Saints' first half dooms Vikings
By Darryl Mellema

Midway through the 2012 season, St. Charles East's girls’ soccer team started to gel, began playing superbly and embarked on a strong run of results.

With many from that roster back in 2013, the Saints have done more than pick up where they left off. St. Charles East is playing more fluently, defending and also attacking as a team – and the on-field results through the early portion of the season are a clear reflection of that improvement.

St. Charles East defeated Geneva 3-0 on Saturday night – the second time in a week the Saints defeated the Vikings – to claim the Rose Augsburg-Drach Invitational title and to improve their record to 6-1-1.

“It is absolutely tremendous,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “What an achievement. I'm so proud of them. This is an historical tournament and there are quality teams in it every year. I really hope this is the sign of things to come.”

The last time St. Charles East defeated Geneva twice in a season was 2007, the season St. Charles East advanced to an IHSA supersectional before losing to eventual state champion Waubonsie Valley. No one is predicting anything for the postseason at this point, but the early signs are very positive.
In the past week, the Saints defeated Geneva twice, won against Schaumburg and tied Naperville Central.

“In a week where we've had four of the toughest games that we're going to have all year and we've gone 3-0-1, it's more than I could have imagined,” Jennison said. “They're starting to see all the hard work in preseason, all the tough days when snow's on the ground and we were running and doing all the technical stuff. Even though they might not have seen the end product to it then, they won't be sad about that now.”

That 2007 Saints team went 10-1-1 in its opening dozen matches. By the end of this week, the 2013 squad will reach the same number of games played. Another four-match week beckons – with matches against Glenbard North, Elgin. Streamwood and Kaneland.

“That's why our preseason was as difficult as it was,” Jennison said. “That's when they got put in a position to be successful. Some teams might not put as much emphasis on it. But I believe there's a lot that comes out of conditioning. I believe it builds the team when maybe other teams are relaxing and you're in at 5:30 in the morning.

Saturday's match was decided within the first half-hour of play. Playing into a strong wind, the Saints took the lead in the 12th minute of play when a right-sided corner kick by Shannon Rasmussen was headed in by Amanda Hilton.

Just under four minutes later, the pair combined again, this time with Rasmussen sending a cross from the left wing through the penalty area for Hilton to score from.

The Saints have not one but two outside midfielders who can effectively cross the ball this year – Darcy Cunningham created havoc numerous times this year with crossed balls.

“Time and time again, I've said we've got such quality on the outsides,” Jennison said. “We've got the ability all over the field. But we've gotten onto the end of crosses, and (Hilton's) gotten onto the end of two there.”

For Rasmussen, Saturday's match was a further example that she is more than simply a fast player flying up the wings.

“She's coming into her own,” Jennison said. “Last year, she might have had the speed but she might not have been as comfortable on the ball. This year, we've got her out wide and she's settled in.”

At 2-0, one of the potential game-changing moments came when Kendra Sheehan made a jumping save to collect a long-range Taylor Williams shot that was moving in the wind.

“She's the most underrated player in our squad,” Jennison said of Sheehan. “There is no doubt about it. People made a great deal of us losing a great keeper from last year. And Bailey (Stengler) was a great keeper. But Kenny is doing a tremendous job. The girls have confidence in the back because of how well she's doing.”

Carly Pottle settled the match – and ensured the Saints would win the invitational title when she scored in the third minute of the second half. Naperville Central was second in the four-team round robin competition while Schaumburg was third.

Geneva completed the week 0-4 and stands 3-5 entering Tuesday's match against area power St. Charles East.

“You know, we didn't show up for the first half,” Geneva coach Megan Owens said. “We clearly showed up in the second half. We played with a lot of fight and a lot of heart in the second half. But we lacked that in the first half.”

The Vikings opened the season well, with a narrow loss to Waubonsie Valley and then a three-match win streak, including a pair of wins downstate.

“When we all went to St. Louis and we all worked together, we had great success,” Owens said. “Right now, we're just not all working together. It's hard when you're playing really tough teams and you're switching things and you're trying to figure out the puzzle while you're doing it. But that's what the regular season is about, so you can be clicking and playing at your best in the postseason.”

Geneva has built a winning tradition in recent years, and the upcoming schedule leaves few breaks for the Vikings, who are 10 days from competition in this year's Naperville Invitational.

“We've had a rough stretch of games and it's been pretty rough by Geneva standards,” Owens said. “But we're hanging in there and we have what it takes. It's just a matter of trying to tweak it and figure out what's going to work for this year's group to have that success.”

Owens said she believes in the players on this year's roster and feels they can be successful before the season ends.

“Like I told my team, we have all the pieces to be a successful team,” Owens said. “We didn't graduate that much. We don't have any gaping holes. We aren't missing a goalkeeper and we aren't missing any defenders and we don't have no one who can score. But we're just not working together.”

But as difficult as Geneva's schedule is, Owens said the Vikings need to play that kind of opposition in order to reach the level she knows is achievable before the postseason begins in mid-May.

“I told the girls we never do well in this tournament,” Owens said. “We've played really hard and it's a hard tournament because it's back-to-back-to-back games. But we play it to show us where are our weaknesses. We don't want to play in a tournament where you dominate and you don't learn from it. I think we learned a lot this week.”