St. Charles East tops Geneva to take own tourney title

Through 40 first half minutes, St. Charles East probed and passed and put passes through Geneva's penalty area without success. And from a Geneva perspective, the Vikings showed that despite being young this season, they are starting to figure out varsity competition.

Then everything changed in an explosive opening quarter-hour in the second half. St. Charles East took the lead through a Sophie Jendrzejczyk goal, the Vikings equalized through a Megan Fitz penalty kick and Kelli Santo Paulo decided the Augsburg-Drach tournament title with a goal that gave the Saints a 2-1 Saturday evening victory.

"Today's performance might not be our best of the year, but it was hard-fought against a Geneva team which really did come at us with a solid game plan for how to stop us," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said.

The Saints (8-0) needed a boost in order to win the contest, which concluded the 26th annual Augsburg-Drach tournament. Despite an edge in possession and having played most of the opening half near Geneva's penalty area, St. Charles East had few true chances to break the deadlock.

"We were probably just trying to get our nerves out," Santo Paulo said. "Geneva is one of our rivals. After we talked at halftime, we calmed down and got our stuff together and started working well together."

From their first true attack of the second half, Darcy Cunningham nearly played the ball out of bounds before snapping a right wing cross back into the goalmouth. Jendrzejczyk met the ball in the center of that goalmouth and scored.

Shortly after that opening goal, Cunningham put a corner kick off the top of Geneva's crossbar and shortly after that chance, Jendrzejczyk fed Claire Rasmussen, who hit the post with a solid shot.

With the tide moving heavily in the Saints' favor, the Vikings found themselves level when a misplayed ball in the penalty area and a breakaway foul by Saints keeper Alison Chesterfield led to Chesterfield being red-carded. Sarah Rosenfeldt stepped into the net, and the first thing she did was to attempt to save Fitz's penalty kick. Fitz shot solidly into the goal and the teams were tied 1-1.

"Penalty kicks are the hardest things to save," Rosenfeldt said. "We just had to get back into focus and work as a team, which we did. It's hard going into a close game against a good team, but my team helped me with it."

Sparked by the tying goal, continuing the momentum built in the opening minutes of the half and refusing to suffer despite playing 11-on-10 the rest of the match, the Saints needed 73 seconds to retake the lead.

This time Santo Paulo got free in the penalty area, where she took a pass that originated with Cunningham but came off other players in the penalty area before Santo Paulo scored.

"No one was on me when I shot it," Santo Paulo said. "I had time to take a touch. I saw an opening and hit it. Sonia (Ost) knocked it down to me. It was a beautiful pass."

The end-to-end action continued shortly after Santo Paulo's goal when Geneva's Mary Landry rose unmarked to head a Quincy Swanson cross over the crossbar.

"It was definitely cruise control for about an hour," Jennison said. "Then the penalty and the red card shifted the game. It made us better, I'd like to believe. With 10, I think we possessed the ball better and I think we created better chances."

Geneva (3-4-2) may have been pushed back, but the Vikings' defensive organization remained solid throughout the contest, and that's an important thing for a team whose defense was hit hard by graduation a year ago.

"Our overall effort and how hard we worked, especially in that first half," I'm impressed by that," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "We've come a long way in a short number of games. We lost our goalie through injury and we're trying to figure that out."

With a number of new players to the varsity setup this year, the Vikings are reloading from a program that has had incredible success in recent years.

"We're getting to where we need to be," Owens said. "By the end of the season, when I get some of my injured players back, I'm excited where we're going to be."

In addition to three wins in the Augsburg-Drach tournament, the Saints defeated West Chicago on Tuesday. The week's storms meant the St. Charles East played its match with Naperville Central on Friday night, then returned to play Geneva 22 hours later. The team's hectic schedule continues Monday against Glenbard North and a Tuesday contest with Batavia.

"We played a Top 10 program like Naperville Central, and we had to bring one of our best games," Jennison said. "It was our best game of the season. Then we came up against a local rival in Geneva that's a state powerhouse now, that's what they are."

Geneva's schedule is no less intense. The Vikings opened with contests against Larkin and Elgin before playing their three Augsburg-Drach contests. Owens' team only has a Tuesday match against West Chicago this week before heading back into intensely competitive weeks.

"We've not practiced since the third week in March," Owens said. "We had Spring Break and then we had five games in six days, so we've had to figure things out on the fly. I think tonight was an impressive showing for us."