Geneva’s offense comes alive
In the modern world, it is seen as tactless to use the word “immense” to describe female athletes.
And yet especially for the opening 40 minutes of Tuesday’s Upstate Eight Conference River Division match with rival St. Charles East, that is just the kind of performance put in by Geneva’s girls soccer players.
The Vikings were first to the ball, won tackles whether they got there first or not, defended as a unit and scored two goals — one scruffy and one sublime — to set themselves on the way to what ended as a 2-0 victory.
“We really felt they outplayed us in the last game with aggressiveness,” Geneva senior defender Caitrin Griffin said. “They stepped up and got to the 50-50 balls much better than we did. So that’s something that we wanted to improve on right away. The intensity was really good in the back, especially in the first half.”
Griffin is the only senior but is working with three sophomores who worked with her as a unit for most of the 2011 season. The familiarity in that back line showed on Tuesday.
“I think, we defended as a whole much better,” Griffin said. “We were much more sharp and aggressive and we got the ball out much quicker, which helped the speed of play.”
Shifting to attack, the Vikings (7-2-2) scored their first goal after 16 minutes of play in the first half following an Annie Waldoch corner kick. The ball moved through the penalty area and Catherine Allon got a final touch on the ball and sent it into the net.
“I knew I didn’t have the 100 percent perfect angle, but I got a foot onto it,” Allon said. “I didn’t want to let a corner ball go to waste.”
Geneva struggled to score at last week’s St. Charles East Invitational, tying the Saints 1-1, losing to Schaumburg 3-1 and finishing with a scoreless tie with Naperville Central.
“We talked after the East tournament that we are great defensively and we clear the ball well, but we need to work on our offense,” Allon said. “We needed to put the ball on-frame. Tonight, we did what we had to do.”
Allon finished a strong offensive night when she fed Amanda Lulek 6 minutes before halftime. Lulek moved in and scored.
“It was a nice little give-and-go with (Lulek) and I,” Allon said.
The match proved an 80-minute frustration for St. Charles East (5-4-2), especially given the strong showing by the Saints in last week’s 1-1 tournament draw with the Vikings.
“They outworked us in the first half, we weren’t even in the game,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “Both goals they scored were incredibly sloppy. It certainly wasn’t a pretty soccer game.”
Playing for the final time at Burgess Field before a summer renovation to artificial turf, the Saints struggled to make headway. Anna Corirosi had a pair of shots saved by Marissa Schroyer and Allie Arvizu sent a free kick over the crossbar — but scoring chances were in short supply for the visitors.
“Geneva played their home field very well,” ennison said. “Fair credit to them. We knew exactly what to expect when we came here. They were going to play it off the bounce and they were going to play off our first touch.”
The kickoff time for Saturday’s St. Charles East at Batavia match has been moved to 4 p.m. The change is due to ACT testing that takes place on Saturday.