Ralston makes Geneva-Batavia debut a winner

Years ago when Jim Tressel was introduced as the new Ohio State football coach, he endeared himself to a hard-to-win-over Buckeye Nation by talking openly about how they would beat Michigan.

Ohio State-Michigan in these parts is Batavia-Geneva, and the Vikings' new boys basketball coach Phil Ralston is going to win over all those fans in Blue with more games like Friday night.

Already off to a 7-1 start, the Geneva faithful will be voting Ralston for mayor if he can keep doing what he did Friday - beat Batavia.

Not just beat them, but hold the Bulldogs to 39 points and 33 percent shooting while running a clinic much of the game on offense, taking high percentage shots and hitting 62 percent of them.

Ralston enjoyed his first Geneva-Batavia game, mainly, it seemed, because he enjoyed the final score.

"Great rivalry, great atmosphere they had here tonight," Ralston said. "I think our offense and our defense quieted their crowd down. I think that kind of took that out of there. I think the loudest you heard their student section was right at the beginning of the game."

Let the record show it took that student section 38 seconds to chant "Bor-ing" while Geneva ran its offense. In the Vikings' flashy style under former coach Tim Pease, I'm not sure I ever saw them go 38 seconds without shooting.

But 11 seconds after the "Bor-ing" chant started, Christian Frederking cut through the Batavia defense for a layup on the opening possession, the first of five times Frederking did just that. The Vikings never trailed from there.

"Last year was the run and gun and this year is the press and slow down teams and try to control the game this year," senior Jeremy D'Amico said. "It's a different look, different coach."

Lots of teams change coaches. It's impressive how quickly the Vikings have adapted to Ralston's defensive-minded approach, especially considering it's the opposite of what Geneva basketball had been known for.

"Coming up through our grade we were always a good defensive team," Frederking said. "We know that if we can keep teams under 12 points a quarter we have a good shot at winning the game."

Wait, is this Geneva or West Aurora talking about holding teams under 12 points a quarter? Pease's teams used to be able to score 12 points in a minute.

Friday was the first time I've covered a Geneva game without Pease coaching. When Geneva started holding the ball for the last shot with 1:30 left in the second quarter, I found myself thinking, "Wait, this is Geneva. That's enough time for Max Cary or Brandon D'Amico to hit about three 3s. Shoot the ball!"

A new era has begun.

"We loved coach Pease and coming in we love coach Ralston," Frederking said. "We were really buying into his system right away. I think what helped us a lot was playing 30-something games this summer. That really got us going with the offense coming into the season."

Ralston couldn't be happier with his new team.

"I saw what I was getting into this summer," Ralston said. "I've got great kids, good athletes, they work hard, they listen, they are coachable. For me it's a dream job. What do I have to complain about?"

Keep beating Batavia, and you won't hear anyone in Geneva complaining, either.

jlemon@dailyherald.com