Geneva edges Schaumburg to cap pair of thrillers

In hockey, three-goal performances are accompanied by fans tossing hats onto the ice.

It was far too cold for anyone to willingly give up their headgear at Wheaton North on Tuesday night.

But that didn't stop Shawn Sloan from lifting the lid on a pressure-cooker of a Class 3A sectional semifinal match.

Sloan scored all of Geneva's goals - including 2 in the final 10 minutes - to help the Vikings to a 3-2 win over Schaumburg.

"I guess the hat trick comes at the right time," Sloan said. "It's my first one of the season."

The win gives the Vikings (20-2-1) an 11 a.m. match Saturday against St. Charles North for the sectional title.

"(Sloan) was on his game tonight," Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. "When the stakes are at their highest and the competition is at their best, then Shawn Sloan plays his best soccer. It's hard to put enough adjectives on the performance that he put out there tonight, especially late in the game."

The match twisted and turned through the first 60 minutes. As the teams neared the end of a frenetic but scoreless opening half, Sloan spun and hit the bar from the right wing. Seconds later, the senior scored.

But that goal with 3:20 left didn't put the Vikings ahead at halftime. The Saxons responded immediately and equalized from a blistering Josh Beard free kick with just under 1 minute to play.

Schaumburg took the lead in the 13th minute of the second half. First Beard hit a shot that was only half-cleared. Erhan Caglayan got to the ball first and hammered it into the net for.

"For the first 15 minutes of the second half, they just took it to us and they deserved to get that goal," Sloan said. "We were lazy in the back. It took us getting down, unfortunately, to wake up."

Geneva tried to respond immediately, but was unable to score from a Kendal Spurgin sharp shot from the right wing.

As the clocked moved inside 10 minutes, Geneva continued to press, but Schaumburg seemed unwilling to allow a clear-cut chance.

But Geneva tried to stretch the Saxons to the width of the artificial surface as much as possible.

"We were trying to get it out wide and then play it back into the middle," said Geneva sophomore Seamus Kaminski, who got free on the right wing periodically throughout the match.

Then Ben Orr fed a left-to-right pass to Sloan in the penalty area and Sloan scored.

That goal came with 8:13 left. Less than 3 minutes later, Orr and Sloan combined again to complete the hat-trick.

"My hat's off to Ben Orr," Sloan said. "He put it on my foot two times in the right spot. I didn't have to do too much but be in the right spot. He did all the work ­- phenomenal work by him all through the second half."

Those late goals also gave Schaumburg a very hard-luck exit from the tournament.

"We made a big mistake at the end," Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei said. "What can you say? (Geneva's) a great team and we played up well with them."

Schaumburg finished the season 18-8 and players like Beard graduate in the spring.

"They played their hearts out," Mehreioskouei said. "When you get to this point of the season, you need the ball to bounce a couple of times in your direction. You need some things to go your way and that didn't happen tonight."