Lancers notch 10th win at Geneva
Ahrens, defense post 7th shutout

 

By Darryl Mellema

Eric Ahrens was pretty busy in Lake Park’s goal on Thursday, but he walked off the field smiling.

And why not – when you complete a shutout and save a penalty kick, that’s more than plenty of reason to be pleased with 80 minutes of work.

“I was very busy doing everything I could to keep that ball out of the net,” Ahrens said.
And those efforts – coupled with a solid defensive night, helped Lake Park defeat Geneva 1-0 and reach the 10-victory mark for the season.

It also helped that the Lancers (10-6-6) put the ball in the net themselves in this nonconference matchup between two schools from different divisions in the Upstate Eight Conference.

That goal came with 15 minutes to play in the first half. A Brendan Feeney throw-in on the right wing was flicked by Jimmy Albright to sophomore Oliver Huerta, who swiveled on the ball from 8 yards and scored.

“Oliver’s got three goals since we moved him up,” Lake Park coach Norm Hillner said. “He’s a very calm player. If there’s a ball that’s going to be bouncing 8 yards out, we want it on Oliver’s foot, definitely. He’s a finisher. The three goals he’s gotten have all been just like that, bouncing balls in the box and he’s redirected them.”

Both teams need to win their opening round matches in next week’s Lake Park Regional, but should that happen, Geneva-Lake Park II takes place on Friday at 6 p.m. in Roselle.

Thursday’s match had a bit of the extra bite you might expect from two teams on a potential postseason collision course.

“This Geneva team – if we go to the regional finals – they are the team we are probably going to see,’ Ahrens said. “Putting a message, here and now, was a very good thing if we get to see them in the future.”

As a result, a match that could have flattened just another late-season match never relented until the final horn sounded.

“I liked our intensity,” Hillner said. “I liked the fact that we defended and defended with a purpose. We’ve had four or five games this year that we’ve lost 1-0 and played well, or dominated. (Geneva’s) a good team. Goodness gracious.”

Ahead a goal for the final 55 minutes of play, Lake Park could have expected a barrage – and there were times when the Vikings obliged. But for the first time since defeating York on Sept. 25, the Lancers kept a clean sheet.

“This is a very narrow field so we tried to keep our defense as compact as possible,” Ahrens said. “We tried to keep communicating so we knew where everybody was at. Above all, we didn’t want to commit fouls we didn’t have to, like we did in the first half. The PK was unnecessary.”

That penalty pick was awarded 17 minutes into the match and Ahrens saved Craig Hancock’s effort with a dive to his left.

“I can’t say my heart rate was any higher than it was for any other part of the game,” Ahrens said. “You just have to stay calm and play your game.”

There are two schools of thought for goalkeepers in facing a penalty kick. One is to guess which way the shooter will go and the other is to wait and see which direction the kick is headed, and then dive in that direction.

“You can react to save it, but that’s hard because it’s such a short distance and it’s hard to get to the ball,” Ahrens said. “For me, over the years, I’ve really worked on reading the striker’s eyes. For (Hancock), he was staring at my right post a lot. I realized, this guy’s trying to trick me into diving to the right. Right before the kick, I stepped a little to the right, making him think I was going to the right and then I went to the left and I saved the ball.”

The victory ended a string of six matches without a victory for Lake Park. In that stretch, the Lancers were 0-2-4 and scored only 5 goals.

“It’s nice to get that 10th win,” Hillner said. “We’ve been trying to get that for a couple of weeks now.”

Lake Park has a busy final week to the regular season. After a 1-1 tie with Neuqua Valley and the 1-0 win over Geneva, the Lancers travel to Barrington for a 1 p.m. Saturday match. Hillner said he will alter his lineup some for that game to give his squad the best chance of success while still not hurting their chances in their first IHSA tournament game.

Lake Park opens regional play with a 5 p.m. Tuesday match against the winner of Saturday’s York-Streamwood match.

“That’s great competition, but we’ve got a couple of guys with four yellow cards who can’t afford to get a fifth one before the tournament,” Hillner said. “They probably won’t play. We’ve got a couple of guys dinged up and banged up. A lot of our starters may not play. But we’ll give some of the other guys a chance to play and see what happens.”