Girls soccer: Batavia, St. Charles East play to a draw
Years from now, Chantel Carranza will be the answer to a local trivia question.
Who was the last soccer player to score a goal on the natural grass field at Bulldog Stadium?
Carranza, a sophomore forward, notched the equalizer for St. Charles East with 19:08 remaining in the second half, enabling the Saints (17-3-1) to earn a 1-1 tie with host Batavia (14-4-1) during Friday night's waterlogged Upstate Eight Conference River Division match.
Playing in a steady downpour throughout the second half, Carranza received a long feed from Claire Rasmussen before putting on the brakes to allow a defender to slip past and launching a 25-yard blast into the upper middle portion of the net.
"My dad always tells me to cut it back and look for a nice curved ball - and that's what I worked for," said Carranza.
"I thought we did a decent job in the back at times," said Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco. "It was a great shot by Chantel. That was a nice hit there."
The goal appeared to rejuvenate the Saints, who had a couple solid scoring chances turned aside by Batavia junior keeper Jenny Scara (7 saves) over the final 15-plus minutes.
"That goal gave us life to keep working for another one," said Carranza. "It gave us more motivation to keep fighting."
Following a scoreless opening half, the Bulldogs controlled the ball throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Two minutes into the half, junior forward Kelly Bleakley beat a Saints defender to the ball and sent a low left-footed shot past keeper Alison Chesterfield (6 saves) for a 1-0 Batavia advantage.
The two teams finished the conference campaign with identical 4-1-1 records, good enough for a second-place tie behind St. Charles North.
"It was a hard-fought game by both teams," said Saints coach Paul Jennison, whose team faces Addison Trail in Wednesday's Class 3A regional opener. "Going into the playoffs, you would maybe expect one or two teams to take it easy but neither team did. They were very physical and did a great job on us.
"We gave as much as we've got so there's no complaints on either side."
It marked the last home match for seven Batavia players, including leading scorer Megan McEachern.
"We worked hard and tried to push toward the end," said McEachern. "It was a good way to end the (regular) season."
Batavia, which opens postseason play Wednesday against Glenbard North, emerged from a rough back-to-back against Geneva and St. Charles East with a 1-0-1 record.
"It's awesome to be able to play that level of competition and compete at that level," said Gianfrancesco. "Some other girls stepped up tonight like Kelly Bleakley, Morgan Erickson and Brooke Polignone, and we started (Alex) Piron and she stepped up."
Batavia will play its home games on a newly installed artificial surface next season.
"I'm happy to see it go," Gianfrancesco said of the grass/mud-caked field. "I was hoping to maybe save some of it in a cup but I'm happy to see it roll."