Chicagoland Soccer

Vikings fall in UEC crossover to Waubonsie Valley

By Darryl Mellema

How many times in the course of a soccer season does the ball bounce invitingly in the penalty area, begging for someone to send a shot toward goal – but the chance never takes place and the defense clears or the goalkeeper gathers?

Dozens? Hundreds? Certainly a few times per match.

There were plenty of those chances on Thursday as well when Geneva met Waubonsie Valley in Upstate Eight Conference crossover action.

But crucially, twice in the second half, Waubonsie Valley sophomore John Chapman got a foot to the ball and ended up depositing his shot in the back of the net.

Those goals moved the Warriors from a 1-1 tie and gave the visitors a 3-1 victory at Burgess Field.
“I think that was a reflection of our aggressiveness offensively,” Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “We got the rebounds and we got the goals off of throw-ins and loose balls in the box and we were a little big more offensive-minded in the second half than we were in the first.”

Both of Chapman's goals came on goalmouth scrambles. The first game in the 18th minute of the second half following a Howard Beatty throw-in. Tyler Yanisch got one touch on the ball and perhaps others did as well before it came to Chapman, who gave his team a 2-1 lead.

Waubonsie Valley continued to press and nearly scored 2 minutes later but Yanisch hit the right post with a shot from the left channel at the top of the penalty area. Another 2 minutes of play passed before a Sam Bell free kick forced a save from Geneva goalie Steve Soderstrom.

Waubonsie Valley's pressure eventually resulted in the scramble following another Bell free kick with 16 minutes left in the match. Again the ball fell to Chapman and he scored his second goal of the match – and his second goal of the season.

“They feel great, but I have to give credit to my teammates,” Chapman said. “Both of them were rebounds and I happened to be in the right place at the right time for the opportunity. But it was really put together by my teammates.”

Chapman said there needs to be an aggressive desire in order to reach those chances first.

“You have to have the mentality to finish everything,” Chapman said. “You have to play at 110 percent. You might only get one or two of those opportunities a game. If you can finish those for your team, it helps everyone and helps you get that victory.”

Waubonsie Valley (4-5-1) is undefeated in its last four matches and have scored 12 goals in a 3-0-1 stretch heading into Saturday's noon home match against South Elgin.

“It's a lot better feeling,” Chapman said. “The teammates have come together and we're playing combination passes and through balls. We're not dribbling it as one player. We're playing as a team and that's giving us success both on offense and on defense.”

The current run stands in contrast to a five-match losing streak that Waubonsie Valley endured following its season-opening win against Benet.

“We lost a few games at the beginning of the season where they questioned themselves,” DiBernardo said. “The coaching staff kept telling them that they didn't know how good they could be. And I still think that they can do better than what they are doing now. But we're on the right path right now. We've won a few games and every game that you get a 'W' and you play well, that's going to give you confidence. And I felt we were OK in the first half and we played better in the second half.”

The Warriors had to rally on Thursday after falling behind to Kyle Hurley's 16th-minute goal and despite being dominated in midfield for much of the opening 40 minutes of play. The goal, when it came, involved a quick break with Gytis Savukynas moving up on the right and passing to Bell on the left, who scored.

With the match tied, Waubonsie Valley went about making halftime adjustments.

“We tried to play quicker in midfield, which I feel we did in the second half,” DiBernardo said. “We asked them to be more aggressive offensively, which I think they did. I thought that, offensively, we dominated the game in the second half. It was a change of pace for us from being tentative to going after it in the second half.”

On a narrow field such as Burgess Field, finding any width in attack is difficult. Yet the Warriors were able to get the ball to the sideline, especially wide on the right wing to Howard Beatty, who stretched Geneva's defense.

“You need to have the width and we were not getting it in the first half,” DiBernardo said. “In the second half, we started to get the width and we started to get more space, so we took advantage of that.”

Geneva (5-5-1) looked at every positive indicator that Waubonsie Valley had in the match and saw it in a different dimension. For example, the shift in midfield pace and dominance at halftime owed as much to the Vikings failing to match the Warriors as much as it did to Waubonsie Valley's increased pace.

“One of the things that we noted at halftime was that their No. 7 (Savukynas) and their No. 10 (Bell) weren't getting any dangerous looks,” Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “When they received the ball, they had their backs to the goal. And we wanted to keep that happening. Unfortunately, in the second half, those players were running at us continuously. Good players with their caliber are going to create chances when they're doing that.”

The Vikings had dealt well with balls that were sent into the penalty area in the first half. Soderstrom came out many times to catch long balls sent into the area, the defense scrambled to limit chances and, when shots did come in and beat the defense and Soderstrom, players like Grant Bracken made goal-saving headed clearances off the goal line.

But in the second half, Waubonsie Valley's pressure created mistakes from which they were able to score.

“We've been talking about this for a couple of weeks now,” Estabrook said. “On the offensive side, we're not pouncing on balls and getting any strikes on net. On the defensive side, we're giving up chances in the box. We have to stay with our marks better and not give them looks at goal. We'll be sorting through that in practice as well.”

And Waubonsie Valley's ability to get wide and around Geneva's defense was cause for post-match concern as well.

“It's a little bit of a different tactic that they used in the second half,” Estabrook said. “You don't see teams do that too often, getting forwards out so wide. We'll have to dissect that as we go forward, in case other teams decide to try that too. They were effective with it.”

Geneva's next match is Sept. 29, a 5 p.m. match at Batavia against St. Charles East. That match will be followed by the annual Batavia-St. Charles North match in the Tri City Challenge.