Despite loss, Spartans primed for a deep postseason run

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By Matt Le Cren

Whoever said you can’t succeed with a young team hasn’t seen Geneva play this spring.

The Vikings have only two seniors on the roster, one of whom is out for the year with an injury, and seven freshmen to acclimate to the intensity of varsity play.

Despite that, Geneva takes an 11-5-4 record into the Class 3A playoffs after concluding the regular season with an impressive 3-0 victory over host St. Francis Saturday in a battle of conference champions in Wheaton.

“I’m very happy with how we’ve played,” said Geneva coach Megan Owens, whose team is seeded fourth at the St. Charles East Sectional and opens up postseason play Tuesday against Glenbard East. “I think a lot of people just doubted us due to our youth throughout the season and I think we’ve proved that the freshmen belong on varsity and they’ve done a great job.”

The Vikings thoroughly outplayed the Spartans, outshooting the hosts 17-5 and controlling the midfield.

Sophomore Amanda Lulek was the biggest difference-maker for Geneva, scoring a goal and two assists. Her second assist demonstrated the tenacity she brings to the field.

Lulek eluded Spartans defender Anna Vonderhaar in the penalty area and was challenged by goalie Jenna Ditusa.

Twice Ditusa dove to poke the ball away from Lulek and twice Lulek recovered the ball, the last time out near the top of the box. Still hounded by Ditusa, the sophomore passed to freshman Hope Goodman, whose 18-yard shot under the crossbar went over the head of a hastily retreating Ditusa to give the visitors a 2-0 lead with 8:34 left in the half.

“I just kept going,” Lulek said. “I saw (Ditusa’s) size so I just kept poking the ball out and once I got it free I knew I was not at a good angle to take the shot, so I just looked for someone and Hope was wide open right at the top of the box and she got a great goal.”

Geneva coach Megan Owens said that play was typical of Lulek.

“She just plays good pressure,” Owens said. “She always fights for the ball and she keeps after it, so she creates a lot off that. So it’s good to see that she didn’t give up on that ball and she kept fighting for it.”

Lulek set up Geneva’s first goal at the 21:55 mark of the opening period when she sent a cross from the right side of the box to Catherine Allon, whose strong header from the near the penalty spot went just under the pipe.

The visitors made it 3-0 with 29:19 to go in the second half on Lulek’s 10th goal of the season, a left-footed drive from 19 yards out that caromed off the underside of the bar and just over the goal line.

“It felt really nice to get one myself,” Lulek said.

The Upstate Eight River champs outshot the Spartans 17-5 and could have had several more goals if not for the play of Ditusa, who made eight saves.

Vonderhaar saved another goal with the defensive play of the day with six minutes left in the first half. A cross from the left wing by Lulek got past Ditusa and onto the foot of Sarah Davison in front. Davison’s shot was deflected out by Vonderhaar, who went crashing into the back of the net.

“We played really well today,” Lulek said. “Our possession was really good. In the middle we’ve been working on our give-and-gos and our combinations, and we really got those going today and they looked really nice.

“We’re really excited,” she added. “We lost to Naperville North (2-1) the other night and we just wanted to end on a good win to get us pumped up for the playoffs.”

St. Francis (14-6-2) came into the contest having gone 10-1-1 in its last 12 matches. The Spartans were coming off an emotional 2-1 shootout victory over Marian Central Catholic on Thursday that gave them a share of the Suburban Christian Conference title with Marian Central and Wheaton Academy. All three teams finished league play with 8-1 records.

“It was huge. It was great,” St. Francis junior Sydney Fox said. “That was our goal for the season and to do that was just the best feeling ever.”

Fox played a big role in the win over Marian Central. She scored 43 seconds into the second half to tie the game at 1-1 and also converted her penalty kick in the shootout, which the host Spartans won 4-2.

Andi Matuchak, Fox, Vonderhaar and Taylor Ravlin scored in the shootout for the Spartans, with Ravlin’s boot the decisive blow after Ditusa stopped the Hurricanes’ fourth shooter.

“She was the MVP of the shootout,” Fox said of Ditusa.

St. Francis coach Jim Winslow agreed.

“Jenna was our MVP that game,” Winslow said. “She was fantastic. She made a couple big saves and then she made a huge save in the PKs.”

The Spartans weren’t able to sustain the momentum against Geneva and had their four-game winning streak end on a day when St. Francis honored seniors Ravin, Hallie Woods, Shannon Zierk and Dana Dubois.

“Their speed of play was a lot faster than ours but you know what, today was our senior day, our last regular season game,” Fox said. “We just wanted to go out there and have fun and we did more in the second half. It’s always tough to play the big 3A schools but we do what we can.”

“They’re good and this is probably a trap game for us because there’s not much good going to come out of it after Thursday’s game,” Winslow said. “We’re very dinged up from Thursday’s game, so in the real world it would have behooved us to have today off.”

Despite the loss, Winslow has high hopes for the Spartans, who are seeded second at the Class 2A Riverside-Brookfield Sectional behind Nazareth. St. Francis, which has never won a sectional title, hosts a regional and faces No. 15 seed Bowen in a semifinal on Wednesday.

“We’re a little flat right now, but if we play well and don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak, we can do very, very well,” Winslow said. “We’ve got enough talent and very good goalkeeping and the kids have come along in how I like to play. We could make a very deep roll.”