Saints top Batavia in their opener

First the really good news for St. Charles boys soccer fans: the Saints defeated Batavia in their annual curtain-raiser for the first time in the current high school program's careers. The Saints knocked off the Bulldogs 2-0 on Saturday at Norris Stadium.

Now the mostly good news for the Saints: the team played well but nowhere near where it will hope to be playing later in the season. Whatever the Saints will be come this fall, Saturday's performance was just a few steps onto a long pathway.

And finally some pretty good news for Batavia's faithful: the Bulldogs didn't play particularly poorly in defeat. The visitors had chances, garnered great patches of second half possession and could point to breakdowns for both goals.

So no one left the field on Saturday in a state of turmoil but neither did anyone leave in a state of unbridled bliss.

"They've got a lot of potential," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "I can't tell you where they're going to end up. Only they can tell you that. If they want to go far, I'm hoping they can do that, because they really are a good group of lads."

After 10 minutes in which neither team had much advantage, St. Charles East slowly began to assert its midfield authority. Chris Tomek had a shot saved by Ty Witkowski and Christian Beardsley sent a snap shot just wide.

Batavia worked its way into the match too. Eduardo Cuatle hit a free kick on goal that was saved by Charllie Lyon and Cody Witkowski sent a long-range shot wide.

But the Saints continued to gain in possession and took the lead in the 23rd minute. Johnny Bren dribbled into the penalty area, rode a tackle and then shot high into the net.

"I just had to go through one guy," Bren said. "I saw the opening so I went to it."

With 10 minutes left in the half, Lyon sent a long goalie clearance toward the Batavia penalty area. Tomek got onto the end of that clearance and hit a fiece shot on Ty Witkowski. The Batavia goalie parried the shot but the ball came to Jesse Nagelberg at the far post for a tap-in.

"The center back couldn't see where it was going," Tomek said. "It came off someone's head and dropped right on my foot. I turned and shot and the goalie made a great save. It came straight to (Nagelberg.)"

While neither goal was a fluke, Batavia could also point to the fact that neither came courtesy of a catastrophic defensive breakdown.

"Those things are going to happen," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "In the second half, I thought we dominated possession. We controlled the midfield. I was just getting into the offensive third and serving balls in. We had to give ourselves the opportunity."

Both teams improved their midfield work in the second half.

"We weren't moving the ball as well in the first half," Tomek said. "In the second half, even though we didn't score, we started to calm down and play well. So I'm happy with the win."