournament next week at St. Andrews with a perfect record.

Geneva enjoyed an 8-stroke cushion on the Saints Tuesday afternoon at Mill Creek Golf Club with all but the final foursome to conclude play.

The Saints’ seventh and eighth men, Connor McCadam and Connor Dieckman, needed to both birdie the 10th hole in the shotgun start to force a tiebreaker.

The St. Charles East seniors could manage only pars on the short par-4 hole in Geneva, and the Vikings (10-0, 6-0) escaped with a 151-153 triumph.

“Great match,” St. Charles East coach John Stock said. “One-fifty-one to 153. It came down to the last hole. It shows how even (the two teams) are.”

Nate Desens’ level-par medalist performance anchored Geneva, and in winning top honors for the second straight league dual match the senior was left wondering how low it could have been.

“Thirty-four, maybe a 33,” Desens said of his unusual round in which he had almost as many putts as strokes. “I hit the ball pretty well. I just couldn’t putt.”

Desens’ level-par 36 — despite 16 putts — was once again the product of local knowledge as he offset his lone bogey at No. 18 with a stroke gained at 15.

“(The most important scoring element at Mill Creek) is knowing where to miss it,” Desens said. “You have to hit a really good shot from that bad spot simply to recover.”

The other revelation for Geneva was the continued solid play of Mac Feehan; the sophomore sixth-man was 1-over for the squad.

“Overall, a 37 is a pretty good score,” Feehan said. “I thought I hit the ball pretty well.”

“Mac’s done an excellent job for us,” said Koehn, who concluded his three-decade home career with a mere 18 dual-meet losses. “He is stepping up big time. He is just a solid player.”

Brett Hasells’ 38 provided a third low score for Geneva, which completed its scoring from Alex Schreiber (40).

The Saints appeared dead in the water after its first six scores produced a team-best 159.

But McCadam and Dieckman shaved 6 shots off the total with their identical 2-over rounds.

Brad Riva had a 37 to pace St. Charles East, and Mick Vyzral had a 40.

St. Charles East (4-5, 5-1) meets city rival St. Charles North today in a quadrangular with Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley.

The winner enters the conference championship 2 points behind Geneva.

“You never know what’s going to happen in this sport,” Koehn said. “It always comes down to (the conference tournament).”