Vikings lay the lumber on St. Charles North
Wahl-to-Johnson combo sparks Geneva to a 5-2 win

By Darryl Mellema

There was plenty of Blue in the uniforms of the teams competing at Burgess Field on Thursday night, which was natural because St. Charles North and Geneva were playing each other.

But there was also an abundance of that color in the stands as well, thanks to the pre-Homecoming pep rally crowd that swelled the number of fans to numbers not normally seen for mid-week contests.

And the home side put on a show before the large gathering, putting a 5-2 thumping on St. Charles North, a school that is a new Upstate Eight Conference rival but has been the opposition for a number of hotly-contested matches in recent years.

“We know each other from club,” Geneva senior Robbie Johnson said. “It makes it that much more intense. Them being our friends, we just wanted to pound each other. That’s how it works.”

Johnson scored from the first serious attempt at goal by either team when Brady Wahl sent a long free kick into the St. Charles North penalty area in the seventh minute of play. Johnson rose and headed the ball into the net, sending that large crowd into an early stage of euphoria.

“The crowd just makes it that much more intense,” Johnson said. “It makes it more of a college level atmosphere with them all here.”

Twelve minutes later, Wahl and Johnson combined on a similar play, with Johnson doubling the Vikings scoreline with his second headed goal of the match.

“That’s my time go get upfield and try to get something on free kicks,” Johnson said. “So I’m really calling out for the ball when I do because I don’t get many opportunities like that.”

Johnson and Wahl have formed quite a partnership on free kicks for Geneva (5-6-1, 1-1 Upstate Eight), though it’s still something when the combination clicks twice as it did on Thursday.

“I don’t know if there’s a better one-two combination in the state,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “Most players who have combinations like that are a forward and a midfielder. (Johnson), playing at the back, he’s an anchor to our defense. But he knows where to be on set pieces.”

Between those two Wahl-to-Johnson goals, St. Charles North (11-2-2, 2-1-1) equalized through a Mike Winhoffer penalty kick. Although the halftime score remained 2-1, the match could have seen any number of goals as chances fell both ways.

Johnson, one of Geneva’s central defenders, was integral in his team’s ability to tighten and begin to limit those chances.

“He does things that you’re not supposed to do,” Estabrook said of Johnson. “But because he’s so fast and so strong and, above all, determined, he makes great plays back there.”

There were still some things that needed to be sorted out in the back line with the match 1-1, and even when it was 2-1 and St. Charles North pressured for a match-tying goal that never came.

“We said we wanted to be compact in the middle and not let them split us,” Johnson said.

“We had a center mid kind of hold back more to help on the defense in the central area because they were just running at us. So that helped us.”

Wahl, as he is so many times for the Vikings, proved to be the glue in the midfield, linking the areas of the field together and he enjoyed his final regular season match with St. Charles North immensely.

“Five goals against them, we didn’t anticipate that,” Wahl said. “We knew we could win, but that’s like the icing on the cake.”

Working from its halftime platform, Geneva moved to extend its lead, and the Vikings did so 15 minutes into the second half when Josh Poythress rounded his defender on the right wing and whipped a cross through the six-yard box. The ball caromed off a player before coming to Wahl at the far post.

Wahl finished the chance and gave his team a 3-1 advantage.

But while the Vikings were celebrating, St. Charles North proved that the old soccer adage of teams being most vulnerable immediately after they scored is sometimes very valid. The North Stars steamed straight at goal and Matt Rasmussen scored – 9 seconds after Wahl’s goal.

“As a group, we didn’t defend that well,” Johnson said. “I think the excitement from (Wahl’s) goal – I don’t think we were on our toes.”

Estabrook said goals scored in that manner cannot be allowed if the Vikings are to mount any kind of revival in the second half of the season.

“You can’t let things like that happen,” Estabrook said. “You have to make sure you’re focused. We let our guard down and North made a nice individual effort on that.”

But Geneva wasn’t finished. With 10 minutes to play, the Vikings used one of the better passing moves by either team to create their fourth goal. Johnson got the final pass when he fed Carlos Gonzales moving in the penalty area. Gonzalez did the rest and got the large crowd celebrating again.

“That’s probably the first goal like that this season, where it’s not just an individual effort or a set piece,” Wahl said. “We pinged the ball nice at the end there and we stayed composed when we had a lead there and they were still coming at us.”

A defensive mistake presented Geneva’s Seamus Kaminski with the ball just outside the penalty area with five minutes to play. Kaminski moved forward and scored the final goal of the match.

“(Kaminski) hasn’t scored as many goals this year as he has in previous years,” Estabrook said. “We talked before the season that tongue in cheek that he was ‘only’ 29 goals from Shawn Sloan’s school record. We knew it would be a stretch for him to ever reach that. It’s been a struggle for him to score goals. But it’s been a transition for him from playing for his club as a center midfielder to being an out-and-out striker for us. It’s nice to see him put that final one away.”

Recent results have been spectacular for Geneva, including an 8-0 win against Mount Carmel in the final match at the Pepsi Challenge. The Vikings beat the Caravan after suffering three consecutive losses.

“Part of that has to fall on my shoulders as a coach,” Estabrook said. “The players didn’t get things done on the field. We realized going into last Saturday’s match against Mount Carmel that we could turn the season and turn it around right now. The guys were firing on all cylinders tonight and it was good to see that they had the desire.”