Vikings cap rough stretch with victory over Saints

By Darryl Mellema

You expected Geneva to show some signs of fatigue during Saturday's contest with St. Charles East.

After all, the Vikings had to play Schaumburg on Thursday, Naperville Central on Friday and then were lining up to meet the host Saints in the finale of the St. Charles East Invitational.

Meanwhile St. Charles East didn't play on Friday, giving the hosts a 48-hour rest while the Vikings were battling to a 3-2 loss in Naperville.

Yet over the 80 minutes, Geneva had the more fluid movement, created better chances and emerged with the 1-0 victory.

"It feels great to get the win," Geneva senior Madeline Tennant said. "We worked really hard. We started with a bit of a rocky start. But we definitely worked hard the whole game and earned it."

The only goal of the game came 13 minutes into the first half when a Saints defender directed a right wing cross into her own net.

The resulting own goal does not get credited to any player and was tough on a St. Charles East (2-3) team which fought hard itself.

But Geneva (4-2-1) had more than its share of opportunities as well and certainly worked the ball better in possession even though both teams had trouble stringing passes together.

The nature of this rivalry lends itself to robust encounters where tackles are fierce and time on the ball is limited.

"I think we played really well," Miller said. "We had a lot of shots and we could have finished them. But we still played really well."

Moving forward, the Vikings tried to spread the ball and then get it back inside.

Invariably, that meant players like Sarah Tennant were trying to forge space on a field where such openings were in short supply.

"We worked hard and had a lot of shots and opportunities but we just couldn't finish them ourselves," Tennant said.

Defensively, the Vikings rarely wobbled.

"I think the defense all played really well together," said Geneva junior Demi Miller, who played sweeper for the first time this season in the contest.

"We were all pretty solid," Miller continued. "Then Steph got hurt but we still stayed solid."

'Steph' is Geneva senior Stephanie Davison, who went down with a leg injury late in the match. Her injury will be diagnosed this week.

Communication and organization are two keys to any successful soccer defense. Miller said the Vikings scored well on both counts against St. Charles East.

"We communicated really well tonight," she said. "Everybody was talking and doing their part together."

Geneva finished the St. Charles East Invitational with Saturday's win, a tie against Schaumburg and a loss to Naperville Central. The Vikings finished second in the four-team round-robin event.

"We've had three tough games in a row," Vikings coach Megan Owens said. "We need to get some rest. We have some quite major injuries to rest up and try to heal up."

As the second half progressed, St. Charles East continued to struggle to build play and Geneva's fatigue became more pronounced.

"Obviously we had a late game (Friday) night and you could tell it a little," Owens said. "But we put more pressure on them than they did on us. We played well."

After taking two days off, the Vikings return to action on Wednesday against Wheaton Warrenville South.

On Thursday, Geneva faces another DuPage Valley Conference opponent when it hosts Naperville North.

"Last year, we would have given anything to be playing this strongly this early in the season," Owens said. "We had a tremendous game against Naperville Central and it could have gone either way.

"I'm very happy with the way we're playing right now. We just have to work on finishing a little bit and we're going to be tough to beat."