Vikings blanked by Sabres in UEC River finale

By Curt Herron

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Geneva felt pretty good about its season-best three-match winning streak entering Saturday's match at Streamwood.

But the Sabres also had reason for being confident thanks to a perfect 4-0 record on the turf at Millennium Field.

Less than 10 minutes into their contest, it was apparent that home field advantage was going to trump the hot team.

Streamwood scored twice in that span and added a third goal a short time later to claim a 4-0 win over the Vikings.

As a result, the pair finished tied for third place in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division with 3-3 marks.

Alejandro Avalos had a goal and an assist while Edwin Rueda assisted on two goals to pace the Sabres (11-6, 3-3).

Luis Rodriguez, Ivan Rosales and Nestor Ascencio also scored for the winners, who've won six of their last eight.

Phil Lewy posted the shutout behind Christian Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez, Angel Guterirrez and Christian Balbino.

"This is how our group has been playing all season long, especially on a big, flat field like this," Sabres coach Matt Polovin said. "We possess the ball well, have a ton of speed, we work very well off the ball and guys are making all sorts of runs so it's tough to defend.

"The goals that we scored were nice. We had a lot of movement and were getting shots from 25 yards out and putting them on goal. I was happy to get a good win against a Geneva team that is well-coached with a great group of guys. We need games like this at this point of the season."

The good news for the Sabres is that after playing one more match in the regular season, they'll host a regional.

Streamwood is hoping that its ability on the turf gives it the edge over Glenbard East, Glenbard West and Elgin.

Another thing that the Sabres coach is happy about is the play of his defense, which recorded its sixth shutout.

The Sabres didn't allow Geneva (5-7-2, 3-3) too many chances, making the duties in the net rather easy for Lewy.

"Our defenders have been our rock all season," Polovin said. "Angel Guterirrez, Christian Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez and Christian Balbino work so great together. When one guy gets the ball, they know how to work off of each other in order to receive it.

"It's been that way all season long. They play as a unit, defend as a unit and get up as a unit, too. What's nice is that we're hosting a regional and we're undefeated at home and the guys love playing here. So we have a lot of confidence playing here."

Geneva had only allowed one goal to three good squads during its win streak, but it ran into a tougher challenge.

"When a team scores on three of their first five shots, it's hard to recover from that," Vikings coach Ryan Estabrook said. "Having said that, they were three great shots. They had a lot of space to get a good look at the net.

"They're a nice team and we haven't seen a quality team like that in awhile and we just weren't ready for that level of play. They were at a different level today than we were, there's no doubt about it.

"I hope that we didn't hit a point of contentment where we felt that a three-game winning streak was going to define our season and that we're okay with that. We'll see how we practice on Monday and play against Bartlett on Tuesday."

After a home match with Bartlett on Tuesday, the Vikings host rival Batavia in the regional opener on Saturday.

Streamwood jumped ahead of Geneva for good when it scored in the fourth minute on a liner from Luis Rodriguez.

Less than a minute after a try by Balbino was halted, the Sabres connected again to build up a 2-0 advantage.

That goal in the tenth minute was scored by Avalos, following the first of Rueda's two assists for the match.

Geneva looked to get a goal back as Beck Nebergall sent a free kick inside that Matt Butz headed toward Lewy.

And then a few minutes after that, Joshua Poythress saw an attempt get deflected away by a Sabres defender.

Streamwood effectively closed the door again when it scored in the 18th minute to grab a commanding 3-0 lead.

Rosales hit a liner off of an assist from Avalos to give the hosts the advantage they'd take into the break.

Before that, Ascencio saw a liner thwarted and a Poythress free kick led to a halted header from Nebergall.

"This was an all-around great game by our team," Ascencio said. "We used the wind to our advantage in the first half and played our style of soccer and got three good goals. We just feel like we're in our comfort zone when we're on this field.

"Our defense has been doing a great job the whole season and we've been producing up top so that's what you want. We're very excited for the regional. We want to keep going strong and and hopefully we can raise that championship plaque here."

The Sabres completed the scoring in the in the 53rd minute when Ascencio connected off of a pass from Rueda.

Geneva's Grant Bracken had a try that was deflected by a defender and Phelipe Graske saw his attempt halted.

Avalos was denied of another goal a bit later and a Bracken header was hauled in on the Vikings' last threat.

"I guess that everything works out pretty good for our team when we're here since we haven't lost a home game this season," Avalos said. "We're doing a great job as a team and even when we get down, we all pick ourselves back up together.

"Our defense has worked hard all season and has been one of the keys for our team. we've played together for a long time so we're used to each other. We work really hard in practice and that's paying off and we're having a great season."