St. Charles North nips Batavia
In the rich history of girls soccer rivalries in the Tri-Cities, the Batavia-St. Charles North matchup has always lagged.
Batavia-Geneva has been intense; St. Charles East-St. Charles North has produced some epic encounters while battles between Geneva and St. Charles East exhibit the same intensity of those natural rivalries. Even Batavia-St. Charles East, especially if you dig through the history books, has produced its share of hard-fought matches.
But not Batavia-St. Charles North — until Tuesday. April 3, 2012 should be noted as the date when the rivalry grew up. The North Stars won, as they have made a habit of doing — this time by a 2-1 score. But the Upstate Eight Conference River Division contest was intense, the tackling was fierce and the outcome was in some doubt until about 30 seconds remained.
If that sounds like a “typical battle among Tri-Cities teams, that’s because it was firmly in-line with those other rivalries.
“It showed in our physical play,” Batavia defender Shelby Stone said. “They’re close. They’re just as close as Geneva and we want to play to beat all the Tri-Cities teams. We are trying to step up our intensity.”
Alyssa Brandt got the game-winning goal when she took a Natalie Winkates pass with just over 3 minutes left, moved into the right channel in the penalty area and shot back to the left.
“If you keep making those runs, eventually you’re going to get past them,” Brandt said. “Eventually someone’s going to get tired and someone’s going to crack.”
That goal restored St. Charles North’s lead, which it carried from the moment with 10 minutes left in the first half when Sophie Pohl volleyed a loose ball into the Batavia net.
“We’re going to have games where we play great and score a lot of goals,” St. Charles North coach Ruth Vostal said. “We’re going to have games where we play great and lose. You always know games with Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles East are going to be tough.”
There was some controversy in the opening seconds of the second half when Batavia goalie Nikki Seiton collided with a St. Charles North forward as she made a save and sent the ball upfield and out of play. The two players then re-engaged, with Seiton earning a yellow card for her part in the incident.
But after originally awarding a penalty kick to Batavia, the officials determined that the re-engagement was a second incident, after save, constituting a second phase of action. Ultimately, after discussing with both coaches. St. Charles North was awarded a throw-in.
“I think initially it went off (Seiton’s) face,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “She’s an emotional person and she pushed her. Did she deserve a yellow? Certainly. But a PK? The ball was already away.”
Seiton re-entered the match shortly after and made a pair of key saves, including one where a Kelly Manski corner kick was helped on by Lauren Koehl and Danielle Noverini to Kenzie Rose, whose effort was headed swiftly goalbound before Seiton tipped the ball over the crossbar.
On the heels of that goalmouth action, Batavia moved forward and got the match-tying goal. Brittany Wahlen executed one of her flip throw-ins and the ball came to Alex Hanna, who scored.
St. Charles North moved back to the attack and Seiton proved unbeatable until Winkates’ pass unlocked the defense and Brandt scored.
Batavia had four corner kicks and a free kick in a dangerous spot in the final 3 minutes and hit the post with one shot, but was unable to tie the contest again.
As solid as Seiton was in goal for Batavia, St. Charles North got a strong second-half effort from Shelby Stitz, who was called into action when starter Carly Dietrich suffered an injury and was unable to continue.
“(Dietrich) went in and she came off,” Stitz said. “Her knees have been bothering her. I was hoping she’d be OK, but they said ‘Shelby, grab your stuff and go in. I was a little caught off-guard, but as soon as I got in, I picked up the pace.”