North Stars disappointed with showing against Vikings

By Darryl Mellema

Know this about Eric Willson, he's a classy individual even when his team has suffered a crushing defeat.

And Thursday's 5-2 Upstate Eight Conference River Division loss at Geneva qualifies as 'crushing.'

But as he stood there and patiently answered every question asked of him by the clutch of reporters, his clenched jaw betrayed the fact that he was not a happy man.

"To give up five goals, is downright embarrassing," Willson said.

When a team suffers a defeat like the North Stars (11-2-2, 2-1) did on Thursday, a number of things have to go wrong, and they certainly did for a team that is still in the midst of a superb season.

"It's mental mistakes on defense," Willson said. "It's a lack of composure in front of the net. We missed a ton of opportunities early in the game. We got outworked, top to bottom, no doubt about it."

What frustrated Willson was that Geneva-St. Charles North is a rivalry that carries some history and has involved a number of matches that have meant much to either school.

While Thursday was the first conference match between the schools, there have been plenty of tension-filled games in the past, leaving the rivalry on par – or better than the North Stars' crosstown rivalry with St. Charles East.

"The number of big matches that we've played with Geneva, to me, this is as big a rivalry of any we have," Willson said. "That's why it hurts so much to come out and lay an egg like this."

Despite the comprehensive nature of the final scoreline, Geneva (5-6-1, 1-1) looked anything like running away with the match in its early stages.

The Vikings took the lead after six minutes of play when Brady Wahl hit a long free kick for Robbie Johnson to head in.

But the North Stars retaliated immediately and tied the match when Mike Winhoffer was taken down in the penalty area and converted the resulting penalty kick.

While the Vikings regained the lead through another Wahl-to-Johnson free kick, the North Stars had – as Willson alluded – many chances to go into halftime tied.

Winhoffer, in particular, could have had a hat trick. So the match, still 2-1 in favor of the Vikings, stood very much in the balance.

But Geneva's dominance slowly showed through the second half. Josh Poythress got free on the right wing and sent a low cross through the penalty area that Wahl conveted for a 3-1 lead 15 minutes into the half.

Even here, North struck back immediately from the kickoff. Matt Rasmussen scored just nine seconds after Wahl's goal and the margin was again one goal at 3-2.

But the Vikings continued to pressure. A long passing move led to Johnson feeding Carlos Gonzalez for Geneva's fourth goal with 10 minutes to play.

Seamus Kaminski took advantage of a defensive mistake with four minutes left to complete the scoring.

"When all's said and done, to give up five goals – it's just an embarrassing performance," Willson said.

The nature of the last goal was particularly disappointing to Willson, who admitted "they all hurt" to each of the goals his team surrendered against the Vikings.

"When you're down 4-2 and you're going to lose, you better keep fighting," Willson said. "I don't know if we did that.

"That fighting character has been characteristic of us all year long. But not tonight. I don't know who that was out there tonight."

Willson said that despite his team's glistening record – even after Thursday's match – there were definitely things his squad needed to work on.

"You're only as good as your last game," Willson said. "Right now, we're not good.

"We've got to find a way to bounce back pretty quickly. We have to go to Stevenson (on Friday.) There aren't any breaks in the high school soccer season.”