Wahl gives assist to Geneva's win

Geneva forward Brady Wahl is a dangerous enough threat in a crowd.

So you can imagine what happens when he gets out in the open.

Batavia learned the hard way during Thursday's Upstate Eight Conference River Division soccer match in Geneva.

Wahl dribbled to the corner after receiving a feed from Josh Poythress. Both players were put in prime position to create a scoring chance once Poythress won the ball. Seemingly wide open, Wahl drew a defender and goalkeeper out toward the corner before booting a great ball toward the front of the penalty box. That's where Andrew Walton finished for the game-winner with just 2:34 remaining to give Geneva a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

"I was just there for the ball, a great ball by (Wahl), and I just had to finish it," said Walton, who was appearing in only his second game after missing the past few weeks with a groin injury. "I waited for the space to develop and was just there in the middle to put it in."

It certainly wasn't the first time that Wahl was in the middle of a game-winning play this season, or his Vikings career for that matter.

"Last year he was strictly a midfielder who stayed home and would play balls to forwards and the outside mids," said Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook. "This year he's been running at the defenses a lot more and it's really tough for a defense to pick up when you've got a guy coming at you with the speed and skill that he has."

That's what made it so difficult for Batavia goalkeeper Ben Steskal, who came out to stop him before Wahl pulled the trigger on the game-winning assist.

"Ben came out, maybe a little late, maybe just a good ball played in, maybe Brady just kind of got there a little bit before he got there," said Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco. "But I'd rather have him coming and trying to get in there rather than sitting back on his line. Brady made a nice play going across."

Batavia (7-6-2, 2-2) once again got off to a strong start in the second half. After scoring 7 times against Larkin in the first 15 minutes of the second half on Tuesday, the Bulldogs found the net at 38:38 when Lalo Cuautle sent a pass to junior Cody Balogh on the right side of the field where he dribbled before blasting the tying goal just inside the left post.

"Great ball movement, found the weakside and Cody B (Balogh) played a nice ball in," said Gianfrancesco. "Pretty simple, textbook, it should be that way."

Geneva (8-6-1, 2-1) struck first with 24:20 remaining in the first half when Wahl found sophomore Matt Butz on the right side where the sophomore finished from about 8-yards away.

"(Butz is) a tremendous athlete who works hard and gets himself in good spots," said Estabrook. "(He's been) called up for good for the past week and a half and has three goals in the last two games."

While being less than three minutes away from a draw made the loss more difficult to accept, the Bulldogs did challenge the Vikings for 80 minutes.

"I thought we had some nice opportunities in the second half and, you know, we just want to keep building and I think we did pretty well," said Gianfrancesco. "I think that was one of the more complete matches we've played all year."

As for the Vikings, it appears that they're in the thick of things in the conference race, having won five straight overall, with two critical conference contests coming up next week.

"It's nice to know these guys are finding ways to win," said Estabrook. "Earlier in the year we were playing some decent soccer. We weren't scoring, we were getting scored on, and it causes you to lose games, but now we're doing what you need to do to win games and that's really crucial for us."