Vikings' possession game not enough in loss to Lake Park

By Darryl Mellema

Take a look at just about every facet of a soccer match worth measuring – except the final score – and Geneva had an edge in its Thursday regular season finale with Lake Park.

The Vikings controlled the ball for more time, certainly completed more passes and even edged the number of chances on goal.

But none of that really matters because Lake Park put the ball in the back of the net and claimed a 1-0 nonconference victory.

“Yes, we dominated possession, but they don’t give you goals just for possessing the ball,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said.

Saying Geneva (11-9-1) dominated in many areas does Lake Park (10-6-6) a bit of a disservice. The Lancers were effective as well. If they didn’t hold the ball as long as Geneva in building attacks, their forward mores were more incisive. If Geneva had more chances at goal, the Lancers weren’t without their own attempts. And once again, Lake Park did the one thing Geneva didn’t – score.

“We kept possession of the ball for pretty much the entire game,” Geneva senior Brian Ruane said. “But possession doesn’t always lead to goals. We’ve got to find a way to score. That’s been our problem all year, to find a way to put it in the back of the net.”

The match carried an extra bite because the Vikings and Lancers are on a probable collision course in next week’s Lake Park Regional. Both teams need to win their opening-round matches, but should that happen, Geneva-Lake Park II would take place on Friday at 6 p.m. with the regional title on the line.

“We didn’t have the same intensity you might have for a late regular season game because we’re going for the regional,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “It was kind of a controlled aggression. In some ways, I’ve never seen us play so hard. We were really challenging hard in some areas in a way I with, in some ways, we had challenged throughout the season.”

Geneva’s postseason path starts Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Rolling Meadows.

“I think both teams learned something for a potential second round matchup,” Estabrook said. “Hopefully we realize that this is a strong team. We didn’t know much about them coming in except that they had a good record. Fortunately, it’s not an aggregate, so if we get to play them again, we’ll start fresh.”

Thursday’s match was the last for Geneva’s seniors on their home field. At the end of the match, the Vikings had 10 seniors on the pitch and they all got to walk off Burgess Field together.

“We wanted to walk off with a win, of course,” Ruane said. “But I thought we played pretty hard out there. We never gave up.”

Those seniors entered the Lake Park match undefeated at home this season.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out this season,” Estabrook said. “There were a number of ‘what-ifs’ or ‘almosts’ and we weren’t able to get that and that’s a little disappointing.”

There were many moments at which Geneva might have scored. Craig Hancock had a penalty kick saved. Robbie Johnson came close on a couple of chances and Hancock headed down from very close range and force Lancers goalie Eric Ahrens to save.

But Lake Park sophomore Oliver Huerta was the only player to score in the contest. He turned and shot from 8 yards following a flicked-on throw-in. That goal, with 15:40 left in the first half, held up and gave Lake Park the win.

“We’ll have to look at that,” Estabrook said. “We’ve had three games in three days, and (Friday) will be strictly a video day. We’ll dissect this game. We won’t scout Lake Park because our next opponent is Rolling Meadows. But we want to see what we need to do to improve. And the back is another issue for us again.”