Batavia hands St. Charles East 1st loss
Recording 4 consecutive shutout victories to open the season, Batavia's boys soccer team carried an air of confidence into Tuesday afternoon's match against host St. Charles East.
The Bulldogs (7-1-1, 3-0) departed Norris Stadium with additional faith and belief after they knocked the Saints (8-1, 2-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten with their 1-0 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory.
It marked the Bulldogs' sixth shutout in 9 games and was their first win over the Saints in 3 years.
"Last year, they beat us 5-0," said senior midfielder Ian Larson. "We've got a lot of returners back from last year so we wanted to come back and get revenge on them. This whole week we were focused in training and we were ready to fight away."
Larson scored the game's only goal midway through the first half as he spun and fired a turnaround, left-footed shot into the corner of the net after the Saints failed to clear the ball from their zone.
"Adam Heinz did a good job (on the play)," said Larson. "He got a little touch back to me and my first instinct was just to turn and get the ball on the frame. Luckily it went under the defender's arm."
Less than a minute later, the Saints nearly tied it but goalkeeper Kevin Fiddelke smothered a blast from Taylor Ortiz just before the ball crossed the goal line.
Despite his team's 1-0 halftime advantage, Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco felt the Saints were the aggressor over the first 40 minutes.
"They had a little better run of the possession in the first half," said Gianfrancesco. "We were definitely on our heels a little bit."
The Saints came out firing during the opening minutes of the second half.
Tyler Robbins sent a perfect centering cross to Ortiz, whose 1-touch attempt failed to fool Fiddelke in the first 15 seconds. A few minutes later, junior defender Nathan Carey blocked a shot from the Saints' Mitch Lucatorto.
The next best scoring chance for St. Charles East, which attempted 9 second-half corner kicks, came when defender Brandon Villanueva sent a sailing tough-angle shot that caromed off the crossbar with 16:30 remaining.
"After they didn't get the knockout punch in the first 5-10 minutes (of the second half), you could see their energy level kind of go down a little bit," said Gianfrancesco. "I think we played all the way through.
"Last Thursday against Naperville North (in a 2-1 loss), we were up 1-0 and we gave up two goals in the last 10 minutes on throw-ins. It was nice to see the last 5-10 minutes under that duress that we were able to stick with it."
Fiddelke, who made 7 saves, received additional support from defenders Nick Konopacki, Daniel Zagoren, Joe Jorgenson and Carey.
"We knew it would be a tough game coming in," said Konopacki. "We've had a real solid defense all year. Me and Joe (Jorgenson) have a thing where one of us steps up and one drops back, and Kevin (Fiddelke) comes in at the end to win all the balls out of the air."
Sophomore keeper Steven Owens made 9 saves for the Saints.
"He was a definite bright spot today," said St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison, who felt his team should have played better.
"The bottom line was it wasn't good enough from us," said Jennison. "I think the word intensity is pretty cliché but I really think it came down to that. We should have been capable of doing a lot more than we were in terms of possession and in terms of attacking."
The Saints face Waubonsie Valley Thursday.
"It's my job now to regroup these guys," said Jennison. "If this was the sectional final again, I don't think I'd be so upbeat about the result but you've got to take the positives out of this.
"The good thing is now we can really look forward to a season where we can start over and get them attacking like they were before."