Geneva 14, Batavia 12

It was an uncharacteristic night for the Geneva football team on Friday night in a few regards.

The Vikings turned the ball over three times, passed for only 25 yards and were limited to only 14 points.

But most importantly, the Vikings found a way to win the game regardless of those things, as they went on the road to beat rival Batavia 14-12 behind a great effort from the offensive line, running back Michael Ratay and a stingy defense, which found itself on the field for a great part of the action.

The victory gave Geneva its first undefeated season since 1985.

"It was kind of getting the little monkey off our back, that kind of thing," Geneva coach Rob Wicinski said. "They're a heck of a good team. It came down to turnovers and we both gave it back and forth so neither of us wanted to take control of the game."

Geneva (9-0, 7-0) jumped to an early lead on its second drive of the contest. The Vikings only needed five plays before Ratay jolted in for a 3-yard touchdown run, his 19th touchdown run of the season. Sean Grady's PAT made it 7-0.

Batavia (5-4, 4-3) muffed a snap on a 22-yard field goal attempt on its third possession but didn't allow it to rattle the team on its ensuing possession. It was then that J.R. Kabba (23 carries, 173 yards) only needed one opportunity to make a big play and he made the most of it, jetting into the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown run. The Vikings blocked the PAT though and maintained a 7-6 advantage.

"We had a situation on our first miss where our normal holder was injured so we had our second holder in the game," Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said. "The ball slid off the tee so we missed the first extra point."

It remained that way until the final minute of the third quarter. While the Vikings defense spent a lot of time on the field in the first half, the third quarter saw both teams fail to get the ball into the end zone until Ratay's 18-yard run with 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter which made it 14-6.

Batavia was far from done though. After quarterback Jordan Coffey was sacked for a 10-yard loss by Trevor Hyslop, Coffey connected for

a huge 19-yard touchdown to Erich Zeddies with 4:16 left in the contest.

"That just reminds me of so many plays Batavia has run over the years," Wicinski said. "It just shows the quality program they have and the quality of athletes they have that want to make plays."

Batavia was primed to get the crowd in an uproar with a

game-tying two-point conversion but Coffey's pass to Ryan Webb was deflected by Jake Conforti.

Still, with 4:16 remaining the Vikings' perfect regular season wasn't a done deal, but eight plays later, the last a 14-yard run by Michael Ratay as the game clock trickled down to zero, Geneva's first undefeated season in 22 years was a mission accomplished.

"I feel great," Ratay said. "This means a lot. We wanted to win and we just kept pushing."