Batavia's 2nd-half surge sinks SCN
St. Charles North may be the most talented team in the Tri-Cities but it continued its struggles against neighboring foes in a 4-3 Upstate Eight Conference River Division loss to Batavia on Wednesday night.
The North Stars, who were originally scheduled to play Batavia on Sept. 21 only to have the game postponed due to weather, were thumped 5-2 by Geneva on Sept. 23 and knocked off 3-1 by St. Charles East on Sept. 28. The North Stars also struggled against another local team, settling for a 1-1 tie with Marmion on Aug. 31 in the Barrington tournament.
“You lose, you're not happy, St. Charles North coach Eric Willson. “It's Tri-Cities, it's a rival and it seems as though anytime we are matched with a stand-up (team) and face an emotional, hard-fought, blue collar type of game we can't seem to handle that kind of game and that's eye-opening disappointing.
St. Charles North (15-5-3, 3-3-0) got off to a nice start, taking a 1-0 lead when Zack Matuszak's throw-in snuck through the Batavia defense and couldn't be secured by Bulldogs goalkeeper Ben Steskal at the 37:39 mark of the first half.
The lead would be short lived though as Batavia's Cody Witkowski found Cody Balogh at 24:25 of the opening half to make it 1-all.
The North Stars took a 2-1 lead into halftime with a beautiful goal in the final five minutes of the first half. Senior forward Joe Stone spotted Hayden Hagemann running down the left side and sent a perfect cross which Hagemann was able to finish.
Batavia (8-7-5, 3-2-1), which didn't play at full strength as Calvin Baez and Anthony Torres only saw limited action, has been a second-half team this season and once again it was the final 40 minutes when the Bulldogs finally got their offense in gear.
Witkowski was somehow able to maneuver through four North Stars' players to get off a shot. Goalkeeper Garrett Creasor was able to reject the attempt, but Cody Balogh was in a perfect position to clean it up and made it a 2-2 contest with 26:55 remaining in the contest.
“Some of these guys like Cody Witkowski, that was one of the best games I've seen him play this year, Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “I think we have some dangerous guys.
Balogh and Witkowski switched things around with 20:38 remaining to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 3-2 with Balogh assisting on a Witkowski score.
The game continued its back-and-forth flow with 10:38 remaining when Hagemann scored the equalized to make it a 3-3 contest. But, the Bulldogs weren't finished yet.
Lalo Cuautle delivered a long pass that Witkowski was able to run down with under three minutes remaining. With only a single defender to beat, because one of the officials inadvertently screened one of the North Stars, Witkowski made the Bulldogs winners with a goal with just 2:32 remaining.
“We had some more indecisiveness in the back and that happened all the way down to our last line of defense, Willson said. “You do that with a couple of guys they have on their team and that's it.
The three second-half goals might not have been as electrifying as the seven the Bulldogs scored in their last conference home game against Larkin on Sept. 28, but they proved to be just enough to win.
“That was a scoring barrage, Gianfrancesco said. “I think we've been a second half team all year. I think we've been a team that plays down well. When we're down we play well, I don't know if it's a sense of urgency.
Gianfrancesco praised the play of Witkowski, Balogh, Cuautle, Justin Reyburn and Cam Callipari while Willson was distraught over his team's defensive effort.
“Guys are supposed to take pride in the way they defend, guys are supposed to take pride in keeping the ball out of our net and it didn't seem to be the case tonight, Willson said. “Hats off to Batavia. They worked us. They deserved to beat us tonight.
The North Stars had won four of their last five and were without standout Mike Winhoffer who is nursing a sore back, but should return to action in the postseason.