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Geneva beats St. Charles East, denies Saints UEC title

Known for its defending prowess, Geneva's girls soccer team showed it can attack too in Friday's Upstate Eight Conference River match with rival St. Charles East.

The Vikings used incisive forward play, took advantage of what mistakes the visiting Saints made and worked as a team offensively in a 3-1 victory - the second win Geneva has this season over St. Charles East.

"It was very fun," Geneva forward Michaela Loebel said. "The best game of soccer to have is when it's back-and-forth, when it's not slow at all, when it's fast. You don't have time to think about it, you just react."

With the result, St. Charles North claims the outright River Division championship from St. Charles East (12-4-3, 4-1-1), which finished third behind Geneva (12-4-2, 5-1). The North Stars were 5-0-1 in conference play this year.

"I think the bottom line, sometimes you've got to hold your hand up and say you didn't bring your best game, and that happened tonight," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "Geneva just outworked us. It's unfortunate we didn't get the conference win, but we'll move forward. I've got to give credit to Geneva tonight."

Loebel scored Geneva's first goal 15 minutes into the first half. Mary Landry worked the ball into the penalty area and had a shot come off a defender. The ball fell to Loebel, who scored.

"I was excited by how much we created offensively," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "We had a lot of opportunities. We had a lot of counterattacks and things. That was one area where we had struggled a little bit."

Loebel was an offensive threat throughout the match. Time and again, she came dangerously toward St. Charles East's penalty area before a combination of defenders and Saints keeper Kendra Sheehan cleared.

The Vikings got a crucial second goal with a multiplayer move that started at the midpoint of the half. Landry played the ball up the right wing to Courtney Lardas, who crossed to the left post for Allie Mikos - whose shot was deflected with Landry, who started the move, finishing from the center of the goalmouth.

"Everybody moved together," Loebel said. "That wouldn't have happened if we hadn't moved together. Everybody, (Landry) and Hope (Goodman) - everybody was crashing. Everybody called for it and if they hadn't called for it, I wouldn't have seen them."

That goal came with 19:40 to play, and St. Charles East provided an immediate response in terms of increased tempo of play. The Saints halved the deficit with 14 minutes to play when Julie Peterson broke into the penalty area and Amanda Hilton scored.

If Loebel was Geneva's most threatening player, St. Charles East's dominant player moving forward for most of the match was Darcy Cunningham. Time and again, Cunningham moved up the wings to threaten.

"In that final third, I thought we looked decent," Jennison said. "We created a lot of chances. That Geneva keeper has had another stormer for them. She had great hands in the goal for them."

As dominant as Cunningham was, she also had to deal with Geneva defender Megan Newingham, who showed strong one-on-one defending many times to deny Cunningham and other Saints attackers a clear path to goal.

"This is my first year getting to start and to play a lot, so that's been a big ego-booster," Newingham said. "I play with Darcy Cunningham at club, so I know how fast she is and what a great player she is. I also know how to defend her fairly well, but I was pretty scared, to be honest."

With the score 2-1, the match moved from penalty area to penalty area in the kind of open match rarely seen at any level. Both teams had chances and both defenses were placed under severe pressure.

"They're a great team and they beat us up until regionals so we just came out strong," Newingham said. "Conference champs isn't in question any more. But to play against them and to do well, it feels good."

Sheehan did her part to keep the Saints in the game while Vikings keeper Sam Hauser was equally sharp.

"It comes down to chances," Jennison said. "At 2-1, I thought we had the majority of the possession," Jennison said. "We knew they were going to counter."

The Vikings also worked to hit the Saints on quick counterattacks, particularly through quick long balls from defender Annie Waldoch toward Loebel breaking free.

"It was an exciting game," Owens said. "It was a rivalry game and it was back-and-forth for awhile there in the second half. But I think we played really well."

With 5:30 left, Landry scored her second goal of the game when she passed to Loebel, who took the ball into the penalty area, backed away from the defense and fed a pass to Landry at the top of the penalty area. Landry fired the shot into the net.

"When they scored they got the momentum," Loebel said. "When a team scores and it's 2-1, that's one of the most dangerous positions, because now they have the momentum. A lot of times, teams step back and get nervous. Our team, everybody, stepped up."

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