Geneva blanks Rosary

Blue was definitely the color of choice for Thursday’s Geneva-Rosary girls soccer match.

Rosary competed wearing blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks and blue numbers on the back of their Royal Blue tops. Host Geneva had to wear white as they were at home, but all the accents on those uniforms were blue.

Also blue were a number of the fans in the stands, whose faces, hands and any other exposed flesh changed colors thanks to the bitter cold temperatures and strong northeasterly breeze.

And finally there was a certain blueness to the host Vikings as they came off the field after controlling much of the match in the first half but were still scoreless with Rosary.

Things improved in the second half as Geneva’s offense warmed somewhat and the Vikings finished with a 3-0 nonconference victory.

“They came out flat a little bit,” Geneva coach Megan Owens said. “We’re still working on consistency. But we’re young and the point is to work out your kinks during the season and to be ready for the end. We’ve been a little inconsistent, but that’s just growing and learning to approach each game with the same focus and mentality.”

The wind was certainly a factor in the match. Geneva (4-2-4) played into the wind in the first half but still created a number of chances, though the key final pass was usually lacking.

“It was 0-0 at the half and I was kind of hoping for that,” Rosary coach Kevin Callaghan said. “Even then playing in this type of wind, they got some good breaks. We made some mental errors in the back and that’s what hurt us.”

In the second half, with that wind at their backs, the largest impact of the wind was that Rosary (2-6-1) was even more bottled into its own defensive half.

“You had to adjust how you were passing because the ball would blow with the wind,” Geneva sophomore Molly Axen said. “It was hard, but we adjusted.”

About the only thing red-hot in the opening 40 minutes was Rosary goalie Lauren Frasca. The freshman made two key saves in the half. In the third minute, she saved at Catherine Allon’s feet. With 6 minutes to play in the half, she deflected a fierce Axen shot onto the crossbar.

“She’s like our little secret weapon,” Callaghan said. “She’s a freshman and she’s an ODP goalie. She’s our little surprise.”

Frasca made another pair of strong saves — against Kailey Rote and again from Allon — before the Vikings scored. Axen got the goal with 24:29 left in the match.

“We were tied and I just wanted to get the goal so we could win the game,” Axen said. “We were getting so close and we wanted to make a goal so we could show we were playing well.”

Geneva continued to attack and doubled its lead within 30 seconds when Rote sent over a left wing corner kick and Kristin Rodriguez headed that ball into the net.

“I think we just played more aggressive in the second half,” Owens said. “We did create more offense and had more opportunities.”

With Rosary mounting only sporadic attacks into the stiff wind in the second half, the play continued largely in the Royals’ defending half. Geneva finished the scoring with 10:08 to play when Allon sent over a left-wing cross and a goalmouth scramble ensued. The ball eventually found Sarah Davison at the far post nearly on the goal line, and Davison knocked the ball over the line.

“I’m very happy with how we adjusted in the second half and how we were able to kick in our gears a little bit,” Owens said.