Fast start lifts Vikings over Batavia
By Chris Walker

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Geneva hasn’t held its head above water the entire fall season.

On Saturday, the Vikings' heads were soaking wet thanks to a steady rain at Burgess Field in Geneva, but they left the field with a .500 record for the first time since the end of the 2011 season.

Geneva scored two early goals and made them stand up in a 2-1 victory over Batavia in a Class 3A Naperville Central quarterfinal.

The game was originally scheduled to be played on Friday night but the Vikings were hosting Metea Valley in football; therefore, the game was pushed back until Saturday at 11 a.m.

A year ago, the players would’ve had to endure the miserable muddy terrain of Burgess Field, but on Saturday it was simply wet and simply turf. It didn’t have much of an effect on the Vikings, especially early as they found the back of the net twice in the opening seven minutes.

Alex Zefron put the Vikings on the board first when he finished a header from Beck Nebergall.

“It was good to get off to a quick start like that,” Nebergall said. “We’ve been playing well at home and were able to use it to get going early.”

Geneva (7-7-2) has played particularly well at home this season, finishing the campaign with a 6-1 mark, which included victories over conference rivals Batavia, Elgin and St. Charles North, as well as Glenbard South. Their lone loss came on a 1-0 game to Wheaton Academy, which was a noon Saturday start, something coach Ryan Estabrook was concerned about coming in.

“We’ve had problems playing on Saturday and that was a point of emphasis throughout the entire week,” Estabrook said. “We wanted to make sure we came out early and played hard and aggressive.”

That aggressiveness paid off on the Vikings second goal as Matt Butz, who hammered home two goals in the earlier meeting between the two squads, finished a pass from midfielder David Goodyear.

“I don’t know why but I feel like we come out more excited and pumped up to win when we’re here,” Nebergall said. “I think we had them on their heels and that really helped us.”

Batavia (3-14-3) tightened up defensively and for the most part took control of the possession game. Of course, that didn’t necessarily create a great offensive attack but it did keep them within striking distance.

“After we gave up the goals in the first seven minutes I thought we played very well,” Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. “I thought we had better chances than they did, but our season, that upper 90 crossbar, for whatever reason, we’ve hit it more than I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Estabrook didn’t think his team had a letdown or lost their aggressiveness per se after jumping ahead early, but that Batavia simply played better than the Vikings for good portions of the remainder of the match.

“I thought they did a nice job of recovering,” he said. “You could make the case that they had the better run of play, but we were able to get it down in the box which mattered most.”

Batavia won’t be decimated by graduation like it was a season ago, but Saturday marked the final high school games of seniors Michael Rueffer, Ryan Milligan, Billy Lockwood and Kyle Rakos. It even proved to be an eventual final appearance for Rakos who made a rare, late appearance in goal.

“I think this year is going to be huge for a lot of our guys,” Gianfrancesco said. “We’ve been subbing a lot this season and going 16-17 guys deep. Next year those guys are going to need to step up and aren’t going to have any excuses. It’s going to be put up or shut up next year.”

Batavia certainly would’ve liked to have upset their local rival and moved on to face Naperville Central, a team which ended the Bulldogs season last fall.

“We would’ve definitely enjoyed that,” Gianfrancesco said. “It’s frustrating because these guys started gelling after we went down to Morton and have been in every game for the most part. We haven’t gotten the results yet and that’s got to start happening next year.”

Geneva suffered a major blow midway through the second half when Butz went down with a leg injury. The match was delayed for more than 15 minutes as Butz was taken away on a stretcher.

“In talking to his parents, he’s probably broken 10 bones in his life,” Estabrook said. “I thought we were going to make a full season without him getting hurt again, but that was a nasty collision and it looks like a broken bone.”

The Bulldogs made things interesting shortly thereafter when Munson scored with 19:36 left to cut the score in half at 2-1.

“I think after what happened to (Butz), they got emotional and took advantage of that,” Nebergall said. “They scored a goal off of it.”

Now the Vikings draw the extremely difficult task of facing top-seeded Naperville Central, which will have the benefit of playing at home, and certainly shouldn’t have to worry about game-planning on how to stop Butz.

“(Pat Flynn) is a dynamic player and with and some of their wingers as well, they present a pretty formidable attack,” Estabrook said. “We watching their game against West Chicago last week. They have a lot of weapons, are well organized and you can’t underestimate the momentum they are on as well the confidence they are playing on. They’ve proved through the entire year that they’re the team to beat in Illinois.”