Vikings fall behind early but earn tie vs. Batavia

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By Darryl Mellema

There wasn't much open space for players to move in during Wednesday's Batavia-Geneva girls soccer match. There never is much room to maneuver. Yet Amanda Lulek found some uncluttered patches of grass on the right wing early in the second half and took full advantage.

Lulek raced forward and beat a defender on the right side of the penalty area before snapping a cross on the ground. Sammi Hill latched onto that ball at the left post and shot into the net to tie the match at 1-1.

"It felt good," Hill said. "I wish it could have been for a win. But it felt good to get a goal in and tie it up."

Hill's goal ended the scoring in the Western Sun Conference match and the teams finished with a 1-1 tie. The result leaves Geneva in position to win the conference if it continues to win. The Vikings (9-5-2, 3-0-1) are marginally ahead of the Bulldogs (6-3-3, 2-0-2.)

"It's a big rivalry so in a way it's good for both sides because no one had to lose," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "But I don't think we played our best game tonight."

Batavia-Geneva matches always have that extra edge that strong rivalries bring though the Vikings had to fix the manner in which they were playing in order to forge that tie.

"There's a lot of extra bite," Geneva's Sarah Tennant said. "It's definitely the rivalry that makes us want to win more. But we definitely did not start as strong as we had expected to as a team."

The tie might not have been the result Geneva sought when the match began, but given the way the first half progressed, a 1-1 tie seemed a good result. The Vikings fell behind after less than five minutes had been played when Tara Rush scored from a Becky Bartos corner kick.

That Rush scored was one thing. The manner of the way the ball stayed in Geneva's penalty area for ages after Bartos' cross was frustrating to the Vikings.

"We didn't play a very strong first half," Owens said. "We played back on our heels. For them to get three headers in a row and score that goal is just a lack of effort on our part. I think we came out a little more solid in the second half. Hopefully, they learned the lesson that you can't just show up in the second half."

Batavia continued to dominate after scoring and dominated for most of the first half. It took into the early portions of the second half for the Vikings to begin to get any sustained pressure on the Bulldogs goal.

"We were a little flat in the beginning and had trouble just getting our energy levels up," Hill said. "We didn't have school today and Batavia didn't either. Only the juniors were in school today."

Then Geneva surged at the start of the second half, initiating a series of passing and possession that eventually started to find some gaps in Batavia's defense. It also led to Lulek being open on the right side of midfield and being allowed to run at the defense before crossing for Hill's goal.

"That was nice work by (Lulek) feeding (Hill) - it was a nice breakaway move," Owens said. "We like to use those two up top together because they work well off each other with their speed."

After Hill scored, Geneva was the stronger team. Kristin Rodriguez hit a volley that clipped the crossbar and Hill flicked a shot that went just past the left post.

"Against Batavia, your mindset is 'we can't lose,'" Tennant said. "It makes you want to score a goal even more. It took us a while to find our groove. We had a lot of chances. But their defense was pretty strong."

But then Batavia regrouped its own players and had that final flourish that nearly brought it a game-winning goal.

Geneva heads back into Naperville Invitational competition this weekend. The Vikings finish the two-week tournament with a Thursday match at 7:45 p.m. at Palatine and a 5 p.m. match at Wheaton North on Friday.

One boost as the Vikings head through this stretch is the return of Stephanie Davison, who has not played since the St. Charles East Invitational at the start of the month.

"We're just going to have relax and to do what we can in order to recover," Hill said. "We do have more people off the bench now and more people are recovering. Still a lot of the starters have been playing a lot so we need to chill and relax."

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