Boys soccer: St. Charles North blanks Batavia

Batavia was awarded a penalty kick late in the first half of Thursday's game against St. Charles North, which was a part of Tri-City Night at Geneva.

The Bulldogs were looking to cut their deficit in half, but St. Charles North goalkeeper Bobby Curran denied the attempt with 3:25 remaining.

That proved to be the best scoring opportunity for the Bulldogs, as it was all North Stars, all night long, as they who won their third straight game with the 6-0 shutout in DuKane Conference play.

"It could've been 2-1 at half if we convert the PK," Bulldogs coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "But then giving up goals right after that was rough. I thought we had a little bit of control. They had three quick runouts on us and bang they were in the back of the net."

St. Charles North (8-4-3, 1-2-3) knew the Bulldogs were going to come out hard and playing with emotion since it was Tri-City Night and the four area teams, including Geneva and St. Charles East, were playing to raise money for the family of Kyle Nicely, the junior Bulldogs player who passed away tragically earlier this season.

"All starts are important but this it felt like this one was really important, understanding Batavia was going to come out with a lot of emotion and play really passionately tonight," North Stars coach Eric Willson said. "To get an early goal like we did and a penalty stop like we did was massive for the rest of the game."

Nolan Sinnaeve's penalty kick just 8:18 into the action gave the North Stars all the scoring they would need.

They extended their lead on the first of two goals on the night from Luke Persenico and then really punished Batavia after it missed its penalty kick as Persenico assisted Thomas Weber just before halftime to give the North Stars a 3-0 lead at the break.

"I think we're seeing a different team now," Willson said. "Momentum is a funny thing and I think the guys kind of have committed to how we wanted to play, who we wanted to be, how we wanted to train and I think that you're seeing those results on the field."

Batavia (2-13-1, 0-6) was playing for the third time in four days, but wasn't using that as an excuse for the result.

"It's been a crazy week, but we've seen some good things, getting that second win and the tie in the (WarStang Invitational) tournament," Bulldogs junior Mark Lillig said. "We have been playing solid this week."

Faizan Mohiuddin and Branden Collins joined in the scoring fun for the Saints in the second half while Persenico buried his second goal of the game.

While Willson enjoyed watching his team's offensive outburst his thoughts and those of his team remain with Nicely and his family as well as the Batavia community.

"We try to support Batavia and Kyle's family as best as we possibly can," he said. "Our hearts go out to that family and the Batavia program. That's a tragedy that nobody needs to deal with."