Girls soccer: McEachern's goal lifts Batavia over Geneva

For four years, Megan McEachern has done things to win girls soccer matches for Batavia. Mostly, that meant scoring goals, but McEachern has done a lot of little things for the Bulldogs too since 2013.

So it shouldn't be a major surprise to learn that in her final Batavia-Geneva rivalry match, McEachern scored the only goal and was the most persistent threat either team had over 80 minutes as the Bulldogs claimed a 1-0 Thursday victory on their home field.

"We're playing all these good teams at the end, but it's going to prepare us for playoffs. It's always intense against Geneva, and everybody knows each other from club soccer. But it's been fun each year," McEachern said.

McEachern's match-winner came in the fourth minute of play, following a Mackenzie Foster pass from midfield.

"(Geneva's) defender beat me to the ball, and then it somehow got scrambled, and I was able to get it and hit it to the far post and it worked out well," McEachern said.

The teams blunted each other's attacks through much of the match, though McEachern was a constant threat, especially in taking the ball away from defenders to create a bit of space, and then accelerating past those markers toward the Geneva goal.

"She's a nice player. She's going to be missed after four years," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said.

Batavia (14-4-0, 4-1 Upstate Eight River) worked time and again to move the ball wide of Geneva's back line or to find through balls between those defenders. While momentary openings were created, the Vikings recovered as well to prevent clear scoring chances.

The Vikings (11-5-1, 3-3) had a strong effort 2 minutes after McEachern's goal when Maddie Yelle shot and Jenny Scara saved comfortably.

"We didn't get off the bus until they put that one in," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "That gave us a deficit that we had to climb out of. We've had a great season, but when we've struggled is when we've had mental lapses and given up goals early."

Down a goal at halftime, Geneva went most of the second half without a shot on goal. The Vikings came closest to equalizing when Kyleigh Dominguez hit a shot over the crossbar in the waning minutes of the half.

"I think our second half was stronger than our first," Owens said. "We just didn't play a complete game tonight, and that bit us a little bit tonight."

Batavia came closest in the second half when Cameron Hindel hit the crossbar from close range and Geneva cleared the danger.

"It was really intense and very physical," McEachern said. "It was tough for us to get in behind their defense. We were having a hard time connecting, so it's good that we came out with a win."

Thursday's match was originally scheduled to be the final match in Batavia's stadium before workmen removed the grass field and began the process of installation of an artificial surface. Tuesday's weather forced the cancellation of the St. Charles East at Batavia contest, and the Saints and Bulldogs will battle on Friday in a 6:30 p.m. match.

"East will be a nice challenge, but it's back to another of those rivalry games," Gianfrancesco said. "Maybe we'll come out a little better, because East is a little better than Geneva. I like these matchups, but we have to be mentally ready to step it up."

The postseason looms for all girls soccer teams. Batavia opens with a Wednesday match at Glenbard North.

"At times, it looked pretty sloppy tonight," Gianfrancesco said. "In rivalry games, sometimes it's not a top priority to do those other things. But we did what we had to do in order to win it."

Geneva opens its regional competition on Tuesday with a home match against Hoffman Estates.

"The focus has been to learn from each game, fine tune what we need to do and get ready for the postseason. The next time this happens, your season's over, so we need to work on these things and make sure that we mentally show up," Owens said.