Geneva's second half dooms Blackhawks at home
By Darryl Mellema

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Even in a match that finishes 6-0, there are always “what-if?” moments where a combination of circumstances might have altered the outcome.

In the real world, Geneva's girls’ soccer team sorted out a difficult first half in which it scored once and proceeded to roll in the second 40 minutes to a comfortable nonconference victory.

But what if the Blackhawks had held out just a bit longer in the first half? What if one of Jessica Saffell's breakaway near-misses had gone in? What if the Vikings had continued to dominate possession but fail to get better efforts at goal?

Obviously none of those scenarios manifested on West Aurora's artificial turf on Saturday, but for 35 scoreless minutes of the match, all outcomes still seemed possible.

“It took us awhile to get going,” Geneva coach Megan Owens said. “It's Spring Break. With dominating possession in the first half and then not finishing, they were getting frustrated. We just had to have a little pep talk at halftime. We needed to stay focused and stay positive. We knew it was going to happen.”

Geneva got an important breakthrough with 3:21 left in the opening half with Catherine Allon one-timed Caitrin Griffin's corner kick into the net. That gave the Vikings a bit of breathing room heading into halftime.

“I knew we had to get one before the half ended,” Allon said. “I think the first goal gets the momentum going. So we needed to get one in. Once that goes in, we all start falling into place and in synch.”

Then Allon scored again in the opening exchanges of the second half and within 10 minutes of game play, the Vikings had a 2-0 lead. Allon's second goal came after she took a Hope Goodman pass and Allon's shot went off West Aurora's goalkeeper into the goal.

“I think we looked a lot stronger in the second half,” Allon said. “We picked it up. Owens gave us a good talk at halftime, telling us that we needed to step it up, improve our game, keep our heads up and keep our composure and get the ball in the back of the net – and we did.

Even when the match was scoreless, Geneva (4-0) dominated possession time, and much of that possession was near West Aurora's (2-2) penalty area. But that dominance failed to turn into goals.

“We were looking for the perfect shot and the perfect pass,” Owens said. “West Aurora had a number of defenders back and it was congested in the box. In the second half, we just worked on building on the outsides and sending the ball across and we finished very well in the second half.”

And when Saffell broke away, as she did 14 minutes into the match, again after a half-hour of play and finally with 5 minutes to go in the half, the Blackhawks were one shot from taking the lead.

As it stood, however, the Vikings were able to make adjustments with a lead at halftime and then further calmed with Allon's second goal.

“I think we were just playing a little too tight,” Owens said. “We have certain expectations and we have to remember to keep working hard and that it's not a sprint but a marathon. You're not always going to score in the first 20-25 minutes and you just can't let that affect your overall play.”

From that point, Geneva was at its offensively-best and added four goals within 20 minutes. The first two of those went to Michaela Loebel.

“We were playing kind of narrow in the beginning, but they were just too hard and going straight to the keeper,” Loebel said. “In the second half, we looked more wide and connected through the middle more.”

Loebel's first goal came just a moment after Allon's second when she dribbled into the penalty area before shooting into the goal.

“Sometimes, it's just in the moment that the momentum gets picked up,” Loebel said. “If something that's good happens, the momentum goes up. It feels good to finish. It's always nice to get there, but you need to finish in the end, so that feels good.”

Loebel scored again a quarter-hour into the half when she took a Kailey Rote pass and cut back the ball with a sharp right-to-left shot.

Courtney Lardas scored Geneva's fifth goal with 13 minutes to play by knocking in a loose ball in a scramble following a free kick. Molly Axen finished the scoring 90 seconds after Lardas' goal.

So far this season, Geneva has yet to allow a goal. It's a mark of how far forward Geneva played much of the match that midfielder Kailey Rote siphoned off a number of forward efforts by West Aurora and then turned the ball back toward the Blackhawks goal.

“She had a strong showing in the midfield for us,” Owens said. “She did a good job seeing the field and distributing.”

West Aurora could look back on that opening 35 minutes of scoreless soccer as a good thing. Even trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Blackhawks had hope.

“The first half, we played awesome,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said,. “Going into the second half, we were really pumped up. They know Geneva's an awesome program and has been since I can remember. So we were very jacked up going into the second half. I think we just got tired.”

Wagley said Geneva's non-stop pressure created that sense of exhaustion. Territorially, the vast majority of the match was played in West Aurora's defending half of play.

“It's very hard to stick with a team of that caliber for a full 80 minutes,” Wagley said. “We told our girls at half to not get frustrated if you’re playing defense for five or six minutes at a time. That's what they're good at – they are going to force teams to play defense.”

When Allon scored her second goal, the match shifted permanently in Geneva's favor. West Aurora's attacks, already sporadic, disappeared nearly completely, save a corner kick with 5 minutes to play in the match when Geneva had scored its six goals.

“That took the air out of us,” Wagley said. “We have to finish our shots and our defense needs to step up and not let them score – because if our offense isn't scoring, we've got to rely on our defense to hold them.”

Saffell's close calls offensively were the Blackhawks' best chances to score in the match. Reilly Kulakowski had a speculative effort on goal as well, but overall, West Aurora's chances were limited.

“We've got to finish,” Wagley said. “It's been our thing in every single game this year.”

The match marked the emergence of junior Claudia Sanchez as a midfield force, time and again snuffing out Geneva attacks and trying to generate offense.

“She was huge,” Wagley said. “She came off the bench for us as a wing and she earned the starting spot in the second half. It's hers until she loses it. But yeah, she stepped up big-time. She played well with our freshman, Carli (Hix). They were communicating very well with each other.”