Boys lacrosse: St. Charles East rallies past Geneva

St. Charles East won its first DuKane Conference home game Wednesday night, 10-8.

The victory was sweeter since it was over longtime rival Geneva, but the Saints needed a 4-goal third quarter rally to pull out the win.

"This was the first DuKane Conference matchup between St. Charles East and Geneva," said East coach Nicholas Leonard. "A nice way to start."

"It feels great," said East's Vinnie Smith about the victory. "We been in a bit of a slump and it feels good to be back."

The sophomore led the Saints' offense with four goals.

Chris Nimick started the Saints' comeback, finding the back of the net at the 9:35 mark of the third quarter, cutting the Vikings' lead to 7-5.

Six minutes later Max Connelly scored back-to-back goals to tie the game at 7-7.

With 1:45 left to play in the period, sophomore Vinnie Smith scored his final goal of the game to put East ahead, 8-7 with a shot from the left side of the net.

"Wedge (Lazenby) dodged out and had a great cut," Smith said. "He saw that my defender slide away and he really just had his eyes up, looking for me and I knew he would be able to see me."

"As you get later into the game, offensive sets change, defensive slide packages change so it was kind of a mix match game and we eventually dialed it in," Leonard said.

Twenty-seven seconds into the fourth quarter, Drea Domenz, from just outside the crease, fired a shot that extended the Saints' lead to 9-7.

Viking Clark Giansanti made it a one-goal game two minutes into the fourth quarter.

Lanzenby returned the margin to 2, scoring for the Saints at the 8:20 mark.

After playing an even first quarter that ended in a 2-2 tie, momentum swung Geneva's way during the waning minutes off the second quarter. With East (3-3, 1-1) being a man down due to a penalty, Viking Jack Konicek broke a 4-4 tie with 1:39 left with his second goal of the frame. A Tyler Costello score gave Geneva a 6-4 halftime lead.

Logan Pierini put Geneva (6-2, 1-2) up 7-4 early in the third quarter with his second goal of the night.

"We had very balanced possession in the first half, but our possession were significantly shorter and we were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot with that," said Leonard.

"We were executing in the first half," Geneva coach Tyler Thomas said. "Our guys started getting tired and were lacking on the fundamentals, passing, catching, running."