Vikings look good vs. Warriors in Game Two win

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By Gary Larsen

Sometimes it’s best to let the opposing coach give you the rundown on the winning team.

“All credit to Geneva. They played a great game tonight,” Wheaton Academy coach Scott Marksberry said, after his squad lost 3-0 to the Vikings on Wednesday.

“They’re a physical team, they’re very fast, and they were more athletic than we were tonight. By the time you take your first touch, you have one or two Geneva players there already. And their back four were fantastic.”

Geneva coach Megan Owens has a team that has started the season with a 2-0 record.

“We had a very good game. I think we dominated most of the second half,” Owens said. “We had lots of opportunities. We knew eventually they’d start falling, and they did. Last year we had trouble finishing so we’ve been focusing on that, and it was great to see us connect out there.”

All three Geneva tallies came in the second half, with Abbey Schroeder, Sammi Hill, and Madeline Tennant capping a solid night of soccer for the visiting Vikings in West Chicago.

“One of our preseason goals was to come out and beat them, because they’re the (defending) 2A state champs,” Geneva defender Stephanie Davison said.

The host Warriors (1-1) had an attacking surge to start the game, before Geneva (2-0) began pressing into its own attacking third. Wheaton Academy had a pair of free kicks deep on the Vikings’ end and the Warriors Ally Witt sent a shot on frame to the game’s 8th minute.

From there, the Vikings’ midfield made life difficult for the Warriors for most of the night.

“Madeline Tenant and Sarah Tennant controlled the outsides with their speed,” Owens said. “In the middle, Kailey Rote, Catherine Allon, and Kristin Rodriguez all played strong for us, and Amanda Lulek is a freshman and she came in and gave us some great minutes, with great speed.”

“We have a lot of speed on our team, which we can use to our advantage and they work together really well. We played a very strong possession game today and that was good to see.”

Geneva’s pressure translated to several restarts in the final third, but the Warriors’ back line and keeper Emily Mulder were up to the task. Hill broke in behind the defense from midfield on the dribble late in the first half, but Mulder made a sliding stop to keep things scoreless.

Wheaton Academy kept the game scoreless to the 57th minute, when a handball call set up Tennant’s penalty kick conversion. Geneva continued to pressure until Hill took made a romp up the right side and turned the corner deep in the Warriors’ end.

“I saw Abbey (Schroeder) out of the corner of my eye but I didn’t know if she was still there,” Hill said. “I know Emily Mulder is really good on upper crosses so I decided to play it back.”

Hill slid a diagonal pass back to Schroeder, who popped it up and over Mulder, and into net from 14 yards out, in the game’s 73rd minute.

Hill took a Schroeder feed and raced past a pair of defenders up the heart of the Warriors defense six minutes later, and chipped it into net for the final score.

Patience is always key when sustained pressure isn’t paying off, and the Vikings showed that patience throughout the second half.

“(Lindsey Burke) man-marked me,” Hill said. “She plays for Strikers, I play for Strikers, so I knew she was going to be at my hip the whole time. There was a while there when I didn’t get the ball at all. It got a little frustrating but I knew if we just kept going, their defense was going to give in on our runs.”

Like the Warriors’ Burke, the Vikings’ Catherine Allon put in a good day’s work hounding Wheaton Academy’s Alexa Sharkey. Davison, Demi Miller, Gina Peri, and Allon stayed airtight in back for Geneva.

“We kind of started the game back on our heels, but when we realized they were really coming at us we stepped it up,” Davison said. “And especially because the field is short, they’re fast at counterattacking.

We’ve been back there together for a while with the exception of Demi, who used to play forward last year. She has come back there and helped a lot. She gives us more speed back there, but towards the end of the game we had to put her up top because we were trying to score some goals.”