Geneva starts fast, beats St. Charles E.
As she wheeled away after scoring Geneva's opening goal against St. Charles East. Veronica Castro-Lopez became a blue-uniformed embodiment of the word "joy."
Her face broke into a wide grin. At midfield, she gave a thumbs-up signal, which she repeated in the direction of the Vikings bench at midfield. She wasn't skipping, but her celebratory gait underscored her happiness with her 18th-minute goal following a Bri Santacaterina corner kick.
"It was my first goal of the season so I was pretty happy," Castro-Lopez said. "I am pretty happy, actually."
By game's end, the entire Geneva roster was in a joyful state with their 2-1 victory over the Saints.
"I scored one and I really like it," Castro-Lopez said. "We were strong and really fighting as a team, so that's really good. I was kind of lucky. The ball just came to my foot and it was there."
Castro-Lopez is a foreign exchange student from Mexico and was seen in goal in the Vikings' 1-0 Thursday loss to Naperville Central. She and Saturday's starter, Madison Vanata, have been splitting time in goal this season.
"I never played goalie before maybe two or three weeks ago," Castro-Lopez said. "The girls say I can jump and stop a goal. If I can help the team, that's fine with me."
Alyssa Berendt scored Geneva's second goal with just 16 seconds left in the first half. Emily Hinchman crossed the ball and Berendt headed into the goal.
"When it was coming over, I saw it and I was like 'I've got to get this, I've got to get this,'" Berendt said. "When I headed it, I had the feeling it was going in. I was excited because it was my first goal of the season."
The victory leaves open the final outcome of the St. Charles East Invitational. Geneva (3-1) and Naperville Central each have 18 points from their three matches. St. Charles East (2-1) has only played twice in the tournament as its match with Schaumburg was canceled due to a waterlogged field. The Saints have 9 points and their game with Schaumburg may or may not be rescheduled.
Regardless of who gets the title of tournament champion, this year marked a considerable improvement over 2007, when only 1 of 6 matches was played in a weather-battered invitational.
"The reason we like this tournament is because we get to play against good competition," Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. "St. Charles East was a very good opponent for us tonight. Hopefully our girls will learn from a tough second half tonight."
In the second half, the Saints' Renee Ruminski had a shot cleared, but only as far as Ellen Bartindale, who scored.
"We can't play 40 minutes," St. Charles East coach Pat Feulner said. "Tonight, we came out a little lackadaisical. I was very upset with the effort we had in the first half. It was a much better second half."
The match, despite the outcome, gives Feulner something to work on with his team as it moves into the coming week.
"We'll be able to see something, work on things we need to work on and to straighten some things out," Feulner said. "This has given us a look to see what we can now go back and work on and what we need to do to get better."