Busch stands out as Hawks fall to Vikings

By Darryl Mellema

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On this cold, windy and rainy night, Geneva turned around its covered bench at halftime, providing a plastic windscreen through which to more or less watch the second half of Tuesday’s game with Bartlett.

What the Vikings saw was the final 40 minutes of their 3-0 victory, though details were somewhat blurry as the rain pelted down.

On the Bartlett side of the halfway line, the bench remained pointed as it was at the start of the match, so the Hawks looked straight into the elements – which was a nice way to get a crystal clear view of keeper Justin Busch’s exploits, which were a very bright spot on a very stormy night.

The match ended the regular season for both teams with the playoffs opening this weekend.

Geneva (6-7-1) tore into Bartlett (1-16-1) from the opening kickoff. Within 60 seconds, Beck Nebergall had a shot saved by Busch and five minutes later, the Vikings were ahead when Nebergall took a David Goodyear through ball and scored.

Grant Bracken nearly doubled the lead within a minute of Nebergall’s goal, but Busch responded with another key save. Bracken got his goal, however, following a flurry that included a Matt Butz header off the goalpost. Bracken scored on a rebounded in the resulting goalmouth flurry.

With Bartlett finding it difficult to put shots on goal, Busch saved the Hawks twice midway through the half, stopping first Nebergall and then from Butz.

But with 10 minutes left, Geneva scored the killing third goal – with Butz putting the ball in the net.

The second half produced a few scoring chances, most from Geneva. Josh Poythress had a long-distance effort saved, Poythress put a free kick off the post and Nebergall had another strong effort halted by Busch.

“He’s phenomenal,” Bartlett coach Ben Beary said of Busch. “He’s getting better every single game. He’s a first-year keeper and you couldn’t ask for more. He’s a huge leader in the back. He’s athletic, getting everything out of the air and he’s a leader in the back vocally. He’s everything you want.”

Bartlett got some nice play from Zack Audy, a few long-range shots from Marcus Singleton and stabilized after allowing the three goals but was unable to seriously threaten the Geneva goal for any extended time.

Geneva has performed in poor weather before and coach Ryan Estabrook said the Vikings played better in those poor conditions as well.

“When we played Elgin out here in a driving rain that was stronger than this, I think we acclimated much better,” Estabrook said. “We had an intensity and a desire to score and win.

“I think we just tried to survive out here in the second half. We generated some good opportunities and their goalkeeper was outstanding. He was brave coming off his line. So while we didn’t give up any goals, it wasn’t an extremely efficient second half.”

Having the early lead did settle the Vikings.

“It was great play by everyone on the field,” Geneva defender Alex Zefron said. “Everyone worked really hard to the ball. We played great D with the shutout. We contained and didn’t dive in or anything.”

Zefron said being efficient defensively was important on a match where a mistake on a slick field could have been a problem.

Burgess Field has a new artificial surface this year, so the multiple problems of a field shaped like a barrel-top and an abundance of mud are no longer problems.

The Vikings now play on a nearly flat surface where the turf was firmly in-place at the end of the match as it was at the opening kickoff.

But the ball tends to skip on all wet surfaces, and the wind made those conditions a little more difficult to adjust to.

“It got a little cold, but we were all so pumped that it didn’t make a difference,” Zefron said. “We had to be careful with our first touch.”

In those early moments, there were large spaces between Bartlett’s marking backs and in front of its sweeper. Angled passes from the midfield set the Vikings repeatedly on breakaway chances.

“They had some trouble covering up in the back and we had our forwards exploit their weaknesses,” Estabrook said.

“Having said that, I thought their backs were nice players. They had some speed and they were aggressive. They just weren’t as well-organized throughout the match as they probably wanted to be.”

While all of Geneva’s attack-minded players caused problems at times for Bartlett, 6-1 forward Butz was a particular thorn in the Hawks’ sides.

“His touch wasn’t great, but he was active and he was giving them problems,” Estabrook said. “When you have a big guy like that, a lot of teams have a hard time matching up with that.

“While he’d say it wasn’t probably his best game, he did enough to score a goal and to cause problems for the opposition.”

The Vikings host rival Batavia at 11 a.m. on Saturday in the opening round of the Naperville Central Regional. When the Vikings and Bulldogs met on Sept. 20, Geneva won 4-1. Now Geneva is on the brink of reaching .500 for the first time all season.

“We were 2-6-2 at one point,” Estabrook said. “We’ve gone 4-1 in our last five matches. I’m glad we’re here and not there any more. At the same point, I didn’t think we’d be battling for .500 this year. I felt we had enough strong players that we’d compile a better record than this.

“There were a few games earlier in the year where we weren’t organized or ready to play off the opening whistle. But hopefully those are lessons learned and we won’t rue any of the opportunities missed.”

As his team prepares for the postseason, Estabrook is hopeful his squad is ready for a series of 80-minute exams where the reality always exists that the season could end.

“Every game in the regular season is preparation for the playoffs,” Estabrook said. “You like to learn how to win and to experience that. It makes you want it more.

“Losing has its small silver linings as well. There’s a lot of learning opportunities and things that you hope that you only experience in the regular season because you don’t want to experience them again.”

Beary said that the game plan was not for Busch to shine quite as often as he had to. That sequence of saves came about in part due to gaps that needed to be closed in the Hawks’ defense.

“The defense played a lot better in the second half,” Beary said. “We got run over several times in the first half. We didn’t come out physical enough at the start of the game.

“Geneva’s really good with those runs up top and they beat us three times. But (Busch’s) able to keep it close.”

Beary said the regular season ended with a match the “exemplified many in the regular season.”

“We did some good things for stretches,” he said. “But we made some critical errors where we dive in for a ball we’re not supposed to dive in for defensively or we get burned one-on-one or we miss a mark.

“It’s those little plays that are costing us. But overall, as a team, we able to do some things. We were able to possess and we got some corners and we got a few shots.”

Bartlett faces Willowbrook on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in the Addison Trail Regional.

“We still need some improvement on our offense,” Beary said. “We’ve really struggled to score. We had seven games coming into this game where we had been able to put the ball in the back of the net.

“We were hoping to keep that streak alive and put one in in the second half. We need to show some improvement there. But I really think our defense is there. We played fine other than three mistakes that turned into goals. And Justin (Busch) is fine back there.”