Vikings double up Saints, take 2nd at SCE invite

There was a period of 20 minutes in Saturday's Geneva-St. Charles East girls soccer match when every attack seemed to be about to end with a goal.

And four of those attacks did result in the ball going into the back of the net. That offensive flurry ended with Geneva on top 3-1 - a lead the Vikings held onto for an eventual 4-2 victory in the final match of the St. Charles East Invitational.

That victory wasn't enough for the Vikings (3-2-1) to win the tournament title, which went to Naperville Central. But the Vikings did show a confident display, especially when attacking the Saints goal.

"We passed well," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "We had a lot of opportunities. We still need to work on finishing a little bit. But we had a strong overall game and it's nice to play that well against a big rival like East."

Geneva finished second in the four-team invitational, which also included Schaumburg.

"It's great to walk away with second place," Owens said. "To beat Schaumburg, who's a great team and to beat East, who's a strong rival every year. We're pleased with it."

Geneva opened the scoring after 5 minutes when Catherine Allon ran onto a bouncing ball and volleyed into the goal.

Lauren Rohrmeier tied the game 2 minutes later when she worked left, then turned back to her right 10 yards from goal. Rohrmeier got off a right-footed shot and scored.

And St. Charles East thought it had taken the lead 11 minutes into the match when Renee Ruminski headed into the net - but was ruled offside on the play.

But overall, the Saints (0-3-2) are still looking to put the pieces together in these early days of the season.

"They're struggling," St. Charles East coach Pat Feulner said. "We'll go back to the drawing board and see if we can simplify things, make them a little simpler for them and just try to build some rhythm for them so they can have some success."

Geneva took the lead when Madeline Tennant headed into the net 13 minutes into the match for the first of her two goals on the evening.

"It definitely felt like we were connecting more," Tennant said. "In the second half, we were playing through the outside mids a lot more and getting more crosses in. It felt like it went together better."

And when Emily Hinchman moved right to left and ripped a left-footed shot into goal with 12 minutes to play, the Vikings had their 3-1 halftime lead.

St. Charles East reduced the deficit 13 minutes into the second half when Ruminski scored on a penalty kick.

Tennant restored Geneva's two-goal lead with just under 7 minutes to play when she punished the Saints defense for failing to clear the ball. Tennant collected the ball on the right edge of the 6-yard box and one-timed the ball into the net.

The victory came at a cost for the Vikings. Kari Kosog went down in a collision with St. Charles East goalkeeper Zoie Samaan. An ambulance was called and Kosog eventually left with a suspected broken leg.

"We're pretty sure she broke her leg - the paramedics were pretty sure she broke it," Owens said. "That's always sad and it's always hard. You hate to see any kid get hurt. But the girls stayed pretty focused and I'm glad for that. She was just trying to be aggressive and to go for the ball."