North Stars blanked again in loss to Geneva
By Chris Walker

CLICK HERE FOR ST. CHARLES NORTH'S TEAM PAGE

Geneva’s players didn’t have to tap their cleats together and think “there’s no place like home,” to finally enjoy the comforts of its Burgess Field, but it might’ve felt that way after a winless August that saw the Vikings post an 0-3-1 record away from home.

The Vikings made their 2012 home debut on Tuesday night in a key early-season Upstate Eight River Conference contest against St. Charles North. They also had a chance to make school history and become the first varsity team to win on the new field surface. (The football team was clobbered, 47-21, in the football opener on Aug. 24, although the sophomore team did post a win.)

Thanks to a pair of late first-half goals, the Vikings recorded a 2-0 victory over the North Stars.

“We’re undefeated on the turf so far,” joked Geneva coach Ryan Estabrook said. “It was nice to get some things going tonight and hopefully we can continue with that.”

The Vikings proved especially hungry to get that first win of the season and had the motivating factors of playing at home for the first time, on the new turf for the first time and against one of their biggest rivals all feeding that hunger.

“We were all fired up,” senior Josh Poythress said. “All day in school all I could think about was playing.”

After thinking about making plays all day, Poythress delivered a couple huge plays late in the first half to give the Vikings all the scoring they would need as well as some insurance.

Teammate Matt Butz drew a foul in the box with only 6:50 before halftime and Poythress was rewarded with an opportunity to take the penalty kick. It was something he wasn’t going to take for granted, especially after seeing his team miss a couple PKs in their previous two games, including what could’ve been the decisive score in a match against Kaneland last week.

"It definitely gets in your head thinking about the last two we missed," Poythress said. "I finally just had to step up and blast it into the net."

St. Charles North keeper Billy Larsen guessed one direction and Poythress opted for the other and sent a shot into the left corner of the net.

While Dorothy had Toto to accompany her during her adventures, Poythress and Grant Bracken had Tino, as in Valentin ‘Tino’ Gonzalez.

It was Poythress who delivered the key set-up pass for the Vikings’ second goal of the contest. He found the speedy Grant Bracken heading downfield and connected with the junior in stride. Seeing a great scoring opportunity in front of him, Bracken sent a cross to Gonzalez who knocked a shot past Larsen with less than a minute remaining before halftime.

And just as Dorothy will never forget her trip to Oz, Gonzalez certainly won’t forget his goal. It was the first of the senior’s high school career.

"Josh sent me a nice ball that curled around perfectly," Bracken said. "I thought the keep was going to come out, but he didn't so I pushed it harder across the box and Tino was right there."

It was a great opportunity for Bracken to use his speed, which accelerated on the fast turf, to his advantage.

“We’ve been able to practice a lot on this turf and it’s nice to be able to play this fast because we play better this way,” he said. “We know we have speed on the outside to attack and that’s where we attacked most today.”

Now the Vikings never have to worry about taking the field and dealing with mud spots, holes and inconsistent bounces.

“We had been so used to playing after football games here and playing in a mud bowl,” Poythress said. “Now it’s a really nice field and we can all enjoy it. This is the perfect playing ground because we can pass and dribble without worrying about divots.”

Geneva was able to create its share of scoring chances throughout the second half, but didn’t add to its lead nor did it need to.

“I think this was a breakthrough game for us,” Geneva junior Phelipe Graske said. “We got kicked in the butt against Larkin and then we played well against Kaneland, but couldn’t get the win. Tonight we came out and played our game and we won so I’m very happy about that.”

Geneva junior Joe Mozden recorded the shutout in goal on his birthday eve. Mozden will turn 16 on Wednesday so he was rewarded with a shutout as a gift a day early.

“It was good birthday present to finally get a win and we have a lot to prove so it was very good,” Mozden said. “It means a lot being a conference game. Now we have some bragging rights and upper placement in the conference. To win our first varsity soccer game on turf, it feels great.”

St. Charles North’s struggles against Geneva continued. The North Stars have had trouble for a number of years in knocking off their rivals in the Tri-Cities, and nothing changed on Tuesday.

The North Stars last beat the Vikings in 2008 when the squads met in a sectional. The North Stars were able to earn a scoreless draw last year, but were handled convincingly, 5-2 and 3-1, in 2010 and 2009.

“We’ve struggled against all Tri-Cities teams,” North Stars coach Eric Willson said. “The expectation at North is defense first and foremost and we take pride in the way we defend and there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The North Stars need to find an answer on offense as well. Not only have they now dropped three straight, but they haven’t scored in their past three games either.

“From top to bottom we’re struggling defensively,” Willson said. “We’re spending the majority of the time defending and then we’re having a hard time putting some offense together even when we do get the ball.”

The North Stars did manage to challenge the Vikings in the second half, but still came up empty. Soon-to-be birthday boy Mozden nullified some of their scoring chances.

“North applied some pressure at various times and Joe’s been steady for us this year,” Estabrook said. “You never want your keeper to have to be brilliant, but he came up big a few times.”

The North Stars will need some players to step up and get them turn things around. They certainly are not a team to be counted out this early.

“We’re going to need to find some leadership and some guys to rally the troops, so to speak,” Willson said. “It’s a time to come together and try to get better and not a time to feel like we don’t have an opportunity to win games, because we do. It’s high school soccer and if you fight hard you can find ways to win. I think we can do that.”

On the flip side, the Vikings now are beginning to feel that the worst is behind them.

“We started out really pretty poor and we’ve got a pretty good team,” Bracken said. “We realized we were struggling and have being working hard to put it together. We did some good things against Kaneland and tonight we were able to show our home crowd what we’re capable of doing this season.”