Batavia wins UEC River title

After watching shots sail too high, wide left, off to the right and even straight off the crossbar, the Batavia boys soccer team had to begin wondering if Tuesday's Senior Night match against Streamwood would have a happy ending.

Thanks to a collision between a defender and Streamwood keeper Jose Resendiz, Batavia senior Anthony Torres was able to send the equalizer into an empty net with just 1:39 remaining to secure a 1-1 tie during an Upstate Eight Conference River Division contest.

With the tie, the Bulldogs wrapped up the conference title. They had been battling Larkin for the championship, but had already received a victory earlier when Larkin forfeited the tie it had with the Bulldogs from Sept. 27 for having an illegal player.

“We wanted to wrap up the conference title so we did that and they were very excited about that,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “It was their night, so they can enjoy it now, because it's back to work tomorrow.”

There was almost no joy in Batavia as it was a near miss evening for the Bulldogs prior to Torres tying the contest.

Cody Balogh, John Barnes, Nick Barstatis, Cam Callipari, Erick Ontiveros and Cody Witkowski all had opportunities in the second half, but were unable to finish. Some of that had to due with some nifty play by Resendiz and the rest of the Sabres.

“It eventually happened so the key word tonight was perseverance,” Gianfrancesco said. “I know they were gassed. We were missing a couple of guys tonight and without the normal rotation but they persevered and didn't panic.”

Torres, who spanked a shot off the crossbar with 1:21 left in the opening half, didn't panic when he secured possession of a loose ball in front of an empty net with 1:39 remaining to finally pull the Bulldogs even.

“It was our last game here so we didn't want to go down with a loss,” he said. “Everyone gave it their all. It took a whole team effort. We pushed all game and we finally got that last goal.”

The Bulldogs have only been shut out once this season and that was a 1-0 decision to undefeated Naperville North on Sept. 16.

“We had them on the ropes and I think we dominated most of the game,” Gianfrancesco said. “We've just got to finish and hopefully we'll start doing that more frequently starting in the playoffs.”

Streamwood (5-13-3, 1-3-2) has certainly become a team no one will want to face in the postseason. The Sabres have back-to-back ties against St. Charles North and Batavia and are 4-2-2 in their last eight matches after starting 1-11-1.

“It nice to see where we're headed, and we'll take the tie, but if we sneak in another one or tighten it up,” Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. “We want to play our best when we go into regionals and with Lake Park it's another great team. We beat them 3-1 earlier but they'll be coming out for blood.”

The Sabres went ahead on a corner kick goal from Ivan Vivero with 27:19 left. Vivero's kick curved perfectly, soaring above the defense, and sneaking past Batavia keeper Michael Rueffer.

“We're used to a much larger field,” Polovin. “He placed it perfectly.”

Batavia recognized 17 seniors prior to the game as part of Senior Night.